Paterno: "I didn't know which way to go"
By Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Joe Paterno sat in a wheelchair at the family kitchen table where he has eaten, prayed and argued for more than a half-century. All around him family members were shouting at each other, yet he was whispering. His voice sounded like wind blowing across a field of winter stalks, rattling the husks. Lung cancer has robbed him of the breath to say all that he wants to about the scandal he still struggles to comprehend, and which ended his career as head football coach at Penn State University. The words come like gusts. "I wanted to build up, not break down," he said.
Crowded around the table were his three voluble sons, Scott, Jay, David, daughter Mary Kay, and his wife of 50 years, Sue, all chattering at once. In the middle of the table a Lazy Susan loaded with trays of cornbread and mashed potatoes spun by, swirling fast as the arguments. "If you go hungry, it's your own fault," Paterno likes to say. But Paterno, 85, could not eat. He sipped Pepsi over crushed ice from a cup. Once, it would have been bourbon. His hand showed a tremor, and a wig replaced his once-fine head of black hair.
Paterno's hope is that time will be his ally when it comes to judging what he built, versus what broke down. "I'm not 31 years old trying to prove something to anybody," he said. "I know where I am." This is where he is: wracked by radiation and chemotherapy, in a wheelchair with a broken pelvis, and "shocked and saddened" as he struggles to explain a breakdown of devastating proportions. Jerry Sandusky, his former assistant coach at Penn State from 1969 to 1999, is charged with more than 50 counts of sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period. If Sandusky is guilty, "I'm sick about it," Paterno said.
How Sandusky, 67, allegedly evaded detection by state child services, university administrators, teachers, parents, donors and Paterno himself, remains an open question. "I wish I knew," Paterno said. "I don't know the answer to that. It's hard." Almost as difficult for Paterno to answer is the question of why, after receiving a report in 2002 that Sandusky had abused a boy in the shower of Penn State's Lasch Football Building, and forwarding it to his superiors, he didn't follow up more aggressively.
"I didn't know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was," he said. "So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn't work out that way."
Sandusky maintains his innocence. Former athletic director Tim Curley and school vice president Gary Schultz face charges of perjury and failing to report suspected child abuse, based on their inaction. They have pleaded innocent. Though he is not charged with a crime, Penn State president Graham Spanier was fired on Nov. 9, along with Paterno.
Paterno is accused of no wrongdoing, and in fact authorities have said he fulfilled his legal obligations by reporting to his superiors.
Nevertheless, the university Board of Trustees summarily dismissed him with a late-night phone call four days after Sandusky's arrest. At about 10 p.m., Paterno and Sue were getting ready for bed when the doorbell rang. An assistant athletic director was at the door, and wordlessly handed Sue a slip of paper. There was nothing on it but the name of the vice chairman of trustees, John Surma, with a phone number. They stood frozen by the bedside in their nightclothes. Sue in a robe and Paterno in pajamas and a Penn State sweatshirt. Paterno dialed the number.
Surma told Paterno, "In the best interests of the university, you are terminated." Paterno hung up and repeated the words to his wife. She grabbed the phone and redialed.
"After 61 years he deserved better," she snapped. "He deserved better."
The firing provoked a riot on campus that night.
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Not failing that kid was way more important than anything that has to do with football - and he choked.
He was not running PSU. Ever.
No matter what, he was just a coach.
And a coach who received a hearsay report about an ex employee and punted.
It is 20/20 hindsight to say he should not have punted.
Child molesters and those who turn their head and look away, those who "don't want to get involved" deserve to have the rest of their live in prison. There needs to be a prison for child molesters only. One prison wouldn't be enough because these creeps are out there..Teach your kids stranger danger. It's a sad state when we are older senior are afraid to talk to kids. We had children, all didn't have the problem thse little boys had..They lives have been turned upside down..If Sandusky is guilty, he might as well plead guilty as we was seen by the assistant coach, who should be in jail having sex with a child in the locker room. All these people who knew what was going on should be fired, they should not be able to receive one dollar of pension money. Now, we need to find out of there are other colleges that have this problem and shut them down too. I think the football program should be closed at Penn State for at least 20 years or maybe forever.You should have said NO, Paterno!...you lied to God and yourself by not telling about this Sandusky at the very beginning...think of how many little boys were molested because you didn't do anything.
If that was your child or grandchild, Coach Paterno, you would have known EXACTLY how to handle it. But instead you worried about your job and the football program.
Real class act, not to mention a coward.
If he is guilty...really! Paterno wasn't a 22 year old grad student who could use the excuse I didn't know what to do. But Paterno knew what to do and he knew that Sandusky was doing something illegal. Paterno is a creep trying to save his soul and his name. He has no excuse for not following through on what he knew was happening. Give me a break.
Do you think I would have said these things if I hadn't personally experienced them myself? I was an underage male and I belonged to Boy Scouts. Need I say more?
Ohh, I am so very sorry such things happened to you however it is a huge assumption you make to think that I could possibly have read between the lines to realise such things had taken place.
I am very sorry for what has happenend to you. I had no idea (how could I?) Similar things happened to me also as a child.
Any child - male or female can be subjected to abuse. And this is why - irrespective of race or gender or sexual orientation - I *URGE* others to stand up and get out there and speak up if they see something out of the ordinary with respect to children or potentially inappropriate behavior toward them.
Stand up. Dial 000. Go on record, be counted and HELP THEM. You might have saved someone from an internal lifelong emotional prison sentence.