Jo Pa’s Side of the Story
Over the last 48 hours we’ve all gone through a lot of emotions over the developing story in “Happy Valley”. Anger, disappointment, rage, disgust among many others. But the one that keeps coming back to me is simply sad. Sad for university, the students, the players, the coaching staff, the administration. Sad for those who are innocent in this whole mess because no matter what if you were around during this time, you’re now guilty by association. But obviously, and most importantly. Sad for the victims. This is who we can not forget as this story develops. This isn’t about people’s job security at a top learning institute, but this is about the innocence that these victims lost 10 years ago, this is about these kids becoming victims again, as this story now becomes public and they are in the news every day, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Jerry Sandusky is now on the same level of evil as Casey Anthony, Timothy McVeigh, or any other recent serial murder or rapist in the past. That is the main story here and I hope we don’t lose site of that. This man deserves to burn for what he’s done, and I know he’ll get whats coming to him.
But for now I want to hit on Joe Paterno. As my friend East Side Ryno just wrote, he, like many of you out there, believe that this was the correct move in firing Joe Pa. I know I am probably in the minority outside of Pennsylvania but I have to strongly disagree. With the facts that we have now, I FIRMLY believe that Joe Pa was the victim of a witch hunt by the Board of Trustees at Penn State. After 60+ years, he deserved better and let me tell you why.
Let’s start out with what exactly we do know. The facts we have right now (let it be known that more facts might come out and completely change my opinion) show that in 2002 Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant at the time, came to Joe Paterno and told him that something had happened between Sandusky and a young boy. No one knows yet was exactly was said but rumor has it that it was a fairly vague one or two sentence complaint. Yes he said it was inappropriate in nature and “fondling” may have been used, but let me ask you all this question. Say you had worked with someone for 35 years, someone you considered to be a good friend. Suddenly someone you had been working with for maybe more than a year comes up to you and says he saw your friend with a young boy. What would you do? I think most of you would approach that friend. Call him/her out on it and see the response. Based on the response alone, someone might take your friends word for it. Others might take the next step. Joe Pa did that. Joe Pa went to Gary Schultz, whose job by the way, put him in charge of University Police! He was told that an investigation would be done, and less then a month later, he was told that the investigation lead to nothing. So again I ask, what would you do? Would all of you be so fast to call the cops on someone who you thought to be a friend for 35 years because a new guy you work with tells you he saw something? I’ll tell you what, I don’t think many of you would despite how hard you try to convince yourself you would.
Joe Paterno is now the face of a massive cover up at Penn State. The Board of Trustees, so quick to throw him under the bus, has now basically said to the public that Joe Pa is guilty of something. Was part of the cover up or was at least more involved then the current facts actually show. It almost is like the Board needed someone to go down with the sinking ship so that the public didn’t think they were doing nothing. So they took someone who did nothing wrong, who had been loyal to the university and to the community for 60 years, and made him the face of the witch hunt to prove their point. Well guess what Board of Trustees. You got the wrong guy. Your focus is in the wrong place. Mike McQueary, who is the one who DID see something did NOTHING. And my friends, guess who still has a job and reportedly WILL be on the sidelines this Saturday against Nebraska. You guessed it, Mike McQueary. Joe Paterno should’ve been able to finish the season and resign then. But now the Board has tarnished his entire career, to try to save face and show they are doing something to try to “fix” the problem. Guess what… This can’t be fixed. The victims will never get their innocence back. But for what has taken place so far, based on the evidence that is out in the public right now, this situation couldn’t be being handled worse. The whole situation to sum up in one word… Sad.
5 BOROUGH SPORTS 
November 10, 2011 at 4:55 pm
dude WAKE UP and get ur head out of ur ass. what would i do?? fucking do whatever was necessary to ensure that that sick fuck “friend” of mine was never around children again. he DID NOT DO THAT. yes there are more people here that did more wrong but from a man of his stature from a prestigious institution u have to expect more, plain and simple. other people need to be fired yes but jopa deserves exactly what he got and if it was ur child that was touched and knew that someone of that power didn’t go to the most extreme lengths possible to stop it from happening again you would be on a murderous rampage. get some perspective.
November 10, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Hind site is always 20/20. I agree obviously that he COULD have done more. But listen, as the facts are now Joe Pa didn’t do anything wrong is basically all I’m saying and it is a flat out joke that McQueary, who DID see something happen, is still coaching. I think that furthers my point that the Trustees are just out for blood and this was the most influential figure that they could have taken down. And yes it turns out Sandusky is the basically the devil. He’s a despicable person who should burn in hell forever but no one really knew that at the time, including Joe Pa. People aren’t always who you think they are and more people then Paterno were dooped by this guy. He picked a bad person to be “friends” with. He is guilty of bad judge of character yes, but I still don’t think anyone would immediately call the cops on a “friend” of over 30 years after and investigation by your superiors turned out to show he was not guilty of the allegations.
November 10, 2011 at 5:19 pm
mcqueary deserves to be in jail for his actions but were not talking about him. dont side stepping jopas inactions. he didnt do anything legally wrong. but like i said that is not what you expect from something like that at an institution like that. its simply not enough, idc if its harvard, notre dame, or rahway prison. if u have witnesses telling you that some guy that works for you and your institution that you claim to be prestigious is sodomizing kids you shut it down, dont need hindsight for that. you find a way to make sure it never happens again to another child. and if you wouldnt call the cops on your best friend in the world since birth after these facts came to light your a sick bastard. this isnt even one kid. were talking about 20. now mark madden is saying sandusky might have been damn near pimping these kids out to rich donors (probably not true but who the hell knows at this point)…. one day youll get over your love for this man and realize that if your kid was RAPED you would want everyone who could do anything to do the most they could possibly do. he simply did not do that and he admitted it, case closed.
November 10, 2011 at 7:45 pm
the thing is the facts didn’t show that these allegations were true. The investigation showed up with no guilt on Sandusky. Obviously that is asinine to think that the higher ranks at Penn St. could come back with that conclusion but you don’t know what exactly what McQueary said to him. And yea my friend from birth if someone who I didn’t know that well told me that he murdered someone.. I’m going to him about it first. I’m not calling the cops at the drop of a pin. Obviously Paterno placed his loyalty in the wrong hands and it turned out to bite him in the ass. But I can’t fault him for not immediately calling the cops in this situation. Especially after an investigation came back with no credibility to the story from McQueary. Not to mention the fact that one of the people he told WAS in charge of university police. So it’s not like the authorities weren’t involved at all.
November 10, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Mistakes were made on everyones part. And he should be out, I just don’t think the way they went about it was correct.
November 10, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Seriously…so happy you published this. 100% agree with your perspective. Based on the evidence that we know as of now, Jo Pa was not an eyewitness to anything. Second hand information, which he reported. Now he is guilty until proven otherwise. It is very sad. Perhaps he didn’t do all he could. Perhaps he did see or have firsthand knowledge. PERHAPS. Agree that it should have been handled differently.
November 11, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Disappointed. Joe Paterno is not bigger that the laws of society. There is no doubt in my mind or that of the board of trustees that he failed at his job of “Human Being” when he failed to do more to protect children from that monster. I doubt it is a coincident that Mr. Sandusky “abruptly” retired in 1999 after being the coach in waiting. This has been covered up for too long and at the very least Joe Paterno knew enough to do more. Based on my experience and what we know so far, I think he knew a lot more. If it was your child being raped in a shower at his facility, would you be satisfied with his effort? I know I would not. Mr. Paterno and the President of Penn State deserved to be fired. I personally think everyone on Paterno’s staff should go. I still think he may face criminal charges. There is something I learned in the business world a long time ago; Poor behavior / Corruption / Immoral behavior cannot succeed without the people in charge allowing it. That has proven itself in history time and time again. I am disappointed with your assessment. Very disappointed.
November 14, 2011 at 3:21 am
You couldn’t be more wrong, and you should be ashamed of yourself for putting these misguided and thoughtless opinions on the internet for people to see.
Joe Paterno knew about Sandusky. He knew of the prior investigation, and even the rumor of improprieties after that should have set off alarms for everyone at the University. You want to dismiss the investigation simply because they couldn’t pin anything conclusive on him, but be honest with yourself: if you heard I was investigated for murder a few years ago, and then someone you know told you they saw me killing someone, your first thought wouldn’t be “I should have saw this coming”?
Of course it would be. Just as it should have been–and probably was–for Joe Paterno.
You and a few others are defensive of Paterno for two reasons: 1) because he’s a football legend, and 2) because your perception is that he’s going down alone for his inaction. But the truth is he isn’t going down alone. Everyone involved with the exception of McQueary has been fired or stepped down. The reason the media coverage is so focused on Paterno is because he’s the biggest name involved.
No, I don’t know why Penn State has allowed McQueary to remain on staff. Someone told me that the investigators might have asked Penn State to keep him because he is the prosecution’s best witness and they didn’t want him to clam up at the threat of losing his job. That’s speculation, but it’s possible. While McQueary’s inaction in stopping the rape as it happened is unforgivable, his cooperation with investigators is probably the only reason Jerry Sandusky is behind bars right now, so that is something that probably factored into the university’s decision.
But no matter what the case is with McQueary, Joe Paterno needed to be fired. He was guilty of turning a blind eye to Sandusky’s crimes, and passing the buck when it mattered most. Legally, sure, he’s protected from criminal prosectuion, but he’s still civilly liable, and he’ll probably end up handing over a ton of money to the families for essentially doing nothing, and rightfully so.
What I don’t get about you and your fellow apologists is why you complain that the media is on a witch hunt, despite the fact that the only reason you defend him is because of his football legacy. You act as if he’s getting treated differently than others at the same time you ask for him to get special treatment for being such a legend. Don’t you get how ridiculous that is? His legacy shouldn’t matter.
I certainly hope you rethink your position here, because so far you’ve taken the idiot’s way out and defended a man for doing the indefensible, and not protecting an innocent child when given the opportunity. Paterno could have saved lives, but he instead chose to save his university embarrassment. Is that what makes a man great? To put the needs of a football program before the needs of an abused child? Because that’s what you’re saying.
November 14, 2011 at 1:01 pm
My thoughts exactly well stated my friend!
November 14, 2011 at 12:57 pm
You opinion sucks if Joe was Sandusky’s friend for years then he heard of the complaint he should have known there was some validity to it since being friends for 35 yrs he should have found it pretty strange to always see his do called lifelong friend always in the company of young boys! If Joe would have taken the so called vague complaint seriously he could of actually saved many boys from his perverted lifelong friend that is unless he had the same perverted fixation as Sandusky!
November 14, 2011 at 1:24 pm
As one who lives in state College but has no affiliation with the University I have seen this hoopla for over a week now and heard about a thousand points of view. Joe Pa should have done more, however there are two points you guys haven’t mentioned.
1. The first person McQuery talked to was HIS FATHER. His father John McQuery is a physician’s assistant and was the administrative head of Centre Medical at the time. So his dad a medical professional doesn’t tell his son who has just witnessed a rape to call the cops or grab the boy and get him to the hospital for a rape kit? There is your biggest mistake. Instead he tells him to run home and then they involve joe pa the next day.
2. The fact that Schultz and Curley (the A.D) were arrested for there inaction.They were the ones with the real power, Joe Pa even though he has influence and a big microphone(which the President of Penn State yanked when he wanted to) has no REAL power. He’s a football coach. Joe Pa wasn’t arrested because he did what he was required to do. Now should he have done more? Maybe but if what the above said is true and he followed it up with who is essentially the police commissioner then what else is there to do?
November 15, 2011 at 10:59 am
all of that is understood and not the point. if u think jopa has no “real power” ur out of your damn mind. they told him to retire 8 years ago and he just said no, why can he get away with that? bc ppl will literally riot if he gets fir….o shit doesnt that sound familiar? it is obvious that the gingers are heavily at fault but the fact of the matter is jopa does have power and he went to the penn state police not the police and he did not make sure that man was not around kids anymore. again nothing legally wrong but its outrageous to think that there was nothing else to be done. hes not the most at fault so dont side step and blame others, but he knew, he was involved and it dint stop. if all else failed jopa could have easily went to the board and said i dont want this sick fuck near any kid lets make sure A)hes never on this campus again B) we do whatever it takes to keep him from being around little kids and thrown in jail, and at least the first will happen. but guess what, he was back on campus with kids and allowed to do it.
November 15, 2011 at 11:21 am
The penn state police is the real police, they have 40 gun carrying officers and routinely arrest and prosecute sexual assault. So he went to the Police’s boss and then was told an investigation was being done and then told it yielding nothing. Remember, an investigation was done in 1998 and the D.A didn’t prosecute, so once again, he called the police. I’m not side stepping the issue, your refusing to accept the facts. Plus throwing someone out over your contract when you are a COACH and then doing something outside of that realm are two entirely different things. However you blatantly ignored the sentence where I said he, Joe Pa, should have done more. He himself has admitted that. I’m just trying to point out that you’re vitriol is misplaced.
November 15, 2011 at 11:34 am
my ‘vitrol’ is not so heavily against jopa its against his staunch supporters that ignore that sandusky was allowed back with children. the reason why most are skeptical about the psu police is not the power that they hold, but how they seem on the surface to be just as culpable as the judge who volunteered for second mile and let sandusky walk for 1/5th the suggested bail. it seems like they did not do the extent of their job or this man at least would not be back on that campus. this may or may not be true but from many outsiders perspectives all of this is possible bc what weve seen seems to be impossible already. if you were involved in seeing/knowing/investigating/prosecuting/setting bail, it seems to the outside world that you cannot be trusted at this point in time. mostly bc from top to bottom it seems impossible for this to continue to happen under full knowledge of all of these people.