Seems like he's already been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion.

But I'm not trying to defend him, and certainly not child molesters; there is nothing even neutral that can be said for such creatures.

My point, which seems to be lost in the rhetoric, is that we don't know all the facts. No one really does. And the real issue, at least to me, is what did Paterno KNOW and when did he know it?

The established facts are that he heard about the allegations second-hand. That is called "hearsay" and in our country it's not admissible in a court of law (for all sorts of good reasons designed to protect the process of a fair trial; basically, we want to hear from people with actual knowledge, not rumors repeated).

He relayed this information to his superiors, likely with the understanding that they would conduct a full and fair investigation. He later testified before a grand jury.

That's all a decade ago.

There is no state law that would require him to call the police; we're not talking about people working with children, we're talking about a subordinate of his alleged to have committed serious, ugly crimes. Legally, Paterno's clear. But that's not what we're discussing. We're discussing beyond that, what he *should* have done. And to me the first question in that realm comes right back to what did he ACTUALLY KNOW??

Kick it back the other way. There's someone you've known for years, worked with, good guy, never been an issue one way or the other, you'd probably consider him a friend. A third party comes to you with a story, ugly, horrific allegations of conduct that, if true, will destroy his career and family, and rightly so. But those SAME allegations will have much the same effect, even if they are NOT true. So you follow the chain and report what you have heard.

And if nothing comes of it, what is the proper course? To go ahead and call the cops? Remember, you don't have ANY actual knowledge, just something someone else said. Maybe they hate him, maybe they have a grudge...you don't know, right? So if you call the cops, you may destroy his career without any basis.


The point being...I don't know all of the facts, and neither does anyone else here. But it strikes me that there are too many ready and willing to kick him to the curb based on what they are assuming about what he knew, including the university, which now seems to be engaged more in a CYA witch hunt than any real interest in finding the truth.

Certainly, if Paterno had a meaningful reason to know what was going on (at least something more than the blind allegations of a third party), then everyone is right, he failed miserably. But even that has not been demonstrated, at least not in the reports blasting around the 'net.

And if Jopa actually did have a reason to know what Sandusky was up to, nothing in his history would suggest that he would have kept quiet. It just seems completely out of character to imagine him scheming in a back room to hush up over such horrible crimes just to protect the football program.


All I'm saying is, can't we just wait and see how the facts prove out before we tie him to a tree, disembowel him and let the birds peck out his eyes?