Stop Your Lion

There is nothing healthier than debate in my opinion and that's exactly why I wanted to publish this. I'm going to preface this entire post by saying I wholeheartedly despise all parties involved in the Penn State scandal and wish this whole incident had never happened. It's a tragedy, it's sickening, and I will never be able to watch Tommy Boy again without being reminded of it. But I absolutely, positively think that Joe Paterno got the raw end of the deal in this. He knew it was time to step down and voluntarily agreed to do so at the end of the season. To not be given the opportunity to walk off into the apocalypse on his own, is a travesty that trumps whatever you think JoePa did or didn't do; moreover, to be made the face of this entire scandal because it's most convenient for views and headlines is just sad, while Jerry Sandusky couldn't be picked out of a lineup or recognized at a park where kids are playing at right now by most of the same people willing to give you their opinion without you asking for it.

Here's the facts the way I interpret them before JoePa has been given a chance to tell his side of the story outside of the grand jury testimony: Joe Paterno was informed of a heinous act being performed by one of his employees, he reported the incident up the chain of command without hesitation, and he left the matter to be resolved by the people whose job it was to resolve it. Leave the feelings out of it, leave the nasty details out of it, and that's what you have at the core of all this. 

You know what I just love? I love how everyone assumes they would do what is morally right if put in a situation someone else failed at. You let one person forget to cross a t or dot an i and just wait and listen for the 20/20 hindsight to come barreling over them. Now, I will admit that this matter is more critical than crossing a t, but the absolute surety that people are claiming in what they would have done is sickening in its own right. You don't know what you would have done, because it didn't happen to you and you have no idea how it truly played out!

Please don't get me wrong, I hope that everyone would do the right thing in situations and I firmly believe that a whole lot of people would go above and beyond what it is right. I'm simply putting this spin out there in terms of planting yourself in the shoes of those involved, with the same things on the line and the same background. It's not to say what anyone did was 100% morally right, because Sandusky wasn't brought to justice immediately and that's the only way it could be 100% morally right. I'm simply asking to take a look from a different perspective and apply the details we have to your own situation and figure out how much harder this would have been.

Only those people who have been self-employed their entire lives know what it's like to work in an environment with no bosses, no hierarchy to report to, and no company name or brand to protect outside of yourself. For the majority of us that do know what that is like, you understand how it works. You know who you can/can't talk about and you know who you can/can't talk about them to. You know who you don't cross and you know who you don't collaborate with on anything. You know who not to trust. Basically, you learn how to play the game. One of the major things you also learn is that you have quite enough responsibility and risk in your own position without taking on a heroic role for someone else, especially those above you.

No matter how many decades he'd been in the position, Joe Paterno's boss was still the Penn State AD. That's the man that could fire him if he wanted to truly become the most hated man on the planet. So when JoePa was informed of the situation by the graduate assistant (who, as Sean pointed out, is maybe the biggest POS not named Sandusky in this situation) and then sat down with the AD and passed the story along. I don't know what he said or what details he did/didn't provide, but he passed the story along. And in my opinion, at that point, Joe Paterno had done his job. He learned of information that was not only dangerous to the foundation of the program but also a risk to the community, and he passed it up the chain of command so it could be handled appropriately by those whose job it was to handle it.

So the main argument at this point usually becomes, "But nothing happened! He should have reported it to the police himself." Not so fast my friend. JoePa had to assume that it was being handled appropriately and I have to guess the AD made him think it was. No matter what you think you would do, if put in a situation where you disclosed the information appropriately and left it to your boss to do the rest, I have to think you would feel like you had done your job and your duty was done. Going above and beyond that would be a direct violation of your trust in your boss. Secondly, I doubt this was a situation where you want to stick your nose in and really follow-up. "Anything else on the whole sexual assault in the shower thing?" isn't exactly the conversation starter you're looking for over lunch. By disclosing the information, I feel JoePa did more than a lot of men would do when their job, their reputation, and their already-cemented legacy were put on the line.

Let's break down this situation a bit further: Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky had worked together side-by-side for over thirty years. The bonds of friendship, loyalty, and brotherhood created over that time in film rooms and on football fields is inconceivable to me. I've almost been at the same company for five years and I can't imagine how much closer I could become with my co-workers if we kept doing this for twenty-five more years, and that goes for people I don't work directly with on a day-to-day basis. Sandusky was Paterno's apprentice, the man Sandusky looked up to and the man he would one day take over the throne for. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I believe JoePa would have no idea of the truly sick man Sandusky was because Sandusky wouldn't have allowed that part of him to be exposed to the man he wanted to be. So when JoePa had the graduate assistant come to him with this story, I have to believe it nearly killed the man. I have to believe he had to rethink everything he ever trusted in his entire life. I have to believe he had to think about pretending it never happened or he never found out and just hope that someone else would take the lead on it. But he didn't. He did exactly what employment protocol calls for and he went and told on him to exactly the person he was supposed to go tell.

I don't want to pretend in any way that this entire argument is not at least partially based on JoePa's legacy at Penn State and what he has meant to that university and college football as a whole. There's a big difference in measuring this situation when you're able to gauge just how fully vested Paterno was in all things Penn State. He's basically the mascot for Christ's sake. He's more recognizable to the rest of the nation than the facade of some education building, famous alumni, or forgettable logo. He's what I associate with a clean program and I've only been around for the Ki-Jana Carter's, Kerry Collins', and Curtis Enis' of the program. I'll admit, however, this taints that assumption - not because JoePa cheated, but because he was unable to recognize an enormous character flaw in his right-hand man. And maybe he did know everything from the get-go, which means this entire argument can be forgotten faster than you were already planning to. But I believe this was a man who had been in post since Lyndon B. Johnson roamed the White House, who believed in doing the right thing and believed that he truly always did. A man who would literally die to protect what he loved and didn't believe that others who called themselves men were capable of the sickening acts presented before him now, especially men whom he called friends. A man that still believed that people were capable of doing the right thing and, as long as you did your part, they would too. And now you have a man who didn't believe time even passed while he was able to do what he loved, who has been stripped of all things he was passionate about and now left to the realization that he is eighty-four years old with nothing to truly live for and a smudge over everything he lived.

He was already heading for the door, you didn't have to kick him out.