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The Rotunda
Friday, July 11, 2025

Penn State's Paterno Leaves in Disgrace

Until last week, former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno was seen as a legend of college football. He had won more games than any other coach and coached more games than almost anyone as well. Moreover, his program in University Park was seen as the last bastion of winning the right way — the Nittany Lions had not been flagged by the NCAA for any major violations — indeed, it was believed by many to be a clean program.

It was not.

The past week and a half marks the hardest fall from grace in the history of college athletics, and maybe in all of sports. Paterno won two national championships, over 400 games and was viewed as a hero in University Park. In just a few days however, his reign as the "king" of college football coaches came to a crashing end. Most outside observers agree that Paterno was rightly fired, that he did not fulfill his moral obligation to protect the 10-year-old boy that was allegedly raped by former PSU defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Sure, he did his job according to the law, but he did not do his job according to the laws of humanity and decency.

I will admit that when I first sat down to write this column it was difficult to decide which angle to cover; indeed, there are several facets to this story. Obviously, there is the Paterno angle. There's also the Mike McQueary side of the story. McQueary, if you don't know, is the former graduate assistant who walked in on the alleged rape in 2002. This aspect of the story angers me more than anything. Of course the actions of Sandusky and the cover-up of those actions are disgusting, but what McQueary did (didn't do) baffles me. The emotional reaction of McQueary was somewhat appropriate — he was revolted and disgusted. That's normal. What isn't normal, however, is how he handled the situation afterward. Rather than calling 911, or physically stopping the abuse by tackling Sandusky to the ground (something that he was very capable of doing), he made eye contact with the two, walked away, called his dad, and then told Paterno the next day. Any psychologically normal person would not have hesitated or delayed action for half a second. Rather, he, Paterno, and everyone else covered up the assault for the sake of the football program. That's right, the legendary, noble, great Joe Paterno led a cover up involving one of the lost storied programs in the history of college football.

Some have called for Penn State to receive the "death penalty," or cancellation of football, at the University for a couple of years. The only time this sanction has been levied on a major college football program was at Southern Methodist's football program in the 1980s because they paid their athletes to play. After their punishment, they suffered through about 20 years of losing seasons. While it is certainly not acceptable what SMU did back then, those violations are nothing compared to PSU's. Ohio State players got a few tattoos. Reggie Bush helped his parents out. Those programs are still suffering to this day. So, if a program commits those violations, with one having their team reduced to almost nothing for 20 years, why shouldn't Penn State's be taken down as well?

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