Two questions:
- Why does anyone think the Football team should be punished? What did they do? Why are they responsible? The people responsible are already gone, right? What is punishing the team other than a show of wrath?
You are an employee there. Teacher, coach, administrator. It doesn't matter. The employees of that school had knowledge and did noting and the school deserves everything and anything.
I don't necessarily agree with that. The people who were in charge and the people who knew should be removed, yes. But I personally don't think the team itself shouldn't be punished. The players and other staffers who didn't know anything didn't do anything wrong. You know who I feel sorry for in this whole mess? (Obviously other than Sandusky's victims)...but I feel really terrible for the current students of Penn State. All of those members of the team whose potential shots at the NFL have been basically obliterated. All of those students who have already paid tuition, whose college careers will now be nowhere near as fun or as fulfilling as those students just a few years older than they are. I live in the Philly area so this issue probably hits a bit closer to home around here than for most...many, many people in this area wind up going to Penn State (I did not). Football at Penn State isn't just "something to do" on Saturdays. It's an integral part of the experience there. Could you imagine if this had happened at Notre Dame? It would probably be an even bigger scandal than it is now.
As for my opinion of Joe Paterno- I really just don't know what to think. The man coached and influenced so many in such a positive way. He basically WAS Penn State. And I heard that he did go to a higher authority with what he knew (or what he suspected) on the Sandusky thing. Whether this is true or not, I don't know. But if he did go to a higher power, then he was accused of not following up with it. Part of me thinks maybe he didn't do much else because he was covering up for his friend. I realize that that sounds ludicrous, and it absolutely is- after all, how could you continue to be friends with someone who was doing that to children? Obviously if I found out one of my friends was raping kids that would be the end of our friendship and I'd call the police.
But maybe that's what this boils down to. How far would you go to protect your friends? Remember that scene in Goodfellas when he's coming out of his first trip to court and everyone is cheering him because he "kept his fuckin' mouth shut?" I'm absolutely not suggesting that Joe Paterno was involved with the mob, but I can't help but think maybe he had some of that old-school Italian mentality.
But think of it on a much lesser scale, in your own life: You have friends that shoplift...sell drugs...cheat on their spouses...and you know about it...do you say something?
I am not trying to defend his actions, and I think that he was absolutely wrong for not doing whatever was in his power to stop this. But I don't think he is solely to blame- after all he wasn't the one who was ass-raping kids. And a lot of other people knew about it too and no one said anything. And I have to wonder how all these people knew about what was going on and not ONE of them had the courage to stand up against it. But I guess maybe they were all afraid of what would happen if it leaked out (and what ultimately DID happen when it leaked out). They have all found themselves out of a job and shamed for life (and in death in Paterno's case)- maybe they were just trying to protect their own qualities of life...their jobs...their homes...their families. Maybe they were all just afraid of backlash and what would happen to them if they stood up.
Again, I'm not trying to defend anyone here. I don't think Paterno is the monster that the media is making him out to be. Cowardly? Absolutely. But not a terrible person. They were all wrong and they all knew it and now they've got to pay whatever price there is to be paid. And unfortunately nothing can pay for the emotional scars that these victims now have.