Hindsight is always 20/20. JoePa even admitted publically, he wished he had done more.
But the focus of my wrath is the media firestorm directed at him by smug judges trumpeting their sympathy for someone else's victims and casting their stones at the bystander instead of the perpetrator. They all screamed: "He enabled! He looked the other way!"
At this the board of trustees panicked. Every talking head in the country was repeating the same mantra: why didn't Paterno follow up? They shaped public opinion to the point that it almost appeared as if JoePa was the target of the investigation. So the trustees attempted to remove the subject of discussion from the front pages and appear to sieze control of the situation. I suppose they had little choice.
But their haste will inevitibly backfire. It is inconceivable to many that a man with a history as transparent as Paterno's would end up being found culpable in a scandal in which proper authorities were aware of it's genesis from the beginning, that was 1998.
Sure, he could have pursued a "follow up" conversation, if he distrusted those whom he'd already told. And who's to say he didn't follow up? Paterno will eventually have an opportunity to tell his side of the story. But as of now, due to legal ramification, he hasn't been able to speak in his own defense, even as the stones fall all around him. I believe he's been scapegoated by a mob media.
David Brooks'article indicts those smug judges for their vanity and shallow mindedness.
Me 53 XW 50 M 18 Years +2 S14 D19 Bomb 10-24-10 Served 1-27-11 Mediate 4-21-11 Civil D Final 6-2-11 No church anullment "A man is not finished when he is defeated, he is finished when he quits."
