July 23, 2012

Much has transpired since the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke roughly nine months ago. Sandusky was arrested, tried and now is rotting jail after it took a jury  about six minutes to find him guilty. In addition to his job, Joe Paterno lost his once-pristine image, and then ultimately his life in January. Penn State, after today, effectively lost its football program. And then there's Paterno's family, which has collectively lost its mind.

While it's understandable for them to try to salvage what's left of the old man's tattered reputation, every one of their clumsy public statements since the story began to unravel last November has been one bumbling absurdity after another.

Today was no different.

After the NCAA on Monday dropped a bomb on Penn State's soon-to-be irrelevant football program, the family released another ill-advised missive in attempt to deflect blame from precious JoePa, dubiously stating that 'How Sandusky was able to get away with his crimes for so long has yet to be fully understood.'

Actually, it has, assholes.

For those of us who haven't been enveloped by the twisted parallel universe inhabited by the Paternos and their mindless defenders, the Freeh Report did a pretty good job identifying exactly 'How Sandusky was able to get away with his crimes for so long...'  It involved Joe Paterno advocating a university-wide policy of willful ignorance with regards to a pedophile sexually assaulting children on campus for more than a decade.

The report is pretty emphatic on that point, in fact. They should read it. If memory serves, Mr Freeh discussed those findings at a press conference, too. Some of the media outlets covered it. Google it, you'll find it.

The statement goes on, "The sanctions announced by the NCAA today defame the legacy and contributions of a great coach and educator without any input from our family or those who knew him best."

This is an absolutely contemptible sentence and the PR hack who wrote it should get beat, waterboarded and then beat again. What was the NCAA to do? Hey, you're father aided and abetted a pedophile, how about some input?

Go fuck yourself.

Far be it from us to defend the NCAA, which is basically a glorified pimp, but they owed the Paterno family nothing, and the only thing that served to 'defame' the former coach was his own unwillingness to protect most vulnerable among us: children.

Joe Paterno was a father and a husband who was obviously beloved by his wife and children. We get that. We also get that he did a number of wonderful things in his life, and while it has to be heartbreaking for them to see his accomplishments vanish within a matter of months, vanish they must.

Usually one bad act does not define a lifetime. People make mistakes all the time, even very good people. Yet, if you are a party to a child being sexually molested, that's not merely mistake and it does indeed define you. That's who you are. That's reality.

Paterno's family and their defenders need to start living in it.