The Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal will be mentioned prominently in every obituary you read of Joe Paterno, as well it should be. It is a blot on his legendary career at Penn State, a stain that can never be erased.
But if it tarnishes his legacy, it does not destroy it. If it clouds our memory of him, there is still plenty of light shining through.
He failed in the Sandusky case, no question. He failed the alleged victims, failed his beloved school and failed himself. And he admitted as much, at one point calling his inaction in response to an alleged 2002 incident in the shower room of Penn States football facility one of the great regrets of his life.
In retrospect, I wish I had done more, Paterno said in a statement issued the morning of Nov. 9, while announcing he would retire at the end of the season. The schools board of trustees instead fired him hours later.
Does that outweigh everything else he did in six decades at the school, and 46 as head coach? No. And that will likely be proven out over time. The allegations brought forth in the grand jury presentment are still so fresh that they are the first thing mentioned in association with Paterno, before anything is said about his emphasis on education, his philanthropy, his desire to make Penn State not just a great football school, but a great school.
Eventually the order will be reversed. Eventually we will see a more balanced portrait. Doesnt mean Paternos apparent role in the Sandusky scandal should ever be forgotten, because it should not be. It just means Paterno will be seen in a different light.
Understand that Paterno was always a polarizing figure anyway. His many worshipers always refused to see any warts, always carried themselves with a certain hauteur: We dont do things like everybody else. His many detractors always believed that nobody could be as good as Paterno was purported to be, and wondered what skeletons might be in his closet.
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For a very long time the first narrative was the more believable of the two. That has now changed. Now there is more to digest, almost too much to comprehend. It will take time.
The sides differences were only heightened by the current scandal. Specifically, the pro-Paternoites have argued that he did all he was required to do by law, after he was presented information by then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary in connection with the alleged shower-room incidenti.e., pass it along to his supposed superiors. Those on the other side have pointed out that he failed to meet his moral obligation by not calling police, not checking on the status of the investigation, not trying to find out the identity of the alleged victim.
So they go round and round. The dissonance felt by many was perhaps best expressed by one of Paternos former players, Marco Rivera, as everything was hitting the fan at his alma mater in early November.
Rivera played guard on the 1994 team, the last of Paternos five undefeated clubs, and later for 11 years in the NFL. He was reached on the afternoon of Nov. 9, after Paterno announced his pending retirement but before he was fired.
I totally agree with the majority that I wish Coach Paterno had done more, Rivera said, when reached at his home in Dallas. I wish he would have forced the issue. I was a little disappointed in our coach that he didnt.
At the same time Rivera said he remained a Joe Paterno guy. And he was not about to let him walk the plank by himself.
Rivera reiterated his stance by text message the following day, after Paterno was dismissed, He said that while he understood and respected the boards decision, he thought the trustees should have given the man that gave his life to Penn State the dignity to finish the season.
That didnt happen. And Paterno didnt address the entire matter at length until mid-January, when he invited Sally Jenkins, the Washington Posts respected columnist, to interview him at his modest home in State College. He told her he hadnt been aware of an investigation of an alleged 1998 incident involving Sandusky, that McQueary had not explained himself fully when he came to him in 2002 (and that it wouldnt have mattered if he did, since Paterno had never heard of rape and a man).
Paterno also said he was not completely sure how to handle such a case, which is why he passed it along to athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz. Both were later charged with perjuring themselves before the grand jury.
There are those who wondered how Paterno, a practicing Catholic, could have never heard of rape and a man when the Church had been wracked by a child sexual-abuse scandal of its own several years ago. And at another point in the interview Paterno and his wife Sue were asked how they might react if any of their five children or 17 grandchildren were ever the victims of such abuse.
Violence is not the way to handle it, he said. But for me, Id get a bunch of guys and say lets go punch somebody in the nose.
His wife was more blunt.
If someone touched my child, there wouldnt be a trial, Sue told Jenkins. I would have killed them. That would be my attitude, because you have destroyed someone for life.
But in this case, Joe Paterno acted cautiously, yet another reason this scandal will forever stain him.
It seems unlikely, however, that it will define him. Not in the long run. Not when the bigger picture is taken into account.
Gordie Jones covered Penn State from 1984-2003 for the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal.
