<p>Wow! An 84 year old coach being involuntarily forced into retirement… at the END of the season! Oh, the disgrace! Of course, he will be able to say his long overdue retirement had nothing to do with the scandal.</p>
<p>I will be surprised if Paterno lasts until the end of the season. So many are calling for his immediate resignation.</p>
<p>I’ll be curious to see how this final act plays out. The idea of him on the sidelines coaching Saturday after the events of this week seems ludicrous. I like this line in Maureen Dowd’s columm: "Paterno was still practicing for the game against Nebraska on Saturday, and supportive students were rallying at his house. This is what Israel calls “the delusion that the ability to win football games indicates anything at all about your character or intelligence other than that you can win football games.”</p>
<p>It’s Paterno, not Pertano.</p>
<p>Iglooo, it’s not like 2002 was the first incident and the first time Paterno was faced with this.</p>
<p>I like this from Maureen Dowd’s columm:</p>
<p>“And sports, as my former fellow sports columnist at The Washington Star, David Israel says, is “an insular world that protects its own, and operates outside of societal norms as long as victories and cash continue to flow bountifully.” Penn State rakes in $70 million a year from its football program.”</p>
<p>Coincidentally, I gave a talk last night at my son’s former boarding school on corporate ethics. My talk had already been prepared. But ai did tie in the Penn State situation. Unfortunately, as with Enron. BP etc., you are remembered for your Last Bad Act. It is very easy to overshadow “good”.</p>
<p>Paterno’s resignation statement: [Penn</a> State Nittany Lions’ Joe Paterno to retire at end of season - ESPN](<a href=“http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7211281/penn-state-nittany-lions-joe-paterno-retire-end-season]Penn”>Penn State Nittany Lions' Joe Paterno to retire at end of season - ESPN)</p>
<p>do you think he will coach the rest of the season or is he out immediately? that is one of the next questions in this saga to be answered. i think public sentiment will run that he is done coaching period. no more games. what do you think?</p>
<p>"I love MD’s writing but I think she is also jumping to the conclusion that Paterno knew the details. So far, that doesn’t seem to be the case. "</p>
<p>He clearly knew enough details to suspect that children were not safe.</p>
<p>I read some commentary on Daily Beast that made a good point about Paterno. Everyone relied on his reputation and character as a great, moral and honorable man. The father of the grad assistant told him not to go to the police but to Paterno. Paterno would make it right. </p>
<p>If Paterno had told the AD and VP that he couldn’t turn Sandusky in himself, but that they should make the call to police now–they would have. They wouldn’t have said, “No, no, Joe–let’s think this through…”</p>
<p>But I think Paterno’s calculations were: Sandusky is retired. He wasn’t attacking PSU football players. This event isn’t in the perview of my responsibility, the football program. So I’m going to report it to the AD, let them deal with it and get back to my job, the football program. </p>
<p>One would have hoped that after at least two prior incidents (1998 and 2000), when a third incident came up (2002), Paterno would have said, “For heaven sakes, the guy’s out of control and needs to be stopped!” and have called the cops or insisted that the AD/VP call the cops.</p>
<p>I don’t think that he lacked moral courage. He had a bad case of tunnel vision–it’s not my problem, let the higher ups deal with it.</p>
<p>Right, condor. Will the Board let him coach until the end of the season? Remains to be seen. Not sure what I would do if I had a vote. He’s doing the right thing NOW by offering his resignation, and he IS Penn State and has been a part of that school for 60 years. He’s 84yo. I think I would have someone else coach the rest of the regular season and allow him a last hurrah by letting him coach in the bowl game/Big 10 championship.</p>
<p>Yes. As a lawyer, I don’t think anyone but Sandusky has committed a crime. However all of them clearly fell far short of the standard of conduct we should all hold ourselves to as people. They knew that children were severely at risk, and they did almost nothing to better the situation. Beyond that, they knew a man they had known for decades and supposedly respected was (at the very least) getting himself in deep trouble, and they did nothing to help him, either. And they utterly failed to do anything effective to ensure that Penn State wasn’t seen as enabling abuse. So they fell short of pretty much any standard that might apply from any perspective. And Paterno among them.</p>
<p>Agree that they all fell very short of any moral standard…</p>
<p>I think I’d disagree with very last part of ellenmope’s post 470, but completely agree with her in post 473. Using Ellen’s words, I think “falling far short of any moral standard” is probably exactly how I’d define lacking “moral courage”.
Joe Pa chose to pass the buck, then close his eyes, and put his hands over his ears.
Legal requirement met, moral expectations woefully lacking.</p>
<p>It’s announced now Joe will stay through the end of the season. It is suspicious how serious Penn St sees this, since he has just one or 2 coaching records that can be met/broken if he finishes the season</p>
<p>I am not a football fan at all. I am not even slightly vested in big time college sports–which IMHO have a lousy ethical record in general. But I must say that it makes me very sad to see a figure like Paterno, who appeared to be holding to a standard much higher than that of most in his sport, besmirched by this kind of thing at the end of his career. Very sad indeed.</p>
<p>And no, that does not mean that I would prefer it to be swept under the rug.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>“The coach defended his decision to take the news to Curley. Paterno said it was obvious that the graduate student was “distraught,” but said the graduate student did not tell him about the “very specific actions” in the grand jury report.”</p>
<p>It doesn’t look like he knew the details.</p>
<p>^^So please tell me where you’d draw the line? Let’s just say he was not told in specific terms that Sandusky was performing anal sex on a 10-yr-old boy in the locker room showers. He was JUST told that Sandusky was showering alone with a 10-yr-old boy acting inappropriately! If you were told JUST this, would YOU feel better about maintaining your professional/personal relationship with him? I HOPE NOT!</p>
<p>^^ The third time in 4 years something of this nature is brought to his attention and he is unclear as to the details? By this point, if he was unclear it is because he didn’t want to know. The GA comes to his home on a weekend. Let’s get real.</p>
<p>If he were genuinely concerned for these children he would have asked a couple of questions, don’t you think?</p>
<p>Really, who needs frikking details in such a situation and how do they even matter?? The very concept is so gross and disturbing that most can fill in the details for themselves enought to do more than push it up the chain of command. I stand by my suggestion that PSU be suspended from the Big Ten pending the full outcome of this. If a player gets charged with a serious crime he is usually immediately suspended pending the outcome. Here we have an entire university administration that may have done criminal acts or covered them up. Suspension is the only thing. Their teams will be the object of merciless ridicule at any event going forward. And college students can be very creative and very cruel.</p>
<p>Whoever used the term “tunnel vision” may be correct, but I am concerned it may be that Paterno had his hands on his ears and was yelling “LALALALALALALALALALA” because he did not want to hear.</p>