JoePa!

If more than 1,000 students can rally against the firing of Joe Paterno of Penn State, then it's apparent that football has taken over our intelligence and our morality.  Paterno learned in 2002 of the rape of a ten--year old boy by his former assistant coach and, beyond telling the head of sports at Penn State, did nothing else about it.  Many boys were raped after that.

And why didn't the assistant coach who witnessed the assault and who subsequently reported it to Paterno  (a day later), stop the assault in progress and call the police?  And why does this type of group protective mentality happened so much in American sports?  This man watched the rape of a child and walked away.  Fire him as well.  Fire everyone, and anyone, who knew of it.

The more I think about this, the more unimaginable it becomes, and although it deals with boys it is so reminiscent of what has happened to women in the past, and still happens.  If you have power, you can do whatever you like and most of the time get away with it.  This case is not just limited to Penn State, and I believe we, as Americans, have to think seriously about why it happens so often in this country, and why so often in sports like football and basketball.

When I first wrote this I wasn't aware of Paterno's nickname, JoePa.  For some reason, this makes it all so much worse.  Apparently, he was viewed as some type of universal father, and since he encouraged people to use this name, he obviously thought of himself in the same way.  So why wasn't he the father of those abused boys--the pain of confronting one of his own, the pain of possibly losing his prestige and damaging the football team and the university, the pain of subjugating his ego to do the right thing.  Not totally sure why this story has me so outraged, but it does.