Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Not Enough.

So JoePa has made the decision to retire at the end of the season. This is how we reward what happened under his watch at Penn State? Allowing him to set his own terms on leaving, letting him set his own timeline for adulation-filled farewells, keeping him in-place to coach this Saturday against Nebraska in a setting that's likely to become a pro-Joe pep-rally, televising a man living his life unchanged under a program reeling from scandal while the victims get to sit at home and watch? Pathetic. I rarely say this, but in this situation, I don't care about the legal system. Sometimes just the legal responsibility is not enough; sometimes you have to do what's right. With something as bad as child molestation, there is no middle ground, no c-y-a and move on, and to me, anyway, no second chances. Reading the grand jury testimony, following the timeline of events, hearing from the victims, it's all too much to take-in today and be satisfied that Joe got to pick his time to go. Paterno, Mr. "Success with Honor" himself, is now a figurehead for a program that allowed one of the worst things that can happen to go on; as such, he - and everything remotely connected to his administration - should be let go. Immediately. Letting him go out on his own terms, allowing him to stick it out to season's end, giving him his last month on the sideline (or, in the press box, actually)is simply not enough. 'Not enough' - a phrase that, in the end, sums up the cowardly effort these individuals put into one of our most basic responsibilities as human beings, protecting children.

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