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	Littwin: We'll See What Matters at Penn State By Mike Littwin The Denver Post November 10, 2011 http://www.denverpost.com/littwin/ci_19300775 In the end, Joe Paterno? didn't get his way. That's a start as Penn State football tries to reclaim a semblance of decency. Paterno thought that whatever had happened, he could write his own script. And so he announced that he would retire at season's end and hoped that would appease everyone. He thought that being Joe Paterno, at age 84 the longtime coach and football sage, was enough. It wasn't. It couldn't be. The university's trustees fired him Wednesday night, because there was no other way. He had to go. That Paterno had to be fired years after covering up for an alleged predator was not a close call, even if it came late at night. It was an easy call, no matter how many years Paterno had been at Penn State, no matter how many games he had won, no matter if he had his own statue in front of what might as well be his own stadium. No, this was not a close call. In fact, it was no closer a call than the one that Paterno and Penn State blew all those years ago, in 2002, when they chose to cover up what happened in a university shower, instead of doing the right thing, the obvious thing, the only thing. The right and obvious thing was to immediately call the cops and get a predator — OK, an alleged predator — off the streets before he could harm any more children. Paterno is not a bad man. He's a decent man who did a terrible thing in the name of God knows what. Protecting a friend? Protecting himself? Protecting his football program? The person Paterno didn't defend was the 10-year-old kid who Jerry Sandusky? — who was Paterno's longtime assistant coach — is accused of raping in a university locker room shower. According to the graphic grand jury report, Paterno learned about the assault from an assistant and eventually told his superiors. He didn't call the cops, and his superiors didn't call the cops. They just told Sandusky he couldn't bring kids onto campus anymore. Sandusky still kept an office and "emeritus" coaching status. The university said it informed Sandusky's charity, Second Mile, which works with disadvantaged kids. And Second Mile apparently didn't call the cops, either. Apparently in Happy Valley, Pa., no one calls the cops. Here's where it gets even harder to believe: Supposedly, Paterno, who runs his program in the way all college football coaches run their programs — which is to say the way dictators run their countries — never called Sandusky (his longtime friend and aide) into his office, never demanded from Sandusky to know the details of the assault, never got a promise from Sandusky to keep his pants zipped, never participated in the decision to keep it all in-house. Does any of this ring true? And here's an indictment that goes well beyond a legal indictment: As far as we know, Paterno, who always talks about his football-player kids, didn't try to learn the identity of the raped kid and ensure that the child get immediate help. This is not a scandal, in the football sense. This is a scandal, as many are now saying, in the Catholic Church sense, one more revered institution folding into itself in order to protect itself. It is a scandal played out in a place called Happy Valley, where fans descend on a fall Saturday to worship in the house of JoePa and his 409 victories. Sandusky is accused of molesting eight children over 15 years, and the number that may grow. How many of those kids' shattered lives are on Paterno's head? Every person involved knew what was on the line, starting with Mike McQueary?, the graduate assistant who said he saw Sandusky assaulting the boy in the shower. McQueary, who's still a coach there, didn't try to stop Sandusky. He went home and called his dad. He waited a day to tell Paterno. Paterno, we're told, didn't fully understand what McQueary told him. And we're asked to believe he never cared enough to learn any more. When Paterno sent the story up the line, his bosses knew at least one thing for sure — not to call in the authorities. Which leaves us with this: A grand jury has charged two Penn State officials with perjury, Sandusky is likely headed to prison, Paterno's legacy lies in ruins. And then there are the victims. What of the victims? Penn State couldn't let Paterno coach one more game. He couldn't be given a victory lap. We needed to know who, in the end, really matters and what, in the end, does not. E-mail Mike Littwin at mlittwin@denverpost.com
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