The Chris Moeller Archives

Forget Jerry Sandusky for just one moment, and just consider how sick a fuck Joe Paterno is? He's told by a 28-year-old underling that his high-profile defensive coordinator, his right-hand man at the throne of a college football empire, has been witnessed, first-hand, anally raping a 10-year-old in the shower of the football building. University police have already investigated this same assistant coach four years earlier for showering with an 11-year-old. Paterno, this time, waits a day, then reports the information not to the police, but to university officials that together make up a fraction of his salary and at a school where the football program produces approximately $70 million in revenue annually.

Flash forward nine years: In a sport in which a coach can be fired for failure to "go for it" on fourth down of an important game, Paterno becomes the winningest coach in Division I college football history. The underling who told him very privately nearly a decade ago about the forced sodomy of an underprivileged pre-teen by the architect of the coach's nationally-renown linebacker program has been promoted from graduate assistant to receivers coach. The assistant coach, though retired, still maintains an office across the street from the football building and is reported to have been in the football building as recently as two weeks ago. He is arrested and charged with 40 counts of sexual abuse against young boys over a 15-year period. Paterno, who according to his son, reported the charges initially to university officials, then never really gave it a second thought, is forced to confront inquisitors. He steps out of his house, doddering and nearly incoherent, to tell a large group of cheering, amoral, and stupid Penn State students to pray for the "kids who were victims or whatever they want to say... It's a tough life when people do certain things to you." He concludes by promising the students yet another victory on the field this Saturday.

That Paterno is not headed to prison says more about Pennsylvania legal statute than it does about the coach's allegedly limited culpability in connection with these heinous charges, even as the 84-year-old Penn State head man lives his life as a demigod in the college town of all college towns. (Mitch Albom disagrees. He thinks Paterno is being targeted unfairly by a vengeful public and media as he's had the chance to get to know JoePa very intimately over the years asking him questions about third down draw plays and corner blitzes.)

At last tonight, the university's board of trustees removes Paterno immediately from his position as head coach, narrowly sidestepping one last act of cowardice that would have allowed the coach to finish out the current season. Paterno is wildly fortunate to live in a legal climate in which he doesn't have to answer to a criminal investigation about what he knew and when in regards to the actions of his pedarast protege. Joe Paterno, grandfather of 17, will still own the sympathy of all those that believe 46 years of successful football trumps child molestation, and we have not seen the last of JoePa's tears for the horrible ordeal he's had to contend with over these last several days, but this abrupt end is the disgraceful exit Joe Paterno deserves.

-

Five years later, a few people owe an apology to the National Organization for Women.

-

Where are the calls for the death penalty in this case-- for the Penn State football program? Here, you have vicious acts against children, institutional and monumental corruption from the very bottom of the coaching hierarchy all the way up to the university president, and nobody is advocating this action as one of the required solutions. Southern Methodist University had an entire season cancelled in 1987 because of "under the table" payments to its football players. In prisons, the convicted sexual abuser of children is the lowest form of criminal in residence. In Division I college football, he's still #2 behind the guy who financially compensates the talent.