OUR VIEW: Evidence confirms Paterno’s honor is history

• OUR VIEW

OUR VIEW

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Believe what you want about the Penn State scandal. We do not pretend to know exactly how Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno and others reacted after learning that Jerry Sandusky, a high-ranking former coach on their staff, was abusing children.

All we know is that a report about the incident, made public Thursday, is damning indeed.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was hired by Penn State trustees to look into the incident. Freeh’s report concludes that “the most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”

According to Freeh’s report, those “powerful men” include the university president, athletic director and vice president, along with Paterno, who was fired as the scandal broke and then died of lung cancer shortly thereafter.

Freeh’s report includes handwritten notes and emails from Paterno that portray him as being involved with a decision by the officials to not tell child welfare authorities about a 2001 incident involving Sandusky, a child and a locker room shower on Penn State property.

The hard truth is that Sandusky is no longer an “alleged” child molester. A court has proven that he did the things of which he is accused. We’re glad that’s cleared up.

A possible truth is that Paterno had something to do with covering up Sandusky’s crimes.

Now this new evidence tends to show that he didn’t act accordingly when a high-ranking person of his staff was said to be molesting children.

Nobody will ever know for sure what Paterno knew and how he reacted. But generally, where there’s smoke there’s fire, and Freeh’s investigation has blown a lot of smoke in Paterno’s direction.

We just can’t understand how so many people still come forward to defend Paterno’s honor.

Tags: penn state, joe paterno, jerry sandusky, opinion, updates, editorials, crime