He was supposed to be the adorable, hard-working, and beloved football coach of PennState. Joe Paterno has been credited with building the PennState football empire. He was a great coach that players were honored to play for and a part of college football history. Unfortunately, all of that became unraveled in 2012. The biggest scandal ever in sports’ history broke when defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested for child molestation. As if that was not shocking enough, it was reported that he was raping the children on school property under Paterno’s nose.
Paterno held to his word that he had told his superior about Sandusky’s crimes, however, people felt that he needed to do more. Morally, absolutely he should have went to the police, but this when our nation realized that football programs are sometimes more important than morals. The Penn State ethics board was at a loss for the right course of action. They ultimately decided that everyone involved needed to be fired, including the beloved Joe Paterno. It was one of the biggest firings ever. It caused chaos on campus and a mixed reaction from the public. No matter what PennState did, they would have been in the wrong.
Paterno’s legacy has forever been tarnished and Sandusky has been sent away to rot in jail. Unfortunately, the firing was too much for Paterno and he developed lung cancer and passed away not too long after. It is still one of the most shocking stories in which there were no clear winners.
Shocking and sickening…
Nice article!
I won’t get into the details of this story, I did several pieces on it on my own blog. But I will take issue with one statement. This is not the biggest scandal in sports history. That ignonimous distinction would belong to the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. That nearly killed baseball entirely and the legacy of that mess lives on to this day.