By Justin Albright Posted February 15, 2012
On January 22, the world lost a legend in Joe Paterno. Paterno faced complications from lung cancer that he couldn’t conquer. Joe Pa was the face of college football but yet, most people have completely forgotten about his successes as a person and football coach due to the sex and molestation scandal that occurred at the end of his time at Penn State.
On November 11, Jerry Sandusky was accused of sexually assaulting little boys on the Penn State campus, as we have all heard about by now. Joe Paterno was fired for not taking enough action when a man named Mike McQueary told him about seeing Sandusky assaulting a young boy in the showers. Paterno told his supervisors about what he was told, so shouldn’t they have been the ones to tell the police?
In my mind, Joe Paterno was mistreated to the max in this scenario because he did what he was supposed to do, but still got fired.
Nowadays, people are talking about Paterno’s legacy being tarnished due to Sandusky’s actions. Joe Paterno is the best college football coach in the history of college football.
Joe Paterno should be remembered as the man who put Penn State on the map and for changing many student-athletes’ lives. Many of his players have said that Paterno changed their lives, but for others who believe that he did wrong in the scandal, time heals everything.
Of course, for those boys who were abused, this is a life-long trauma. Joe Paterno, however, should be remembered for what he did do; not what he didn’t.
