Cover up?

It's a sad day in "Happy Valley" and for the rest of white hat nation. So now we know that Penn State's venerable coach knew as far back as 1999 that his former defensive coordinator might have been acting in an  inappropriate manner with little boys.

We also know that in 2002, then grad assistant, Mike McQueary, actually saw the same former defensive coordinator engaged in a sexual act with a ten year old child in a PSU locker room and reported it to Joe Paterno after calling his father.

Paterno reported the incident to his handpicked Athletic Director, (another one of his myrmidons who surrounds the campus) and they told the alleged pedophile to stop using the university's facilities.

I read the grand jury report today, and the charges are absolutely disgusting. The folks at Penn State should be ashamed of themselves if children were allowed to be raped in order to protect the legacy of Joe Paterno and his football program.

The fact that the Centre County District Attorney sat on this case for a couple of of weeks,---- allowing Paterno to pass Eddie Robinson to become the all time winning coach in Division 1 football, also makes me wonder.

But this is bigger than football. We are talking about the alleged rape of children by a man who could have been stopped years ago, but who was allowed to allegedly continue because a great institution and football program had to be protected at all cost. And what about those hypocrites at the NCAA? We sanction a school and fire its coach for allowing football players to get free tattoos. So what do we do with a football program that possibly covers up sexual assaults on children?

We will be watching.

Now Penn State is thinking about letting Paterno go, because, as the saying goes; the s*&^ has hit the fan.

We all can't help but wonder how long this would have gone on if the Centre County District Attorney's office didn't decide to press charges against the alleged pedophile and school officials.

Joe Paterno was to give a press conference today, but the university canceled it because they didn't want Joe talking right now. Too much is at stake. There are assets to protect. Folks are talking about civil suits against Pennsylvania's flag ship university. So, just like the Catholic Church, they are "circling the wagons". And clearly they care more about protecting Penn State University and not the lives of innocent children.

"Hundreds of fans staged a raucous rally outside Paterno's home Tuesday evening. He appeared briefly, along with some family members, and thanked the crowd for coming.

"I've lived for this place. I've lived for people like you guys and girls," Paterno said.

"It's hard for me to say how much this means," the 84-year-old coach said.

"As you know, the kids that were the victims, I think we ought to say a prayer for them."

No Joe, I think that we should say a prayer for you. Right after the University fires you and everyone who had anything to do with this terrible affair.  

Finally, let me talk about another Joe.

Today as I sat in my office looking at an autographed picture of "Smokin Joe", I thought about the fact that he was the first Philly icon that I met after moving here some 19 years ago. He was friendly, down to earth, and accessible to everyone.

I remember telling him that I actually cheered for Ali in their first fight and he threw a shadow jab at me. I also told him that it was a disgrace that Philly didn't have a statue of him but had one of Rocky, a fictional fighter. I remember him laughing about it and saying that maybe one day the city would come around.  

Well, now that he is gone, let's hope that we honor him with a statue sooner rather than later. He would have liked that.