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Pour the Kool aid over your head. It will do two things , cool you down and perhaps wash Paterno blood lust out of your eyes so you can see things clearly.
If Paterno had lived , been prosecuted , been allowed to testify and then found guilty of whatever charges , so be it. Put him in prison , take down his statues , whatever. Without that chance to tell his side of the story , I am not condemning anybody.
I believe you are wrong that the weight is falling on the football program solely because of Paterno's involvement. I believe Sandusky's affiliation with the football program is being linked to the actions by all the administrators (including Paterno) and board members with the assumption that the goal was to protect the football program. That assumption may be wrong. The cover up actions may have been aimed at protecting the university as a whole and/or the jobs of its executive administrators , all orchestrated by the University President and using Paterno and the football program as a scapegoat. You can say that "Football is everything at Penn state" but its not the paychecks , reputations , and careers of the executives in charge.
What you really want to be careful of is jumping to conclusions. Are you willing to settle for Paterno's blood and call it a day when there may be many others equally or more culpable in this whole mess? I'm not. Was he totally innocent? No. Is he primarily to blame? I don't know but I'm inclined to say no and turn up the ehat by thoroughly investigating everyone else involved .
I say be suspicious of everyone , including Paterno but don't settle on the easy target , a dead man who cannot speak on his own behalf , and let others, who may have been more directly responsible for the cover up , get off easy because of a scapegoat they very well may have set up to take the fall.
Nobody really knows what skeletons are yet to be uncovered in this whole thing. Don't let your blood lust to see an icon fall blind you to other possibilities that may yet come to light.
Paul S , I agree with game decisions being reversed because of recruiting violations , etc because those players should not have been on the field and do in fact have an affect on the outcome of the game. Those games should in fact be recorded as "forfeits do to ineligible players on the field". Games that are played fair and square to an outcome should stand. I also think that once a game (its just a game) is played and over , nobody really gives a damn about it years down the line but that's a whole other topic.
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