DOUG AND WOLF

Paterno family is focused on the wrong things

Feb 11, 2013, 8:06 PM | Updated: 8:25 pm

The Paterno family is trying to restore the legacy of Joe Paterno and have responded to the Freeh Report by former FBI Director, Louis Freeh. The family conducted their own investigation and maintains that Joe Pa was not complicit in a cover-up of child sexual abuse by former assistant Jerry Sandusky.

“The Freeh Report reflects an improper ‘rush to injustice,'” the Paterno family critique says. “There is no evidence that Joe Paterno deliberately covered up known incidents of child molestation by Jerry Sandusky to protect Penn State football or for any other reason; the contrary statements in the Freeh report are unsupported and unworthy of belief.”

Unworthy of belief, indeed.

I have great compassion for the Paterno family because they must be confused themselves. They know and believe Joe Pa would never do anything like cover up and suppress evidence with such serious implications as the rape of a child or abuse of other children. I have compassion for them because they want to remember their father for all the good he did and not for what he did; or, in this case, what he didn’t do.

The family is focusing on the wrong thing.

It’s not the Freeh Report. When it comes to the legacy of Joe Paterno you can take everything in that report and throw it out the window. None of it matters to me.

Joe Pa’s legacy was destroyed the moment he made the decision to pursue justice by not going directly to the police, the proper authorities. Joe Pa had a sobbing Mike McQueary in his office, recounting what he had seen Sandusky do to a boy in the showers. That’s where this story begins and ends.

What do rational, intelligent, unencumbered human beings do when somebody tells them they witnessed a man murdering a boy’s heart in the showers?

The first thing they do is say, “What!” The second thing they do is pick the phone up and call police — the real police! You don’t tell your superiors and expect them to handle the situation. You immediately call the police and hand the phone to McQueary. Immediately!!

And this is why Joe Pa will always be respected in the Wolfley Compound as a football coach that made a tragic mistake but not revered as a man: if it was his grandson being sodomized in the showers that day, would he have said, “What!” and then called the police?

Yes.

If Joe Paterno answered that question by saying, “no, I would have handled it exactly the same way” he is the Devil incarnate.

Doug and Wolf

From left to right: Sarah Kezele, Dan Bickley, Vince Marotta and Jarrett Carlen of the Bickley & Ma...

Arizona Sports

Bickley & Marotta move to mornings, Wolf & Luke debut on 98.7 FM

Bickley & Marotta will move into the 6-10 a.m. time slot beginning Tuesday morning, Wolf & Luke will follow with its debut at 10 a.m.

3 years ago

Follow @AZSports...

Arizona Sports

Doug & Wolf say goodbye: Here are our favorite memories

Doug & Wolf said goodbye with their final show, and it was time to reflect on the impact the co-hosts made in the Valley sports scene.

3 years ago

Follow @AZSports...

Arizona Sports

A show jam-packed with guests sends off Doug & Wolf

Doug & Wolf signed off for the last time Tuesday morning, ending a 15-year run on the airwaves in the Valley.

3 years ago

Bickley & Marotta...

Arizona Sports

98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station lineup changes begin in September

Bickley & Marotta will move from midday to 6-10 a.m. in the mornings, replacing the long-running Doug & Wolf show on 98.7 FM.

3 years ago

Manager Torey Lovullo #17 of the Arizona Diamondbacks looks on from the bench against the Philadelp...

Sam Graveline

Lovullo: D-backs’ youth movement gradually going to ‘next level’

The 2021 season has been nothing short of a disappointment for the Diamondbacks. They continue to build for 2022 with a youth movement.

3 years ago

Head coach Herm Edwards of the Arizona State Sun Devils looks on against the Stanford Cardinal in t...

Kevin Zimmerman

Herm Edwards shrugs off David Shaw’s criticism of ASU recruiting scandal

Stanford coach David Shaw went on the record to criticize Arizona State for its alleged recruiting violations.

3 years ago

Paterno family is focused on the wrong things