I lost a lot of respect for Ben. Anytime you have buddies watching the door something bad is going on. This Penn State stuff went back a ways. I feel bad for Joe Pa because of his age but I have lost some respect for him also. He was on the Mt. Rushmore of College Football. I fear this will be his legacy now.
We think of bad stuff with Coach Knight too. He had a lot more issues on the court than Joe Pa in the public eye. He too was a great coach who played by the rules and made men with a high graduation rate. Now he is remembered as a loose cannon ( can't argue with that) who abused his players. Any good he did is tarnished by his actions. Here any good Paterno did will be tarnished by his inaction.
Personally, I think the gate take from the rest of the Penn State games this year should have been donated to advocacy groups for sexual abuse. Maybe all the gate take next year too.
The media doesn't care about anything but the story. They will ride it out as long as it gets ratings. They love dirt and they love it when someone falls from grace. It's just the way it is in the media. For example, I felt bad for Rick Perry when he had his 53 second brain cramp at the debate. But I have seen it about 100 times on the news. I didn't think he was presidentially worthy after one debate personally. But I do not enjoy watching people suffer and let alone to bake.
I have read some very [dang]ing articles about Joe Pa lately. Ones that said he was very aware of his legacy and would have done anything to protect it. While I do not know if it is true, I think that could be said of most of us if we had a legacy to protect.
Paterno is more like the guy at the door watching for Ben than Rothlesburger in this case. They are apples and oranges. I recall once in the service a guy mentioned raping a young girl to me once at a disco tek in Germnay. I told him immediately that even if looked at the girl again that I would cripple or kill him. I had a fearsome reputation in my unit as a man who once fought 20 men single handedly. It wasn't true ( I had fought five once but people believed the legend more than the truth) but I used it for good when I could. It is our duty to not look the other way when others are in trouble.