Joe Paterno

I always hated Penn State football growing up, but it was that benign hatred because they were a natural rival of BC and Syracuse and schools for which I had a rooting interest.

There's more of a reason to hate the Nittany Lions now. Allegations of sexual abuse and cover ups will sour you on a program. Head coach Joe Paterno was just fired (which is good, because letting him play out the final few games of his contract would've been a copout). School president Graham Spanier was also fired. Penn State students and fans are being meatheads, chanting outside his house in a sick display of hero worshop and rioting around campus. A few years ago, when the Penn State football program was down on its luck, they were probably the same people screaming for his head, complaining that he was an 80something geezer whom the game has passed by.

It appear that Paterno didn't break any laws. But he certainly didn't go the extra mile to make sure this got reported to police, and that's sad. The center of the controversy, his ex-defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law but even if he is ultimately exonerated, if there was an appearance of sexual abuse you'd think Paterno would want to make sure it isn't swept under the rug.

Paterno and Sandusky went to battle together for decades. With someone like that, it's easy to do the bare minimum required of you, even if it means allowing someone to destroy another person's life.

So a couple of days ago I was talking to one of my best friends about the scandal. And the difficult question came up. And so I said it. "If I caught you sexually abusing someone, no question about it. I would call the police. You've been my friend for life. But I would be disgusted by what you did and wouldn't want you to get away with it."

And he said the same thing about me. My friend and I may be lifelong friends. But we also both want to be able to sleep at night.