Haynes: Paterno's Silence Was His 'Biggest Mistake'
(WSCR) Former Nittany Lions defensive tackle Michael Haynes says he still respects former head coach Joe Paterno, but he just can't reconcile the fact that Paterno didn't do more.
In 2002, when then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary allegedly walked in on Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy in the showers, he told Paterno, but Paterno never reported the incident to law enforcement.
"I still respect Paterno," Haynes told The Mully and Hanley Show on Thursday. "All of the stuff that he's done for me... But, at the end of the day, he failed to ask one simple question to McQueary -- or anybody. He did not ask, 'Hey, tell me exactly what happened.' I really believe that if he would've asked that and somebody would've told him exactly what happened, he would've handled it totally differently. ... That was one of his biggest mistakes."
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According to the grand jury testimony, McQueary ran out of the locker room after seeing the abuse and called his father before reporting the incident to Paterno.
"I don't understand the logic of allowing a boy to be assaulted in the shower and calling Paterno, or even your father, as opposed to the police or you physically going in there and removing the boy from the situation. For me, that is the truly disturbing part -- the fact that McQueary did nothing to protect that kid."
"If a grad assistant goes in and sees it and has never denied it, I think that's something that's a pretty open and shut case."
