Wisch: I Think Paterno Knew More
By Dave Wischnowsky –
(CBS) Ten years ago, the Penn State football program was in complete disarray.
On Sept 22, 2001, Joe Paterno's punchless Nittany Lions lost 18-6 to Wisconsin to fall to 0-2 for the second consecutive season. Three days later, SI.com's Ivan Maisel published a piece about "Penn State's Decline," detailing the sounds of panic echoing throughout Happy Valley.
"The defense has been nothing short of terrible," Maisel wrote about Paterno's struggling squad. "Miami torched Penn State for 344 yards through the air in a 33-7 rout on Sept. 1; Wisconsin racked up 320 yards and held the ball for 41:53."
"Confidence has a shelf life and has to be replenished," PSU defensive coordinator Tom Bradley lamented in the article, "and there's no question that our confidence has been shaken."
That sorry state of affairs in State College back in '01 was a far cry from the atmosphere just two years earlier when the Nittany Lions were as confident as any football program in the nation. In the 1999 Alamo Bowl, Penn State skunked Texas A&M 24-0 to cap another 10-win season – which, quite remarkably, was the Lions' season average for victories since Paterno & Co. had joined the Big Ten six seasons earlier.
In 2000, though, Penn State football suddenly fell of a cliff and finished 5-7. And in '01, after that 0-2 start, the team would go on to finish the year an anemic 5-6.
So, what the heck happened?
More Coverage:
Read: Statement From Joe Paterno On Retiring
Hoge: If True, Big Ten Should Kick Penn State Out
Baffoe: Paterno Shattered A Dream By Contributing To A Nightmare
DiNardo: Everyone Involved Must Pay
Wisch: I Think Paterno Knew More
Well, for one thing, after 32 years at Penn State, Jerry Sandusky had retired from coaching.
"Most people don't realize how much Jerry meant," former Nittany Lions linebacker Brandon Short told Maisel about JoePa's longtime defensive coordinator, who had surprisingly stepped down in '99. "He was just as much a part of Penn State as Joe Paterno is."
Another former Penn State player, James Boyd, added: "When Jerry was there, [Paterno] would only come by and look at the defense in practice, but once the coordinator changed, he started working more with the defense. He felt he needed to be more hands-on because of the new coaches."
Now, tell me why in '99, Sandusky – arguably the finest defensive coordinator in all of college football at the top of his game following a 10-win season that was capped with a bowl game shutout – retired in perfectly good physical health at the tender coaching age of 55?
And explain to me the reasons behind Paterno choosing that '99 season – which, by any measure, was a highly successful one – as the proper time to inform his longtime defensive lieutenant that he would not be succeeding him as head coach of Penn State, a job for which many had long considered Sandusky to be the heir apparent.
Call me cynical – or just call me sensible – but knowing what we now know about Jerry Sandusky, I have a very difficult time believing that the recently revealed 1998 investigation by university and municipal police into a complaint that he had inappropriate contact with a naked boy in a shower didn't play a role in Sandusky's abrupt retirement.
Interestingly, that '98 inquiry resulted in no criminal charges against Sandusky, much like the alleged 2002 sexual assault incident reported to Paterno by graduate assistant Mike McQueary went nowhere, as well.
However, Paterno tells us this week via a statement that he's "shocked" by the child sex abuse charges levied against Sandusky and that if the allegations are true, "we were all fooled."
But how about you stop playing the rest of us for fools, Joe.
Because, again, call me cynical – or just call me sensible – but I don't think Paterno is telling us the truth about what he knew and did not know regarding Jerry Sandusky's sordid history.
At best, for nine long years, Paterno completely stuck his head in the sand after informing athletic director Tim Curley of the 2002 rape of a child that McQueary told the legendary coach he witnessed in the Paterno's team showers. That incident resulted in the university banning Sandusky from bringing children to athletic department facilities, a decision for which Paterno surely nodded his approval, yet didn't think the authorities should get a head's-up, too.
At worst, Paterno could be the actual driving force behind this entire sordid cover-up, and the one who told Curley and Schultz – neither of whom have ever had the power that JoePa enjoys – that it was in the university's best interest to keep Sandusky's despicable predilections hush-hush. And it could be that Paterno gave McQueary a full-time assistant coaching job in 2004 in return for his inexcusable silence about what he'd seen two years earlier.
Why, you might ask, would a coach do such things?
Well, perhaps it's because Paterno knew that if the deplorable actions of Sandusky, his longtime right-hand man, came to light in either '02 or '98, it would have forced his own retirement. A story like the one that's exploded in State College this week will bring a coach – any coach – down, particularly one who already was in his 70s.
Now, Joe Paterno has no doubt done many good things for many people over the years. But, the man's ego is also the size of the Keystone State. And there's no person in America who's more stubborn. Fact is, no one in any sport should still be coaching when they're 84 years old. But at Penn State, Paterno still is – in name, at least – because his ego won't let him retire, and because he's been far too powerful for anyone else to make him do so.
Considering all that, I think it's entirely possible – if not likely – that egomania and the fear of losing control of an "empire" drove Paterno to help conceal a despicable situation that's been allowed to grow into the worst scandal the sporting world has ever seen.
For decades, Joe Paterno has jealously clung to his unending job, his unfettered power and his untarnished legacy. But he's now losing all of it in a staggering fall from grace – although I suppose in his mind he has those 409 precious wins to soften the landing.
But if my suspicions about Paterno's deeper knowledge of this inconceivable mess are correct, the question that football's senior statesman has to be asking himself today is: Were they worth it?
And that answer's easy. No, Joe, they weren't. Not at all.
Not if this was the price.
Now, stop pretending as if you never knew anything was wrong with your program and finally do the right thing instead: Take a knee, hand over the ball and call it quits.
Today. Not at the end of the season.
Your clock's already run out.
If nothing else, Dave Wischnowsky is an Illinois boy. Raised in Bourbonnais, educated at the University of Illinois and bred on sports in the Land of Lincoln, he now resides on Chicago's North Side, just blocks from Wrigley Field. Formerly a reporter and blogger for the Chicago Tribune, Dave currently writes a syndicated column, The Wisch List, which you can check out via his blog at http://www.wischlist.com. Read more of his CBS Chicago blog entries here.
