Investigation: Definite Cover Up at Penn State

It's easy to make several accusations against someone based on knee jerk reactions and little bits of information. It's what I do everyday. But this story is different.

After 8 months, the independent investigation led by Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI, at the behest of Penn State Trustees concluded and their findings have been revealed. The investigation concluded that coach Paterno, President Graham Spanier, AD Tim Curley and VP Gary Schultz "failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade." It also concluded that these four men instead chose to conceal facts regarding Jerry Sandusky. Curley and Schultz are currently awaiting trial with charges related to this matter.

This investigation just concludes what we all knew and feared: that Joe Paterno was involved in a cover up. I know that we don't have the luxury of asking Joe his reaction but this is still all pretty damming evidence. Now the important thing right now is just to move forward and learn from this. The university has already taken measures to prevent this sort of thing from happening again and I'm sure that other universities will follow suit.

The one question that I kept hearing the last day or so is whether or not the school should take down Joe Paterno's statue. To me Joe's legacy is no more. He knew about this all the way back to 1998 and he failed to act on the knowledge and even was involved in concealing it. I know he was Penn State and this is something that cannot be brushed under the rug but the statue has to at least come down.

Of course the university will make the final decision but when they discuss this, they have to remember a few things: First, that nothing is more important than the safety of our children... that's pretty much it.