STATE COLLEGE, Pa.He owns a nondescript rancher in an otherwise unremarkable residential neighborhood. The house sits at the end of McKee Street, next to Sunset Park. Now and then, bicycles ride past and joggers head toward a trail that winds through the woods. Leaves are scattered across the front lawn and on the garage roof and clog the white rain gutters. If not for the bank of cameras and approximately 100 reporters stationed across the street, it could be anyones home.
It was quiet at Joe Paternos house on Wednesday afternoona much different scene than the one that unfolded the evening before when the media and hundreds of students jockeyed for position outside his front door. There is video of what transpired that night, of Paterno coming out and talking briefly, of the embattled football coach and the face of a university leading supporters in an ill-timed and inappropriate We arePenn State chant. It looked like a football rally or frat party. It was ugly and sad, and it should have made most right-thinking people cringe. It made the 84-year-old Paterno grin.
The kids who were victims or whatever they was, we should say a prayer for them, Paterno practically whispered while the crowd pushed in around him. Tough life when people do certain things to you. But anyway, youve been great. Everythings great, all right?
But anyway, no, everything is not great.
Hours laterafter the callous revelers had dispersed and echoes of their pitiless, joyful songs had fadedthe scandal remained. Paterno woke up on Wednesday and, after consulting with his family, issued a statement announcing his retirement effective at the end of this season.
This is a tragedy, Paterno said in the statement. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.
The sentiment was far too little, and it came far too late. Paternos silence until this pointas much as the wins and the championships and all the wonderful things unrelated to football that he did for the university and countless peoplewill be part of his legacy now.
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I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case, Paterno said in the statement. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief. I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can.
He has not made this easy. Not at all. Paterno wants to coach through the end of the season. He shouldnt. The university should step in and dismiss him. Now. Immediately. Certainly before Saturdays home game against Nebraska, when his mere presence at Beaver Stadium will make an already rotten situation deteriorate further.
Paterno relinquished the right to retire on his terms when, as he admitted in the statement, he failed to do more. He mentioned the benefit of hindsight, but hes had that for about a decade nowlong before the scandal broke, long before former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky surrendered himself to the authorities and was charged with 40 counts of sexual abuse against eight boys over 15 years.
Sanduskys crimes are alleged. The grand jury report, and the testimony of Paterno and others, is a matter of public record. If you believe Paterno has been unfairly attacked through all this, read the grand jury testimony. Read what was reportedly done to at-risk children, on Penn State grounds, in Penn State facilities, by a long-time member of Paternos staff. Read how Paterno thought the alleged 2002 shower incident between Sandusky and a boy was just horseplay. Read about Mike McQuearya graduate assistant in 2002 and now the schools wide receivers coachexplaining in graphic detail what he witnessed in the shower between Sandusky and the boy. Read how McQueary testified that he told Paterno what transpired, and how McQuearys account of the incident amounted to much more than anyones rational definition of horseplay.
Shortly after news of the scandal broke, Paterno issued a different statement. In those first prepared remarks to the media and the world, Paterno said that the nature and amount of charges made are very shocking but added that he did what I was supposed to with the one charge brought to my attention.
Now, only days later, Paterno says he wishes he had done more. He should have. Sadly, for the victims, its too late.
Paterno is Penn State, and Penn State is Paterno. Its been that way forever, but its time for that relationship to change. Not at the end of the season. Now. Right now.
E-mail John Gonzalez at jgonzalez@comcastsportsnet.com