In the spring of 2002, two Penn State football players, R.J. Luke and T.C. Cosby, were tried on charges of aggravated assault in connection with their role in a fraternity fight the previous summer.
One of their teammates, Michael Haynes, testified against them.
Not an easy thing to do. Haynesthen a defensive end, now a high school teacher and coach in Crowley, Tex.said Thursday that before doing so he consulted defensive line coach Larry Johnson, as well as Mark Sherburne, then the teams head of academic support, and they told him the same thing: Do the right thing. Do whats best for the program.
And thats what Haynes tried to do. Luke and Cosby were eventually acquitted on the criminal charges. But Luke, who subsequently transferred to Western Illinois, was ordered in a 2007 civil hearing to pay 900,000 in damages for injuries police said he inflicted on a student named Jude Sandt.
Sandt, now a teacher in the Allentown area, reportedly tore tendons in both wrists when, according to police, Luke and Cosby pushed him through two panes of glass at his fraternity houseand the injuries were so severe that Sandt, a gifted musician, was unable to regain full use of his hands. The incident occurred, police said, after the two players attempted to gain entry to a party at the fraternity and refused to sign in.
Spin things forward to the present day, to the Jerry Sandusky mess. To the much-discussed 2002 incident in the shower room of the football facility, when according to the grand jury presentment, Sandusky raped a young boy and no one in the chain of command, it has been alleged, did the right thing. Not current assistant coach Mike McQueary, who was then a graduate assistant and witnessed the incident. Not athletic director Tim Curley. Not senior vice president of finance Gary Schultz.
And not Joe Paterno, the iconic head coach.
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I just dont see how what transpired in all these incidents is whats best for the program, Haynes said.
Haynes was one of four former Penn State players contacted by CSNPhilly.com. Three of them said they agreed with the Board of Trustees decision, reached late Wednesday night, to fire Paterno. A fourth, Marco Rivera, said he thought Paterno should have been allowed to coach the rest of the season before retiringas he hoped to do, per his announcement earlier Wednesday, beginning with Saturdays home test against Nebraska.
You have to look at what is best for the university as a whole, said Haynes, who played in the NFL for three years. By firing people that you fire immediately, I think it shows the country that this scandal is completely unacceptable and holds everybody to a higher moral standard. I think the university in the long run will realize that this was the best decision.
Haynes, who has taken classes in organizational development, can also see the legal ramifications of the boards decision.
In a case like this, he said, You start to protect the organization as a whole, and in order to do that youve got to fire the people that are potentially going to be sued.
That includes Paterno and university president Graham Spanier, who was also dismissed Wednesday night. And Haynes believes its inevitable that McQueary will also be removed from his post.
Its just a matter of when, Haynes said.
Zack Mills, a quarterback from 2000-04, also believes the board acted properly.
Given the situation and circumstances, he said via text message, I feel that they had no choice.
Keith Dorney, an offensive tackle at Penn State from 1975-78 and later for nine years with the Detroit Lions, believes there was some level of error on Paternos part, though hes not sure how much. He is nonetheless of the opinion that his former coach should have been relieved of his duties.
I know he wanted to coach the rest of the year, said Dorney, who now lives in California and works as a financial planner (among other things). I think its best that he doesnt. I think its best that hes not on the field Saturday.
Dorney, chosen for the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005, also wrote an autobiography in 2003 entitled Black and Honolulu Blue: In the Trenches of the NFL. He called the current situation at his alma mater the most baffling, most confusing event that has occurred in my life.
I dont know how to make heads or tails of it, he said. With someone of Joe Paternos moral standards, how could this occur?
Dorney also believes things could get a lot worse at the school before they get better.
It wouldnt be a bad idea to flush the organization as it stands, he said. Its a chance to move forward at this point. Is that fair? Certainly not. But because of the gravity of the crimes and the harm done to young boys, this is a serious, serious, serious situation. And serious action is called for.
Rivera played guard at Penn State, and was one of the stars of the 1994 juggernaut, the last of five teams to go undefeated under Paterno. He later spent 11 years in the NFL, nine of those with the Green Bay Packers.
He said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from his home in Dallasafter Paterno announced his retirement, but before he had been firedthat it appeared his former coach had not responded properly to word of Sanduskys alleged assault in 2002, as Paterno admitted in his retirement statement.
Rivera followed up via text message Thursday, saying, When you compare the seriousness of (the) events that occurred at Penn State and the lack of justice that was done for the victims, I cannot blame the BOT (i.e., the Board of Trustees) for firing our beloved coach.
I do believe that the BOT made an already bad PR event even worse with the firing of Joe. Joe did state that he was retiring at the end of the year. I do believe that the BOT should have given the man that gave his life to Penn State the dignity to finish the season.
There was a movement afoot among former players to show up in force Saturday as a show of support for Paterno, and there is an expectation that they will still do so. Mills had already planned to attend the game, purely by coincidence, but Rivera will not be there. He will instead be in Green Bay, where at halftime of the Monday night game between the Packers and Vikings he will be honored for his recent induction into Packers' Hall of Fame.
But his thoughts will be with his former coach.
I totally agree with the majority that I wish Coach Paterno had done more, Rivera said Wednesday. I wish that he would have forced the issue. I was a little disappointed in our coach that he didnt. In the same mind, Im a Joe Paterno guy.
For (62) years that man has given Penn State his life. For us as alumni and football players, this is when he needs us the most. He needs the support. I truly believe we cannot turn our backs on Joe Paterno. Fine, he should have done more. He screwed up. Hes admitted it. But the things that he taught me and the type of man that I became because of Joe Paterno, because I went through the Penn State program, I cannot turn my back on Joe Paterno and let him walk the plank by himself.
Gordie Jones has covered Penn State since 2009 for Fight on State, a State College-based magazineweb site and did so from 1984-2003 for the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal.