Has There Ever Been A Bigger Fall from Grace than the Hit that Joe Paterno's Legacy Has Taken in Recent Months?

Let me first start off by saying that I am not a Penn State football fan. In fact, I'm a Pitt Panthers fan, and in-terms of hated rivals, it just doesn't get any bigger than the Nittany Lions.

For years, I would listen to their fans self-righteously gloat about the success of their football program, and how it dwarfed that of the Panthers' program. And, it was hard to argue.

The main reason why, obviously, was because of the legacy and tradition that Joe Paterno built during his 46 years as Head Coach in Happy Valley.

Truth is, I never liked Paterno, but then again, why would I? He was the coach of the college football team that my favorite college football team had to compete with on an annual basis. Every year, the biggest game for a Pitt fan was the one against Penn State. Regardless of how each team's season went up to that point, the reward for the winner was bragging rights for that team's fan base for an entire year. More often than not, the Nittany Lions' fans were the ones gloating.

Unfortunately, Paterno was maybe the key figure that deprived me of that annual treasure of a game by helping to put a stop to it. In the early 80's, Paterno was one of the proponents of an All-Eastern sports conference. I'm not sure of the particulars, but Pitt, instead, went to the Big East, and Paterno never let it go. And because of that, what once was one of the greatest feuds in college football slowly faded away and was replaced with message board feuds with the only ammo being "48-14" for Penn State fans and "12-0" for Pitt fans.

But having said all that, me saying I hated Paterno means absolutely nothing. It would be like a Browns fan saying he hated Chuck Noll.

The facts are the facts, and what JoePa accomplished during his time in State College, Pa. speaks for itself--the 409 wins, the two national titles, the graduation rate, the money he helped raise through charity, the Blue and White world that he created in the center of the state.

But that Blue and White society, and the closed-off attitude that it fostered, is probably the main reason for Paterno's swift and shocking coaching demise.

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" is a saying that has become common thanks to some fancy marketing. And today, it's often altered and used to describe things like the culture that eventually took hold at Happy Valley. What happened in Happy Valley was Happy Valley's business. What JoePa said was the law. If something happened that involved the football program, Paterno would handle it. Why was Paterno given that much power? He had $60 million worth of ammo at his disposal. That was the annual revenue that the football program generated. And that's not even counting the millions of dollars in donations that were sent in each season from alumni and fans.

Money is a very powerful weapon. Joe's program generated a lot of it, so Joe got to call the shots. It didn't matter who the University President was or who the Athletic Director was, Paterno was the most powerful and influential person at Penn State.

Money changes people, as does success and power. You see it all the time in every walk of life. This is an educated guess, but I think it's pretty safe to say that who Joe Paterno was in his 50's, 60's, and 70's probably wasn't the same person that he was in his 30's and 40's.

But that's OK because he mostly did it the right way. Oh, I'm not naive enough to think that Paterno didn't looked the other way a time or two when it came to recruiting violations or passing players through classes just so they could be eligible for a game, but for the most part, his program was pretty clean and his players were upstanding members of society.

And that's why the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal is both bizarre and shocking.

Sandusky, a former assistant coach under Paterno and one of the all-time great division I defensive coordinators, was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse; abuse that was mostly committed in Penn State football facilities that Sandusky still had access to after retirement, and after an incident in '98, where he was suspected of inappropriate acts in a shower with a young boy. If the information in the Freeh report is correct, another shower room incident that occurred in 2001 was covered up by Paterno and other high-ranking Penn State officials and the abuse then continued for years afterwards.

If the information uncovered in the Freeh Report is accurate, one has to wonder why? Why cover up sexual abuse? It has been said that they covered up the scandal to protect the football program, and that's no doubt true. But why? If Paterno had gone to the police and turned Sandusky in following the 2001 incident that he was more than likely made aware of, would it have hurt the football program that much? The '98 incident was investigated by university police, but no charges were filed against Sandusky. Even if Paterno had known about the '98 investigation--which I have no doubt that he did--he could have just said, "Hey, there weren't any charges filed against Jerry the first time. I couldn't just keep such a respected member of our community from coming onto campus if the police said he didn't do anything wrong."

Even if Sandusky's actions went on for decades without anyone's knowledge up to '98, do you really think it would have damaged the program? Unfortunately, there are monsters that commit these heinous acts right under our noses each and every day. If they would have gone to authorities with the information they had about the '01 allegation, Sandusky would have been arrested and convicted of his crimes, and more victims would have been spared from the monster. Things wouldn't have been nearly as damaging to Paterno or Penn State. Paterno may have even found a way to honor the victims and raise money for prevention of child molestation. As I said, nobody had more influence in Happy Valley than Joe Paterno.

But to cover it up was just inexcusable, and that leads to more questions. It's only speculation on my part, but perhaps Sandusky immediately started to engage in his sick behavior after he founded The Second Mile foundation back in 1977, and this behavior became known around campus and was just allowed to continue for years without any intervention.

I really don't know the answer, but alleged victims of Sandusky's from the 70's and 80's are starting to come forward, and more might be known in the coming weeks and months.

Because of the crimes of Sandusky, and the alleged attempts to cover them up, Paterno was fired last November. Two months later, he died at age 85 after a short battle with lung cancer.

This past Sunday, Paterno's statue was taken from its campus site, and on Monday the NCAA came down hard on the football program.

The university was fined $60 million, and the football program was stripped of 10 annual scholarships and banned from bowl games for four seasons.

As for Paterno, he is no longer officially the winningest Head Coach in college football after the program was forced to vacate all victories from 1998-2011.

It's ironic how far Paterno's legacy and the football program have fallen in such a short time. It took Paterno 46 years to build State College into one of the meccas of college football. But it only took a few short months for it to come crashing down to the ground.

As for the Penn State fans. I kind of feel sorry for them. Interstate collegiate rivalries are unique, and fans often pick different allegiances even when living in the same house. I remember growing up and cheering for Pitt while family members cheered on the Nittany Lions. There are probably as many Penn State fans in Allegheny county as there are Pitt fans.

If you bleed Blue and White, you're always going to. And that won't change even after the devastating hit the football program just took.

Being a Pitt fan, I don't get any enjoyment from this, and I certainly don't feel like gloating. However, that won't stop others from doing so, and I get the feeling that "48-14" and "12-0" will seem mild compared to what we see between rival fans on message boards in the coming years.

My, how the mighty have fallen.