Penn State announces plans to honor Joe Paterno’s five consecutive years of not enabling child abuse
STATE COLLEGE, PA — Penn State previously announced it will honor its beloved former football coach Joe Paterno on Saturday during its home game against Temple, and today the University revealed it will, in fact, acknowledge the child abuse scandal that led to the coach’s ouster in 2011.
“So much of the focus from outside the Penn State community has been on Joe supposedly enabling child sexual abuse under his watch for decades,” said university president Eric Barron. “What they never talk about is how Joe hasn’t enabled a single thing for nearly five years. Check the record. He has been flawless. That’s the mark of a man who can adapt and change and improve himself even late in life and beyond.”
The school’s student newspaper, The Daily Collegian, published an editorial denouncing plans to honor Paterno, writing that: “in many ways, he has been as destructive in death as his supporters and family continue to put the focus on football, creating a culture that can discourage victims from coming forward.” But Barron dismissed those words, saying that “today’s students weren’t here when Joe was and simply don’t understand how many awesome football games he won.”
In addition to honoring Paterno’s accomplishments as a football coach and a post-life child advocate, the ceremony will feature testimonials from local State College residents who were not abused by longtime defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
“The national media won’t tell you this, but there are actually more people who did not have their lives destroyed around here than who did,” said Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour. “You don’t have to be a math major to know that doing good for a majority is good work. I have personally met local men who were not abused and, let me tell you, hearing their story is powerful. And it’s all thanks to Joe Paterno.”
The festivities are scheduled to take place during halftime of the game, unless a just god destroys Beaver Stadium and all those inside of it before the end of the second quarter.
