Sex Abuse Stadium

I just saw on ESPN's website that 70% of people in a poll said Penn State University should rename the football stadium Joe Paterno Stadium.  Are you kidding me?  

I don't even try to comprehend the public defense of Joe Paterno anymore.  Yeah, he had two national championships.  Yeah, he was the head coach at Penn State for over 40 years.  And yeah, he's the winningest coach in Division 1 football history.  But so what?  He may have "preached toughness, hard work, and clean competition" (according to infamous child molester and ex-assistant coach Jerry Sandusky), but any hope of a positive lasting legacy was tarnished in my eyes the second the sex abuse scandal broke.
The details of the case are well documented, so I won't bother repeating the whole thing.  But Joe Paterno behaved really irresponsibly in a situation that should have been a no-brainer.  Instead of going straight to the police, he just tells the Penn State athletic director and the senior vice president for finance and business.  And doesn't follow up.  I'm sure that made him feel good.  "Oh, I'll just tell these two guys so it's not my problem anymore.  I bet they'll take care of it.  As long as the football team's okay!"  It's very disconcerting that something as horrific as possible child sex abuse in your own team's locker room could just be passed off so easily.  As is the fact that Paterno still allowed Sandusky to have access to the football program until November 6th, 2011, when Penn State officially barred Sandusky from the campus.  Again, Paterno's inaction on this issue should make one seriously question his judgement and character as a person.  Is the sanctity of the football team really that important?

I am truly baffled when people try to defend Joe Paterno.  Besides, it's not as if he was a total saint minus this scandal.  If you still think Paterno was a man of character and integrity, consider this:  starting in 2005, and possibly earlier, Paterno was involved in either covering up or ignoring transgressions committed by Penn State football players.  He lobbied the office of standards and conduct to essentially allow football players more leeway in terms of avoiding or circumventing punishments.  He advocated not informing the public when football players got into trouble, and he lobbied for the idea that offenses committed off-campus shouldn't be able to affect the playing status of a Penn State athlete.  He called for the firing of the then-officer of standards and conduct, Vicky Triponey, with whom he frequently butted heads over the discipline of athletes.  Joe Paterno thought football players should be held to a different set of standards than other Penn State players.

I can't even begin to understand why Penn State would even consider naming their football stadium after Joe Paterno.  He was a man who simply passed along the worst scandal in college sports history and didn't bother to follow up.  He thought football players were above the law.  He didn't believe in following the rules and laws of decent society, not when it put his football team in jeopardy.  He was not an honest man of integrity.  He was not the sort of man that the second-largest stadium in the western hemisphere should be named after.  Penn State might as well rename Beaver Stadium as "Sex Abuse Stadium".  Or perhaps "Football Above Everything" Stadium.  Either way, Penn State would just be perpetuating a tarnished legacy.