In the spring of 2007, six Penn State football players were arrested and charged for their involvement in an off-campus fight. Joe Paterno decided that the team needed a lesson in accountability - that they were their brothers' keepers.
The entire team was assigned the grunt work of cleaning up Beaver Stadium Sunday mornings after the first five home games that season. The pay they would receive for their labor would be donated to Penn State club athletic programs.
At the time, it seemed to be the outside-the-box type of discipline that Paterno was famous for. But terms like "accountability" and "brothers' keepers" don't ring true today, knowing what we know now. Lessons will still be learned at Penn State, but first the punishments must be handed down for those so grossly unaccountable.
Jerry Sandusky has been incarcerated. The prosecution's case was swift and precise, and heavy justice was handed down.
Joe Paterno is dead. The posthumous fall from grace continues, which is the only recourse since he would have never had his day in court.
A trial date has now been set for former AD Tim Curley and former VP Gary Schultz, who face perjury and possible "failure to report" charges. Jury selection begins January 7, 2013. They will have high-powered lawyers, and won't be thrown to the wolves as easily as Sandusky was.
As for President Emeritus Graham Spanier (that's his official title), still no charges have been filed. The Attorney General's office is likely doing its due diligence here, as it did with Sandusky where the Grand Jury collected all the testimony it could and they built an overwhelming case.
The AG would have to verify the findings from The Freeh Report, then likely make Spanier the backstop for everything associated with the coverup. That will take time. In the meantime, housecleaning continues in State College.
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