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The coach listens to the report and did as he was required, eventually notifying his superior. Paterno passed the immediate legal test, but not the ethical one. Worse, he would maintain until his death that his involvement ended there. In truth, it only deepened.
Soon after the incident, Curley, Schultz and Spanier decided to go ahead and report Sandusky to the state Department of Child Welfare, then abruptly abandoned the plan. Curley said in an email that his change of heart came about "after giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe."
Paterno could be as persuasive as he wanted whenever he wanted to be. Signs of Paterno's influence at Penn State well beyond the football program bubble up repeatedly in the rest of the report as well as all over the campus, and just as importantly, anytime you ask those who were around him for any length of time. They talk about learning lessons in accountability that were taught by example instead of slogans scribbled on a blackboard.
Remember both those things for as long the debate over his legacy rages, and that a halo, lowered just a foot or so, becomes a noose. Paterno had vices every bit as outsized as his virtues. He was capable of both great sacrifice and great selfishness, careful to nurture each and every individual who helped him build a great institution and protective, to the point of ruthlessness, about preserving it.
If Thursday's report succeeded in making him look a whole lot less admirable, the consolation is that it made him seem a whole lot more human.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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