This isn’t about Joe Paterno’s 409 career victories. This isn’t about Joe Paterno passing Amos Alonzo Stagg for most games coached in college football. This isn’t about anything that happens on the field at Beaver Stadium in State College, PA.

This is about the failings of human beings, across a number of fronts.

And it is about legacies.

I don’t need to rehash the story at Penn State. And I only feel it necessary to comment because of the anger it stirs in me.Anger that stretches beyond the actions of Jerry Sandusky. What Sandusky did, over the span of at least a decade, is enough for me to advocate for the death penalty. Thankfully, I know that his prison term, when it comes, will not last very long. He will be handled in an appropriate manner by his fellow convicts. The American justice system will have done its part.

This is about Joe Paterno, the human being. This is about his defenders. This is about people with misguided priorities.

Joe Paterno may very well be a nice man. I know, from watching sports and reading about sports, that he is, in fact, not quite Mr. Rogers. He’s also not Hitler. He’s somewhere in between, like most of us. Joe Paterno may be a giving man. He may be humble. He may write really nice handwritten notes to friends and give thoughtful gifts to people.

The one thing I know about Joe Paterno is that one day, in 2002, he exhibited horrendous judgement. And for that, he deserves to be removed of his title of Head Coach of Football at Pennsylvania State University. Given the information by Graduate Assistant and former QB Mike McQueary that former coach Jerry Sandusky had raped a young boy in the showers of the athletic facility, Paterno did not go to police. Given the opportunity to prevent further horrific exploitation of children, Paterno didn’t go to police. No one did. They allowed a friend, colleague, and alum to carry on. State it any way you would like. But if Paterno (or McQueary, or school officials) had gone to the authorities, dozens of victims may have been spared. Instead, Jerry Sandusky was asked to not bring any children onto the campus. Heaven forbid he rape children on campus when he could do it anywhere else. Out of sight….

I’m beyond disgusted by the failings of Joe Paterno. I don’t know why Paterno didn’t go to the police. He says that he wasn’t told of the “graphic nature” of the incident. He testified that McQueary told him (Paterno) that he saw Sandusky fondling the boy. Was that not enough for Paterno? Would he rather have heard the graphic details?

Today, the winningest coach in college football history announced his retirement, effective at the end of the season. The end of the season cannot come soon enough. No parent should have to send their 18 year old son into the care of a man and an organization who turned away from such actions. We spend a lot of time talking about scandal in college football. Usually a booster giving money to an impoverished kid in exchange for his national letter of intent. And we act like the world is ending. Like lives are truly destroyed by this.

Lives were destroyed by Jerry Sandusky. To the defenders of Joe Paterno, many of them his former players, I ask them to take a moment to examine the scope of this situation. This is not a rogue booster slipping an envelope to an 18 year old kid, his father, or a middleman. This is the guy down the hall. The alum. The former coach. This is a guy with an office in the facility. A guy who was inexplicably on campus as recently as last week. 9 years after Mike McQueary (now the team’s WR coach) walked in on him in a shower with a boy. It’s disgusting. It’s appalling. It’s embarrassing.

I’ve heard a lot in the last few days about Joe Paterno’s spirit. I’ve heard him called “a fighter.” I wonder what exactly he is fighting. He made an egregious mistake. Not a football mistake. A human mistake. And he deserves to be punished for it, legacy be damned. Joe Paterno would not be coaching my team this Saturday against Nebraska. And he would not be coaching any subsequent games.

People say that he doesn’t deserve that kind of ending. And in a sense, that’s true. Football coach Joe Paterno deserves a hero’s sendoff. Banquets and bouquets from folks across the Big 10. Football coach Joe Paterno deserves his name on Beaver Stadium. Football coach Joe Paterno deserves one last celebratory game in State College.

Human Joe Paterno deserves none of that.