Reply #10: As a caveat...

[happyiowan]

I will say that I condone nothing that occured. It's a shame I even have to say this, but there is an aura of public hysteria that starts to make such statements necessary.

McQueary was a teenager when he began his life with Penn State. Paterno and Sandusky were not only his icons, but major authority figures. So, at 28, as a graduate assistant, he witnessed something that had to be both surreal and flat terrifying. I'm certain it took a great amount of courage to report it to Paterno in the first place. Yes, going to the police would have been the best thing with seven years of hindsight. However, perhaps at the time, going to Paterno was the best act of bravery he could summon.

Now you can say you would have beaten Sandusky on the spot or called the police or stepped into a phone booth and donned your cape and tights, but me, I would have pissed myself. It would have been horrifying.

Perhaps McQueary didn't do enough, but for the love of the sweet baby jesus, the powerful men, the President of the University, the Vice President of Finance (the true power broker), the coach himself, they all did absolutely nothing. And yet, we choose to sit here on flipping message boards and blame the damned messenger.