It figures that it would take a Rutgers man in Louis Freeh to clean up the vile, festering filth at Penn State once and for all. Judge Freeh found documents that even Pennsylvania's Attorney General could not, ensuring both that Jerry Sandusky would face justice for his alleged crimes, and that the crumbling myth of Joe Paterno could finally be shattered, irrevocably and permanently, once and for all. The "grand experiment" is reduced to ashes, and now the central question remains why Penn State has been in violation of federal law for decades. This is only the beginning of their reckoning, as Freeh's report is so powerful, so relentless in its tireless determination, that the veil of denial is finally starting to lift. We know that Joe Paterno knew of Jerry Sandusky being investigated in 1998, subsequently lying to a grand jury last year about that fact; never mind allowing Sandusky free reign to destroy childrens' lives on campus and with the full athletic department's whole-hearted endorsement for the following decade.
As far as the legacy of the monster named Joe Paterno goes, step one should require melting down his tarnished statue in Happy Valley, and in its stead building a towering monument to Freeh in downtown New Brunswick, symbolizing his triumphant, tireless, unceasing crusade for truth. As much as Joe Paterno now ranks among the cruelest villains of history, Freeh has entered the pantheon as one of our country's greatest heroes. This is a man that we already knew had a fictitious legacy built on a tower of lies, and Freeh's central success has been in awakening the world to the full scope of Paterno's myriad sins. Careful observers know about how Penn State football became a nest of criminals over the past decade, and how Paterno strong-armed any attempt to bring his charges to justice or even accountability. It was exactly, perfectly in congruence with how he enabled the pedophile criminal Jerry Sandusky in abusing children for over the past decade. You have to give Paterno that at least: he was consistent in abusing his power and cult of personality to quash any conceivable threats, real or conceived.
The question now becomes how to both ensure that nothing of the sort ever happens again, and adequately punish Penn State for its uncountable number of crimes. A higher authority must permanently remove Penn State's capacity to perpetuate its all-pervasive cult of personality surrounding Joe Paterno. That means ending their football program, and paying hundreds of millions in settlement fees out of their endowment to Jerry Sandusky's victims. This can't be mere fat trimming; only amputating limbs will suffice. We need a collective determination that Penn State's culture is sick, evil, and wrong, and should not be emulated in any respect. Only through the singular judgment that something despicable occurred, and that Joe Paterno was both complicit and enabling in Jerry Sandusky's crimes, can the all-encompassing veil of denial finally start to crack. Only through ending Penn State football, and reducing the university into a shell of its former colossus, can the Anthony Lubranos of the world be shocked into accepting reality.