Joe Paterno’s side of the story
At Penn State, Paterno was known to exert “iron control” over anything concerning his football program, said Andrew Cohen at TheAtlantic.com.
Andrew Cohen
TheAtlantic.com
Sorry, Joe, no one outside Penn State is buying it, said Andrew Cohen. College football legend Joe Paterno gave his first interview about the sexual-abuse scandal at Penn State last week, portraying himself as a confused, sick old man who simply didn’t know what to do when he was told that a former assistant had molested a child. Paterno says he reported that 2002 allegation about Jerry Sandusky to his athletic director, but didn’t go to the police or to Sandusky’s charity for underprivileged boys because “I didn’t know exactly how to handle it.” Rather than “make a mistake,” Paterno said, he “turned it over to some other people”—which he now regrets.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
None of this passes the smell test. At Penn State, Paterno was known to exert “iron control” over anything concerning his football program. So why did this supposed “moral paragon” choose silence and passivity? Did he let children continue to be abused for years to protect Penn State football—and his own reputation? Paterno may deserve some sympathy, but not absolution. “Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it, whether you are a legend or a loser.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Gandhi arrests: Narendra Modi's 'vendetta' against India's opposition
The Explainer Another episode threatens to spark uproar in the Indian PM's long-running battle against the country's first family
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK
-
How the woke right gained power in the US
Under the radar The term has grown in prominence since Donald Trump returned to the White House
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK
-
Codeword: April 24, 2025
The Week's daily codeword puzzle
By The Week Staff
-
Viewpoint: Michael S. Teitelbaum and Jay M. Winter
feature From The New York Times: “Nearly half of all people now live in countries where women, on average, give birth to fewer than 2.1 babies...
By The Week Staff
-
Snowden’s silence on Putin
feature If Edward Snowden truly is a moral paragon, then he should announce that he can no longer stomach Vladimir Putin’s oppressive behavior.
By The Week Staff
-
The irrelevance of the United Nations
feature Once again, the United Nations has been “rendered impotent by a small group of thugs.”
By The Week Staff
-
Millions of closeted gay men
feature “What percent of American men are gay?”
By The Week Staff
-
The smug confidence of libertarians
feature Why are most libertarians white dudes?
By The Week Staff
-
Seeing racism for what it is
feature Riley Cooper’s case shows just how poorly he and most other Americans understand “what a racist is.”
By The Week Staff
-
Searching for a libertarian paradise
feature Not one of the world’s 193 sovereign states—not even a tiny one—has adopted a full-on libertarian system.
By The Week Staff
-
Viewpoint: Juliette Kayyem
feature From The Boston Globe: “It is now clear that the Tsarnaev brothers had no strategic plan but to kill in a very public fashion....
By The Week Staff