Right now the entire country and not just sports fan are caught up in the scandal at Penn State. If you have heard a former defensive coordinator is accused of sexually assaulting young boys and a couple university officials are accused of covering it up. The problem is head coach Joe Paterno had nothing to do with this and for some reason he is getting pressure to step down.

The short version of his involvement is a graduate assistant came to Paterno and said he saw some inappropriate activity between then former D coordinator Jerry Sandusky and a young boy. Paterno did report what he heard to team officials but in the eyes of some he didn’t do enough and that’s why he should step away. I have a few issues with this, one is no one is seeking any legal action against Paterno so in the eyes of the law he didn’t do anything wrong and the grand jury found him free of any wrong doing. Two Sandusky didn’t work for PSU at the time so Paterno couldn’t have fired him and he didn’t have any authority to ban him for the University. Most people’s issue with Joe PA is he didn’t do enough but even if he did go straight to the police he wouldn’t be able to testify in court because it would be considered hearsay since he didn’t actually witness anything.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not defending Jerry Sandusky or the actions of Penn State but I am defending Joe Paterno. This coach has been doing it for over 60 years and has never had even a hint of controversy surrounding him until now, a really hard thing to do especially in an era that we get stories of all the time of illegal activities surrounding colleges and athletes in college sports. He has donated millions to the university and various charities and really loves the students. Now can it come out that Joe knew more than he is letting on, sure but if anybody deserves the benefit of the doubt its Joe Paterno. Lets not call for his head especially if it's true that he had no idea about a cover up. I’m not the only one who thinks so, thousands of students held vigil outside the Paterno house last night in support of the long time coach. It would just be shame if this man’s legacy is tarnished because of the actions of others. Even more troubling is if Joe Pa is taking heat because it’s a chance for the media to attach a famous name to a scandal in an effort to make it a more interesting story. Again a disclaimer I do think this is a horrible tragedy but you have to ask yourself if this was a Joe Noname how much coverage would this story get nationally? A day or two nationally, but make a connection  to someone famous and we will hear about it every day for weeks or months. The media is focusing on the wrong person because its a bigger name, go after Sandusky and the Universiy officals and leave Joe Alone.