Jerry Sandusky Sex Scandal: Did Friendship Cloud Joe Paterno's Morality?

Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno were friends and colleagues who knew each other for more than 30 years.

Of course the relationship that Joe Pa had with his long-time assistant clouded his judgment when dealing with a report from a graduate student who claims he saw the then-retired coordinator sexually assaulting a young child in the Nittany Lions’ locker room.

Paterno was probably overcome with emotion when he heard this report and did not know what to believe.

Drew Magary, columnist for Deadspin, had a great take on the issue and how a "normal" person would react if they were told their friend of 30 years was caught molesting a child.

"

Would you believe it? Would you want to believe it? Probably not the first time you hear it. Would you go to the police? What if the grad assistant was wrong and your friend's life is ruined because of a misunderstanding? You might not even want to explore the matter further, because you can't tolerate the idea of someone you trusted doing such monstrous things.

"

These are all great points and show that there is a human side to this issue that isn’t clear wrong and right.

Personal relationships and feelings toward people can fog judgment and force good men to do the wrong thing.

From the outside looking in, Paterno clearly did the wrong thing by just telling a corrupt athletic director and vice president of the school, washing his hands of it and moving along.

But put yourself in his shoes for a minute.

He did follow the proper chain of command, reported the acts and called them disturbing, not trying to hide the fact that he learned Sandusky was a monster whatsoever from his superiors.

It must have been incredibly tough for him to even do that without knowing first-hand what actually happened.

It is the administrators’ fault that it took almost a decade after that incident was reported to finally see the light.

Joe Paterno is by no means in the right for his actions, but you must understand it is not as black and white as some would make it out to be.