By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… The Penn State scandal has destroyed an icon of American athletics. The winningest (don’t know if that’s a word, but it is now) coach in American college football has fallen. What age and pressure from some booster club members have not been able to do, the scandal has accomplished.

Until now Joe Paterno’s only fault was he grew old. Joe Paterno did not retire, he was fired. We can only hope this is not a rush to judgment.

Joe Paterno was the head coach of the Penn State Nitty Lions for forty-six years. Does anyone know what a Nitty Lion is? He brought in over a billion dollars, yes with a B, into the university. Millions of that was money he directly donated from his salary. Joe began his coaching career sixty-two years ago in 1950. I was ten years old.

In those sixty-two years, more years than any other major football coach, JoePa has led Penn State football to 409 wins, a record setting performance, and 2 national titles. His record in bowl games is 24-11-1. He coached four undefeated teams and five others that lost only one game. Last year alone the football program brought $53 million into the school.

Joe Paterno has personally donated over five million dollars to the University, most of which was for things other than football. He has generated hundreds of millions of dollars from outside sources to build a library and spiritual center on campus. Joe coached 78 first team All-Americans, 350 players who went on to play in the NFL, 33 of whom were first round draft picks. Joe Paterno was Penn State.

In 2009 when his contract was up, there was a move to remove him as the head coach. When the Board of Trustees suggested he should retire, Joe, explained he would let them know when he was ready to retire. He now probably wishes he had taken them up on the offer.

Joe Paterno was a firm believer in the concept of the scholar-athlete. He demanded academic success from his players. Sixteen of his players were named Scholar-Athletes by the National Football foundation. The NCAA reported that 74 percent of his players graduated. Nearly 20 percent more than the national average.

When ask to rate his best teams, he replied, “I won’t know for twenty years; that’s when I’ll know what the players on my current team will have accomplished outside of football. That’s how I assess the success of my teams.”

Born in Brooklyn, and having never lost the accent, the bespectacled old man is out of his realm in the backward hill country of Pennsylvania. Rather than hunt or fish, Joe would rather read the classics. He can recite classic poetry off the top of his head.

While Paterno grew to be a millionaire, he remained as plain as the uniforms he selected for Penn State. The team’s game uniform are so plain that they looked like practice uniforms for most teams. The only thing more boring than the uniforms was the “three yards and a cloud of dust” game plan of the program.

Both the uniforms and game plan reflected the unassuming characteristics of the coach. He lives in a small house within walking distance of the Penn State stadium that has grown from 46,000 seats to well over 100,000 under his watch. Paterno accepted the head-coaching job at Penn State in 1966 with a handshake and a $20,000 salary. In 1973, at a time he was raising five kids on $35,000 a year, he turned down a $1.4 million dollar contract to coach the NFL’s Boston Patriots.

Joe Paterno’s world came crashing down last week over an incident that happened in 2002.

As I read the twenty-three page Grand Jury indictment of Jerry Sandusky, I was sickened by the accusations that have been made against the ex-Penn State defensive coordinator. If you are weak of stomach, I would suggest you refrain from reading the report.

Before the letters come rolling in, let me state that the victims of this incident are the young boys who were abused by Jerry Sandusky. If anyone could have done something to stop these assaults earlier, they should have.

However, if everything in it happened as reported, one must wonder why Coach Paterno is taking the brunt of this. Pennsylvania State police commissioner Frank Noonan reported that Paterno fulfilled his legal requirement when he relayed to university administrators that a graduate assistant had seen Sandusky abusing a young boy in the team’s shower. However, those above Paterno failed to meet the obligations of the law by not informing police of the activity. Sandusky was not on staff at the time of the incident.

In a world where naked people can lawfully walk the streets of San Francisco and same sex marriages are becoming commonplace, it is nice to see that the American public has drawn the line somewhere. The indignation and demand for heads to role is refreshing.

Whatever the case, Joe Paterno has seen his exemplary life fall apart on the actions of a sexual deviant and the inaction of people directly above him in the chain of command at Penn State University. It is the hazard of being the highest profile individual in a scandal.

Should Paterno have pursued the issue more vigorously? Maybe, but surely he could assume that the issue was handled once he fulfilled his obligation.

No matter how you cut it, the incident was botched and Coach Paterno has paid the price. No matter what happens to Sandusky, and one can only hope if the charges in the indictment prove true, they will lock him up and throw away the key, it will not be as harsh as what has happened to JoePa.