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But Penn State is no more guilty than other powerhouse athletic departments and universities. Believe this: These things could have happened anywhere. It's the protective cocoon of big-time athletics.
The longer you reside within that cocoon, the more entrenched you become in the culture. Administrators and coaches often morph from humans who react with humanity into vassals charged with protecting the institutional image. Preserving legacy and mystique are placed ahead of a child's - or a woman's - pain.
When we are finally allowed to ask questions of Paterno and Curley and Penn State president Graham Spanier, we should be less concerned with precisely what they knew and when they knew it. We should be concerned with understanding the answer to only one answer: why?
Why not go to the police immediately? Why endanger additional innocent children?
I think when you wade through the rhetoric, you'll find a very frightening answer, one that mirrors my flawed thinking while pacing, waiting, for that NBC interview.
They couldn't see the humanity standing outside their blue-and-white athletic gates.