I know their have been many many posts about ‘IT’ and that my view may not be anything new, but sometimes I feel better putting my view onto paper and I figured if it helped at least one other person it would be worth the time to share.

Back after IT broke and I had time to sift through the freeh report and other supporting documents I was under the possibly naive idea that once the facts came out; wrongs would be righted and the media and general public would come to this new realization that they were wrong. Sadly, I can no longer can believe that. As we embark upon the last phase of IT (the perjury trials) and I monitor the media and public response I realize that I was wrong.

While I am young and do not have age or experience on my side I cant help but fear the worst when it comes to the Closure of IT. I do not in anyway want to diminish the great work that those have done to try to clear the name of the Pennsylvania State University and Joe Paterno and think they should still fight, but we all know something about human nature and I fear the worst.

The media will go one of two ways no matter what the court decision is. They will make it out to be a non story, or they will claim lack of Justice for the victims. We have seen a few different cases where the public opinion is the first and final say in this type of situation. The media and public opinion does not have any oversight (not saying they should) and that becomes increasingly evident with IT. Once they have stuck the war path there is little or no way of putting it to a stop or changing its direction. I am sure that the outliers of the sports blog will continue to call for the death of PSU and all those involved, including the team and us as fans. But I no longer believe that the general public will have a chance of being swayed unless ESPN goes on and states they were wrong and did not present the facts. So basically there is 0% chance of that happening.

If the court were to hand down a verdict of guilty on the case of perjury, all of the Paterno statements and ill will towards him will again be drug up and shown for everyone to see and rehash. The BoT will continue on with their lives. Whenever someone tries to make change happen they will be ridiculed and called horrible names or Paterno cult followers. The die hard alum and fans will have to stay the course and be ridiculed and continue to defend their university for many years to come. This will not go away quickly, nor will we enjoy any of it. It saddens me deeply that I even needed to come to this conclusion to have any peace with the issue. Faith in the general public and the human race has left me long ago.

Am I giving up? No. I have really just lowered my expectations. Better to under promise and over deliver as they say in my company.