Former Penn State player Ed Monaghan: Not the Joe Paterno I knew

Ex-lineman struggles to gauge the legacy of the Hall of Fame coach.

Ed Monaghan played football in the late 1980s at Penn State University.

The Joe Paterno he knew and the one described today in an investigative report as concealing allegations of child sexual abuse by longtime assistant Jerry Sandusky just aren’t the same, he said.

“The thing that bugs me the most is if it’s factual and the first time Joe had knowledge of it was 1998, knowing Joe as well as I do, and he would continue to let that man in the facility or on campus, that to me is a question we’ll never know,” said Monaghan, a councilman in Upper Darby Township in Delaware County who was an offensive lineman at Penn State.

“And it’s a question I’d have for Joe if I had the opportunity to ask. Why would you let him on campus if you knew he had an issue on campus? That’s just not the Joe Paterno I knew.”

Monaghan, a father of four, said he was stunned and saddened while watching a news conference by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, hired by Penn State to look into the scandal that has rocked the school.

“I said from the beginning that obviously for the victims in this case, you’re heart bleeds for them,” Monaghan said. “For this to go on as long as it did is heartless.

“Secondly, I’m a huge Joe Paterno fan. The Joe Paterno I knew back in the ’80s isn’t the one coming out now. There was no doubt in my my mind that Joe Paterno was the most powerful man on campus, and if there was anything going on anywhere, Joe would know about it.”

Monaghan said Paterno was a stickler for integrity and discipline. The suggestion that the Hall of Fame coach wouldn’t report Sandusky to authorities just doesn’t add up, Monaghan said.

“Joe knew everything,” Monaghan said. “If you got in trouble off the field, if you were having problems in class, if you weren’t doing things the right way, Joe wasn’t one to turn the other way. Joe was on top of you. He came down hard on you.

“It’s why anyone who played for Joe has a hard time understanding this. It was Joe’s way and that was it. There was no middle ground. You did it the right way. He was a man of principle. I can only talk of the Joe I knew at Penn State.”

Monaghan isn’t buying that Paterno’s advanced age may have been a factor. While Paterno’s sharp wit may have dulled a bit in recent years, the most sensational Sandusky allegations date back nine to 14 years ago when Paterno was in his 60s and early 70s — when he was as feisty as ever, Monaghan said.

The former football letterman, who came to Penn State as a freshman in 1985, said he’s struggling today to put the Paterno legacy in perspective.

“It’s a tough question to answer right now,” Monaghan said. “As far as his legacy, it’s tough to disregard all the good he did for the university. Let’s face it, the university wouldn’t be what it was without Joe Paterno.

“That being said, the acts that were going on up there can’t be accepted and I can’t understand it. The Joe I knew would never let that go on. There was always a consequence for your actions. Something as heinous and awful as this, it’s hard to think Joe wouldn’t have been all over this and jumped in and been ‘That’s it.’

“I’m still stuck like it’s two different people I knew. The Joe I knew doesn’t seem like the same person that let this go on.”