Former Penn State football legend
Roosevelt ?Rosey? Grier on Wednesday said that to retain its high stature, the embattled university must do what is right.
?You can?t keep your reputation intact until you clean up the situation,? said Grier, recipient of the Penn State 1974 Distinguished Alumni Award and the 1991 Alumni Fellow Award.
?You got to check on the young men affected. That?s the first place you?re supposed to go. Next you make sure and check the people you have around that allow this to continue to go on. If they all knew about it, they should?ve all been up in arms. You can only get clean when you come clean.?
Joe
Paterno on Wednesday announced his retirement at the end of the season amid a growing sexual abuse scandal involving former defensive coordinator
Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky has been charged with charged in the sexual assault of eight boys.
The university?s Board of Trustees was expected to meet Wednesday night to call on the resignation of President Graham Spanier, who has served for 16 years.
Neither Paterno nor Spanier have been charged in relation to the case. Two PSU officials were charged with perjury and failure to report abuse allegations.
Grier said the developing story has been a difficult one for him to follow.
?This is my school,? said Grier, who played with the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams. ?I have great love for Joe Paterno and the job he has done there. I would hate to have him leave under this cloud. But even saying that, someone has to take the responsibility, certainly he reported to administrators. It should?ve been a group action. All should?ve worked as a team to make sure things were handled cleanly, clearly and without prejudice.
Grier earned a retrospective place in the National Collegiate Athletic Association 100th anniversary list of 100 most influential student athletes. Grier was named to the NCAA?s List of the 100 Most Influential Student-Athletes and to the New Jersey Sports Hall of Fame.
He garnered global attention in 1968 when he subdued Sirhan Sirhan moments after he assassinated presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.
Grier said the university should have handled the scandal differently from the onset.
According to the grand jury report, university officials learned of the alleged abuse as early as 2002, when then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary saw Sandusky performing a sex act on a young boy in the football locker room showers and reported the incident to Paterno.
Paterno, in turn, told his boss, former athletic director Tim Curley.
Curley and former university Vice President Gary Schultz have been charged with perjury.
?You have to handle this issue right way from the beginning. They should?ve brought it to the police and should?ve exposed it and let them do their work.?
Grier, a member of the board of trustees for the Milken Family Foundation, a research and education organization, predicted Penn State would survive the ongoing scandal.
?It won?t bring down the house,? he said. ?This could happen to anyone. This is an incident that happens all over the place. What you have to do is clean it up. Clean your house before you can try to restore anything. You take out the cancer.?
