Is Paterno's legacy all that matters?

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So Joe Paterno is getting back his title of winningest coast in college football history. Finally, the great national nightmare of Jerry Sandusky, the Freeh Report and the overzealous Mark Emmert can be swept under the rug. Nothing but clean stats, football glory and the return of the "happy" in Happy Valley.

That is all some Penn State fans care about, right?

It sure seems that way. As hundreds rallied to celebrate the deal cut by the NCAA to restore 112 Penn State victories striped from the team (111 of them Paterno's), I kept asking myself, "What are they celebrating?"

Like the night enthusiastic New Yorkers took to the streets to celebrate the killing of Osama bin Laden, there's nothing here to celebrate. The deal is part of a much larger settlement to keep the $60 million fine the NCAA levied on Penn State within Pennsylvania for the prevention of child sexual abuse and the treatment of victims, but all anyone seems to care about is Paterno's legacy.

"Today is a great victory for everyone who has fought for the truth in the Sandusky tragedy," the Paterno family said Friday in a statement. What truth is that? The one where Paterno was aware (and admitted under oath) that an eyewitness saw Sandusky sexually abuse a child on Penn State property (as Paterno told the Washington Post, "He told me what he saw, and I said, what?") and it was never reported to police or child welfare officials?

I haven't talked to many people in and out of the sports world who think the NCAA was correct to punish Penn State with harsh, over-the-top sanctions. Nor do many have a high opinion of the uneven management style of NCAA president Mark Emmert.

In fact, I'm not even opposed to Paterno getting back his wins. After all, he won those games, and the NCAA obviously overstepped its bounds by stripping them away. My only point is not to conflate that with the idea that those wins are all that matter in a case involving the sexual abuse of minors.

Obviously, my opinion of Paterno has changed over time. When he died, I drew an obituary cartoon featuring Paterno sharing space in heaven with legendary Alabama head football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant:

By the time the Freeh Report was released, and we realized that Paterno (along with other Penn State officials), "in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity ... repeatedly concealed critical facts" about Sandusky's sexual abuse, my opinion about Paterno's involvement had changed. I felt I was wrong to glorify him the way I did, so I drew a new mea culpa cartoon featuring Bryant kicking him out of heaven:

Later, I drew cartoons about Paterno's tarnished legacy:

As well as the obligatory "rip the statue" down cartoon:

I also drew a cartoon about the greedy NCAA, only interested in protecting its larger reputation:

So now we're back to where we started. Joe Paterno has 409 career wins, Sue Paterno claims it's a "great day for Penn State," and alums like Anthony Lubrano, a member of Penn State's board of trustees, want his iconic statue returned.

I think Philadelphia attorney Tom Kline, who represented the victims, said it best:

"[W]e must not lose sight - in between the chants of 'restore the wins' and 'restore the statute' pertaining to strong feeling relating to (the late) Joe Paterno, that the remaining issue is the individual accountability of the administrators in charge when Jerry Sandusky was enable to commit his horrible acts on young boys."

Keep in mind who the true victims of this case are. For them, nothing has changed.