The Catholic theologian Michael Novak argues that Joe Paterno was a victim of Penn State:

When the hundreds of thousands of Penn State alumni hear the name JoePa, they think of moral leadership, of the kind of person they aspire to be. Of his warmth, his fatherliness, his steadiness, and his granite character. Joe Paterno was for hundreds of thousands of alumni the very model of the moral ideal of Western humanism.

… Despite the fact that JoePa had said he was going to resign after the 2011 season was over, they gave Joe (after nearly 60 years of leadership unparalleled in the annals of any university) over to the national press and the national mob as a scapegoat, to bear the whole heartbreaking scandal on his shoulders, to be burned as a live offering, in expiation of their sins.

Jesus of Nazareth JoePa of Happy Valley died for the sins of the rabble. Got it. So kids got raped by a sexual predator, and it got overlooked by Paterno and others in power because it was more important to preserve the myth of JoePa and Penn State football than it was to take hard stands to protect children from a predator. The tragedy here is not that a good man unintentionally allowed evil to be done. For Novak, the tragedy is that though the man was technically innocent of wrongdoing (“JoePa had met his professional responsibilities”), the Sanhedrin  Penn State board of trustees sacrificed him nonetheless. What did this sacrifice consist of? Firing him instead of letting him dictate the terms of his exit. They sure don’t do crucifixions like they used to.