Nike founder Phil Knight, who became wealthy off of child laborers in third world countries, thinks Joe Paterno did a swell job of handling the reported sexual abuse that Jerry Sandusky perpetrated at Penn State.
Speaking at Joe Paterno's public memorial service, Knight said of Paterno's response to Mike McQueary's report: "He gave full disclosure to his superiors up the chain to head of campus police and President of the school. The matter was in the hands of a world class University and by a President with an outstanding national reputation. Whatever details of the investigation are, this much is clear to me. There was a villain in this tragedy and it lies in that investigation, not in Joe Paterno's response to it."
At this point Knight was given a 50-second standing ovation. Then he continued:
"And yet, for his actions, he was excoriated by the media and fired over the telephone by his University, yet in all his subsequent appearances in the press, on TV, interacting with students, conversing with hospital personnel, giving interviews, he never complained, he never lashed out. Every word, every bit of body language conveyed a single message. We are Penn State."
Phil Knight probably feels qualified to speak about cases involving the willful ignorance of child abuse, and who the villains are, because in 1996, after Knight had spent a couple decades as Chairman of Nike, Life Magazine revealed Nike's practice of using child laborers in third world countries to produce Nike sneakers and products. In 2001, Nike still said that it cannot guarantee that its contractors don't use child labor in the production of Nike products.
Does this mean that Joe Paterno is a villain? No. It just means that Phil Knight's righteous indignation is better channelled towards other topics.
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[Here’s Video And A Transcript Of Nike Chairman Phil Knight’s Vehement Defense Of Joe Paterno]
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