Sunbury resident George Marks was stunned by how the sex scandal involving Penn State University has snowballed.
"I certainly didn't believe that it would go as far as it did," said Marks, a 1968 graduate of Shikellamy High School.
"I feel the media coverage has gone overboard with it. My true feelings are that Joe should have gone a little more further than what he did, but I don't think the trustees should have fired him. They should have allowed him to finish out the year," Marks said of legendary football coach Joe Paterno, who, along with university President Graham Spanier, was dismissed last month.
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PHILIP A. HOLMES/Sun-Gazette
Sunbury resident George Marks said he was stunned by how the sex scandal involving Penn State University has snowballed.
An avid Penn State football fan for nearly 40 years, Marks did express disappointment that Paterno, upon being told of an alleged sexual act by assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on a boy, did not follow-up after forwarding information of the allegation to the school's athletic director.
"He should have followed up on it. There was no follow through," said Marks, a cooker operator for Furmano's Foods in Northumberland.
The media is on a feeding frenzy, Marks said.
"I think the media really blew this out of proportion," he added.
Because of the national influence of a school's football program, coaches often are very powerful, he said.
Media coverage of any scandal can often take on a life of its own, Marks said.
"These coaches get a little too powerful. They are the head man. There is a lot of power there for a coach. When something goes wrong, 'boom,' the media jumps in and blows it up, and away it goes," he added.
"I think this (scandal) will be his (Paterno's) legacy. I don't think they (the media and investigators) are going to cool down on it. I think they are going to hammer Joe pretty hard for not following through. The poor guy is going to suffer the rest of his life for it.
"It's sad. He has donated millions of dollars to the university and everyone looked up to him," Mark said.
