What. A. Mess.

I have no special insights-gained-from-personal-experience … with Joe Paterno or Penn State. I may have been in the same room with the 84-year-old football coach once or twice (the 1995 Rose Bowl would be the best bet), but that’s it. Never been to the Penn State campus, and I can think of only three people I know who went to school there.

What I can contribute to what has been a very, very hot topic … are general impressions formulated by lots of years around big stories.

1. When I first read/heard of this — “former Penn State defensive coordinator accused of sexually molesting several boys, including an incident in the shower of the football locker room” — back on Saturday, November 5, I said, “This is radioactive. This will trash that program.” Just one of those things you find yourself blurting. This was not a carefully thought-out position.

But I believe my first impulse is the correct one. When you have been around long enough to see X number of (apparent) scandals, you get a sense of those that will linger and do major and lasting damage. This very much felt like one of those.

2. Joe Paterno’s legacy — at least nationally — will be severely damaged. Don’t think so? Consider this: What do you know about Woody Hayes?

I tried this on a fairly well-informed sports fan.

Me: “Woody Hayes.” What comes to mind?

Fan: The coach who punched a guy.

That incident, when Hayes slugged a Clemson linebacker who had just made an interception in the 1978 Gator Bowl, ended Woody’s career and is all the fan could remember about him. “How many national championships did Woody win? How many Big Ten titles?” No idea. But “punched a guy” … lingers.

Even if Jerry Sandusky is exonerated, this will follow Paterno around forever. Fairly or otherwise.

3. Speaking of Sandusky, the U.S. as a nation of “innocent until proven guilty” has never really been embraced by the media. And Sandusky seems to have been already convicted even more than the usual guilty-by-media guy.  The “if he is found guilty” line wedged into conversation on TV and in print seems even less sincere than usual.

4. Entrenched authority poses particular risks, and apparently inevitable ones. A guy in the same management position for 45 years (as is the case with Joe Paterno) … that’s an invitation to trouble. It’s human nature.

Anyone (women included) running things for that long has forgotten what it’s like not being in charge. Seemingly eternal authority can’t help but lead to a damaged moral compass. How else do we describe the Paterno explanation of things? A graduate assistant sees something alarming in the shower; tells Paterno; Paterno tells the athletic director and, apparently, never asks about it ever again.

I suggest looking at the long-time autocrats who were toppled in the Arab world this year. They could not conceive of a situation they could not control. I’m not saying “Joe Paterno = Hosni Mubarak” … but some of the same disconnect and self-deception is involved.

5. Paterno should be done. Now. Right this minute. He should not coach Saturday’s game against Nebraska. That an 84-year-old man should be allowed to decide when he retires is already strange — and more than a little crazy. The Sandusky situation will not be resolved before this season ends, and as long as Paterno is coach the issue will be a festering wound.

“What did he know and when did he know it?” will drag on week after week. Count on it. It will be a weight on the school and the football program, and for the sake of both those entities Paterno should step down immediately, and if he does not, he should be encouraged by the administration.

This is an ugly situation. All of it. In a perfect world we would put everything on hold and take this to trial and see what happens. But this is a fluid situation, changing daily, with football schedules and a bowl game, and the constant scrutiny will be more than the school and the program can bear. The weight will be reduced, more than a little, if Paterno steps aside.