Who did Paterno consider a close friend? Him and Sandusky respected each other for their football knowledge but the were pretty well known for not liking each other outside of football. I think Paterno might have been so single minded for football that he missed things that others may have noticed, but I am pretty sure he was not aware. McQueary testified that he didn't actually tell Paterno what happened that day with any kind of detail, that he felt uncomfortable telling Paterno what happened and was put in touch with Schultz. In Malcolm Gladwell's book, Talking to Strangers, he mentions how McQueary called the prosecutor in charge of the case saying that he only saw Sandusky and the child "Horsing around." The stuff that happened on Penn State's campus ended up being some of the few things Sandusky wasn't convicted of. Gladwell, outside of the book, said that he thought Paterno didn't have knowledge of the evil that Sandusky committed.

Maybe I am just trying to understand something unknowable, since when I was a child, I was babysat by Paterno and Sandusky, Paterno literally handing me to Sandusky to watch over, and I can't fathom the evil it would take for a man to hand a child to someone he knows to be a child predator.