It’s interesting that you used the word “wrong” because PSU fans rallied around Paterno, lambasted the Freeh report, organized protests against NCAA sanctions, organized to elect trustees sympathetic to saint Joe,etc. They did not own it. Most PSU fans denied it and made excuses for it. See a little reminder from our Google Gemini AI memory cells:
“In summary, the polls consistently showed that even immediately after the scandal and his firing, public support for Paterno—particularly among Penn State alumni and a large segment of Pennsylvania residents—remained high or, at the very least, deeply conflicted.”
It’s not that these bad things happened, it’s the reaction to it happening. Your examples are confused. I’ve yet to hear a single Florida fan rally around Hernadez murdering probably three humans. Not one. Many have even been critical of Urban’s gentle handling of Hernandez while at Florida. Comparing Hernandez to PSU is poor logic. Tennessee fans never rallied around Cornbread paying players. There is still as much disdain for him and his actions even now with legal paying of players as there was then. And his crime was paying players, not facilitating horrific child abuse via inaction. Far too many PSU fans did what Joe and the administrators did—ignore and excuse it. They didn’t want to hear the truth. And for that, in my opinion, they have not atoned for their thoughts and actions which were wrong.