"Although we understand the task of healing is just beginning, today's verdict is an important milestone. The community owes a measure of gratitude to the jurors for their diligent service. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the victims and their families."

 -- Statement from Paterno family following conviction of Jerry Sandusky

Too late. Ten years too late. 

Look, we all know the true villain in the worst story in the history of sports -- and there is nothing even close to a runner-up -- is the disgusting, totally free of remorse, child-raping animal who took his final breath of freedom on Friday night. Jerry Sandusky was found guilty of 45 counts of sexual abuse of a child, and now faces a maximum of 442 years in prison. In a perfect world he would be awaiting execution, though I understand those who believe killing this monster would be giving him the easy road out. A lifetime in a maximum-security prison as the most infamous child rapist on the planet is a good start for Jerry Sandusky, who has completely ruined the lives of these families. I wish him nothing but 40 years of beatings and abuse and hope he dies in as much pain as humanly possible.

So we all get that without Jerry Sandusky raping these children there is no story. Obviously it begins and ends with that. But never forget this: Joe Paterno could have stopped all of this 10 years ago and basically looked the other way.

Paterno died in January, and for some reason it was treated as the death of a hero. It was as if the stuff we learned about Paterno last November -- specifically, that he was told by Mike McQueary about a 10-year-boy being raped by Sandusky in the showers in the Penn State locker room and didn't confront Sandusky about it, didn't go to the police, didn't do any digging into Sandusky's past, didn't try and find out who this 10-year boy is, didn't stand on the biggest hill in Pennsylvania and scream about this -- never happened. He was Saint Joe all over again, with puff pieces on ESPN and crying students outside Beaver Stadium and the President of the United States calling the Paterno family to express sorrow for his passing.

Turns out dying was a good career move for Paterno, who we've learned was obsessed with protecting his image as The Last Good Man in college sports, the one purist in a world gone wrong, the CEO of the only clean program in America. But the reality is this: Paterno died a fraud, a coward, an enabler to Sandusky. That's his lasting legacy, and it was forever cemented on Friday night in a courtroom in Bellefonte, Pennsylanvania.

Paterno reported what McQueary told him on March 2, 2002 to athletic director Tim Curley -- there was "fondling" of a child by Sandusky. And that was it, Paterno was done. He felt his hands were clean, he had covered his ass legally and it was time to worry about Iowa and Michigan and making sure he got to 409 wins. 

If Joe Paterno was the man Joe Paterno wanted us to believe he was, tried to sell us for years and years that he was, he would have gone to to the authorities five minutes after meeting with McQueary. He would have held a press conference calling for a full investigation into Sandusky and would have volunteered to be the first person interviewed by the police. And he would have pledged full cooperation by all those at Penn State and would have promised that Jerry Sandusky would never be allowed on the campus ever again. It would have been over, and it would have been Joe Paterno's finest hour. And Sandusky would be in his 11th year of a lifetime in prison.

Instead, Paterno closed his eyes and wanted it all to go away. Too embarrassing, I suppose, too clearly a black mark on what was an unblemished record. Protecting his reputation came at all costs. And so Paterno kept on coaching and Sandusky kept on raping. Victim 9 in the Sandusky case testified that he was anally and orally raped by Sandusky in the basement of Sandusky's house multiple times (while Dottie Sandusky was watching TV or watering the plants, evidently) and raped in a State College hotel and other locations between July 2005 and December 2008. That never happens if Paterno cared enough to stop the "Tickle Monster."

Jerry Sandusky is going to prison for the rest of his life and no one has ever deserved it more. But Joe Paterno went to his grave as a guilty man. He didn't have the courage to speak up when his voice was needed most. And no statement from the Paterno family is going to change that.