Let me start by saying that I love Penn State. I will make no attempt to hide or ignore this fact. However, I would never defend what happened there. In fact, I would say it’s the most reprehensible act imaginable. My conflicting feelings have caused me to try to put the whole thing in some kind of perspective.
For starters here are two articles offering two distinctly different views on the topic. HERE and HERE
This current scandal has left me and everyone else who loves the school sad, confused and overly defensive. They call Penn State Happy Valley and it may sound naïve or childish but it FELT like it was a better place than anywhere else in the world. I used to tell people “My words won’t do it justice, you need to experience it yourself” and then they would and they would tell people the same thing. Penn Staters held their hat on doing things “the right way”. For God’s sake their famous “We are…Penn State” chant ended with a “thank you” and a “you’re welcome”.
Joe Paterno epitomized that quality. He coached what we believed was the right way. His guys attended class, stayed out of trouble and didn’t miss tackles. There were no major NCAA violations during his entire 45 year tenure, something unheard of at any other major football power; then this, this thing. How could the man that everyone trusted allow the most heinous act imaginable to happen with one of HIS assistants during his watch on our campus?
Details of this whole case are sketchy, or at least public knowledge of them is. What we do know is a graduate assistant reportedly viewed Jerry Sandusky performing a sexual act on a young boy. He reported this to Paterno who then reported it to the school’s Athletic Director. It seems the school’s AD sat on this information for an extended period of time which everyone can agree was absolutely the wrong thing to do. Here’s the thing; Paterno did nothing illegal. He heard a rumor of something, reported it to the proper superior and trusted that due process would take its course. He did what many of us would have done in the same scenario. It’s easy for anyone to claim he didn’t do enough but I don’t have enough faith in the human race to trust even half the people I know to do more than Joe Paterno did given the same circumstances and some would even do less.
So that’s it, a Penn State fan exonerating a school legend of any wrong doing? Except it’s not; maybe it’s unfair but we expect more of the man we affectionately call Joe Pa. We held him to a higher standard and he lived up to it for so long that now, when he didn’t, we were equal parts shocked and disappointed. By the letter of the law he did “enough” but in this case it wasn’t. I’d like to think in the same circumstances I would have done more. I’d like to think I would have followed up to see where the police investigation went, or that I would have confronted my long time friend and shook him and screamed for him to tell me the truth, and maybe I would have but I don’t know that for sure. Hopefully my morality will never be tested in that way and I will never know.
In 2011 it seems there are only two ways to dissect sports. You can take the side of public opinion and hide behind safe arguments and due process and continue to prop up sports stars as heroes just like we did in the 60s and 70s. Or you can play the role of the contrarian, rip apart anyone on the first side and demand things like “justice” and call for people’s jobs and tarnish legacies and destroy the idols that other people have built up. Approximately a hundred thousand people seem to write about sports for a living and a few hundred thousand more write about sports for free in the hopes of one day doing it for a living. In this day in age it seems the only way to get noticed is to jump on one side of hot button topic and make the most outlandish argument you can in the hope that it draws national media attention.
That’s how we got here. Tim Tebow is not the second coming of the Messiah any more than he’s the worst quarterback in the history of the NFL. Lebron James is not better than M.J. and he is also not the devil incarnate. Joseph Paterno is not free of blame in this whole mess nor is he solely responsible. The reality is somewhere in between. But, an awful thing happened and blame needs to be placed so that pious sportswriters and journalists can lead the cry for their pound of flesh.
They will get their pound of flesh. The worst kept secret in the world is that Joe Paterno will announce sometime this week that he is stepping down from the position he held for over 30 years. He will not go out with a Rose Bowl win like all his fans hoped but with a disgraced press conference and “justice will be served”, yet in reality nothing will change. Jerry Sandusky will still be a scumbag who deserves to die and those boys will still have to live with the terrible tragedy that struck them. Perhaps the saddest part though, is that America and major college sports will just move on. Sportswriters will find a new “worst thing ever” to write about and someone else’s idol will be torn down and dissected until they are no longer envied. People of my ilk will be sad and they will like sports a little bit less. Maybe we were fools for buying into the myth to begin with.
Thats a hundred thousand people who are bummed out this week
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