If you've read us before, you know we are not unbiased when it comes to Joe Paterno and Penn State football... My dad grew up in Pennsylvania coal country, and I have more relatives there than you can shake a stick at. There aren't any major colleges in Long Island, so when it came to a favorite college football team, Penn State was it. Joe Paterno is a legend there, and always will be. History may not make him marbleized, like the South has done to Robert E. Lee, but even the best statues have a little tarnish on it...
There is no secret that Paterno wanted to die as PSU coach. Why? Because it was all he knew. There was a lot of irony is Paterno's passing. Just like Bear Bryant, Paterno didn't last long without football. At first, I thought Saturday would have been appropriate day for JoePa to pass away, but Saturday was the day he usually won on.... Sunday was a day of rest. God's day...
I thought at first that I might be the only who thought that Paterno died of a broken heart, but that went away pretty quickly... Matt Millen voiced that thought within an hour of the announcement that he died, and lots of others repeated it as well... JoePa didn't get his wish to leave this world as the Nittany Lions coach, but he got just about everything else..
No, you can't summarize Paterno without addressing the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.. Like most fans, we're torn. Technically, Paterno did his job by passing the information to his superior. In hindsight, it wasn't enough when nothing was done. Maybe it was from a sense of loyalty to his longtime assistant, but JoePa let it slide in the hopes of it going away, and that was the wrong thing to do. Laws are there for everyone, without asterisks... Does it make him liable, or even worthy of his dismissal. No to use, but we don't thrive in the politics of big time athletics....
All in all, Paterno's legend will survive the slings and arrows of his mistakes. Like I said on my Facebook page, he WAS Penn State. We foresee tough times for their football program, but that wasn't always his priority... Joe Paterno ran a college football program like it should: he taught his guys about character, he graduated them - oh, and he won too. More than anyone.. Penn State will have their first new coach since three years before I was born.. For a lot of us, Joe Paterno represented what was right about amateur sports, and life in general.. Heaven will no doubt let him in - and surely JoePa will run right up the middle to get there!
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2 comments:
Mike--JoePa was made a scapegoat for the scandal at PSU. Could he have done more? In hindsight everyone involved should have done more from the assistant coach, to the campus police to the PSU administration, to the then District Attorney. Let us be clear here, there is more than enough blame and fault to go around.
IMO (and its just mine), the PSU administration/legal advisors/board saw that in all likelyhood JoePa was done for after this season. It was no big secret that his health was rapidly decling and Jerry Sandusky handed them what they thought was tailor made perfect cover. Blame all this on Joe, toss him under the bus the media/LEO's/prosecutors will swarm all over him. When he dies he takes everything to the grave with him and PSU administration/board/lawyers walk away without a scratch.
The problem with that game plan became real evident about 30minutes after PSU announced they had fired JoePa. The students,the football team, the Alumni (team and student body), even the media all saw thru this faster than anyone could have foreseen.
Now the PSU powers that be have enough egg on their face to make an omelet (actually several dozen omelets)and the harm they have brought to the Paterno family, the reputation of PSU and PSU nation as a whole is just starting to break through to the surface. If the PSU administration thought this scandal would go away with Joe Patterno they missed--very very badly!
Joe Paterno may have done somethings wrong in his life or wished he had done things differently, but he turned out a lot of fine young men, some of whom became famous for the achievements on the football field, most for their achievements off the field, all for the character he helped them to develope. RIP Coach, you earned it...teg
you need to watch the speech done by Phil Knight at Joes memorial service. Thanks for the good words TEG.
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