Penn State Board of Trustees chairman Keith Masser shared a story on facebook about former Penn State coach Joe Paterno.
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Joe Paterno had two legacies, and his followers need to accept it
http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20150622/SPORTS/150629966
By Lee Hudnell,
lhudnell@dailylocal.com,
@LeeHudnell on Twitter | 06/22/15
It was announced this past week that legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno will be inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in October.
The honor is certainly well-deserved.
The late Nittany Lions mentor is a football icon, who belongs on the Mount Rushmore of college football coaches alongside Bear Bryant, Woody Hayes and Eddie Robinson. Actually, he may be the greatest of them all when you factor in his longevity of success and his impact on a single university and state.
In 46 seasons at Penn State, Paterno won 75 percent of the games he coached, including two national championships. He won more games than any coach in Div. I history (409), and it wasn’t because he simply accumulated more years than the other greats. In nearly half a century roaming the sideline in Happy Valley, Paterno posted just five losing campaigns. His teams won at least 10 games in a season 21 times, including 14 with 11 wins or more — both all-time records.
Also, no coach or player has ever been more recognizable with a program or university than Paterno. He wasn’t just a coach for Penn State football, he was Penn State football. Hell, he was a football institution in the state of Pennsylvania, not just State College. Growing up as a kid in Ohio, if you would’ve asked me to name five things about football in the Commonwealth I would’ve replied, “Paterno, Paterno, Paterno, Randall Cunningham and Paterno.”
There is no denying the incredible gridiron legacy of the man they called “Joe Pa,” and his followers have certainly been celebrating it over the past few days — as they should.
However, where his followers and I go separate ways is when the discussion of his other legacy takes place — his role in the child sex abuse scandal involving former assistant Jerry Sandusky.
I recall watching hordes of Penn State students rallying around Paterno that night in November 2011 after the board of trustees dismissed him as head coach. I remember wondering how Sandusky’s rape victims and their families must have been feeling at that very moment.
I certainly cannot speak for any of the victims, but the emotions going through my mind and body were ones of anger and disgust.
Every time I heard a chant of “JOE PA-TER-NO!” it made me sick to my stomach. Every time the students belted cheers of “WE ARE (clap, clap) PENN STATE,” I became enraged.
The protests by the students — which most on hand probably thought were noble and supportive — displayed just how little perspective they possessed when it came to reality. I’m betting most of those protesting students didn’t have children of their own or were ever sexually abused growing up.
There shouldn’t have been one tear shed or one chant cheered for Paterno that night. His ousting was completely justified. It wasn’t a rash decision. It was the only decision.
I also recall a reporter during the press conference that same night — to announce the coach’s firing — who asked the vice president of the board, John Surma Jr., to explain why the trustees couldn’t allow Paterno to leave with some dignity?
Wow, really?
Where is the “dignity” for those young boys who were raped, molested and sodomized by Paterno’s assistant? Where was the rally for Sandusky’s prey? They were the real victims — not Paterno, not the university and certainly not the protesting students.
Nearly four years later, those sentiments are still ringing the same in State College. They just can’t accept the fact that their beloved figurehead dropped the ball on these disgusting acts.
They continue to blame the media for “unfairly attacking Paterno.” They continue pointing fingers at everyone involved from former Penn State President Graham Spanier to former AD Tim Curley to former assistant Mike McQueary and everyone in between — except, of course, Paterno.
It’s as if turning your back to protect a legacy is protocol at the Commonwealth’s most notable collegiate football institution.
Just this past week in an interview with the Huffington Post, Paterno’s son, Jay Paterno, exemplified that very culture of deniability.
“I think what happened — thoughtful people who have paid attention — are looking and saying ‘Wait a minute. There was a rush to judgement. There was an inaccurate rush to judgement,’” Jay Paterno said. “Joe Paterno was a guy who reported an allegation that was brought to him and that was the extent of his involvement. He followed the law. He did more than the law even required.”
That’s the problem, simply reporting the allegation was, in fact, the extent of his involvement. And to say he did “more than the law even required” is certainly debatable and borderline laughable.
What isn’t up for debate, though, is the fact that Paterno had the power, the responsibility, and an obligation to put an end to this madness, and he ignored it. For years.
He wanted nothing to do with it because there wasn’t any way he could spin it that would prevent his legacy from at least being dinged. And as we all know, Paterno’s legacy was everything to him and not even young boys getting raped was going to make him put that in danger.
We can make excuses all we want. We can say that the report by Louis Freeh was rushed and based solely on circumstantial evidence. But Paterno knew of Sandusky’s heinous acts for at least a decade and did nothing of significance to stop it.
Sure, Paterno reported — or more like confided with a few of his colleagues — about what had happened, but how could he have not followed up on it? How can you report something as ghastly as sexual abuse of young boys and not see to it that the perpetrator suffers great consequences? Better yet, how do you allow a monster who you know has been accused of sexual activity with young boys on more than one occasion continue to have an office in your facility?
The only conceivable reason I can think of for this blatant inaction is that he was trying to protect something. In this case it wasn’t Sandusky he was protecting, it was himself — it was his precious legacy.
Again, I don’t believe Paterno’s coaching prowess should be in question. He was one of the greatest of all time, in any sport. We cannot deny his legendary status on the gridiron.
He is most definitely a hall of famer.
But we can’t deny that he made a terrible mistake not putting an end to Sandusky’s terror when he had the chance.
I believe that Paterno was a good man, who made a terribly selfish decision.
Unfortunately it’s a part of his legacy now. Not all of it, but definitely a part of it.
And his followers need to finally accept that fact and quit turning their back on this issue like Paterno did for so many years.
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