“That dirtbag…”
November 17th, 2016
Well, this one’s going to be a talker.
Seems current Detroit Lions linebacker DeAndre Levy, who played collegiately for Wisconsin and was involved in the sideline collision with then-Nittany Lions head coach Joe Paterno in 2006 that resulted in the coach’s broken leg and torn knee ligaments (you can view the video below), told Men’s Journal for an article that published today that that collision was the proudest moment of his Badgers career.
“That dirtbag, man,”
Levy said in the article. “We’ve gotta stop prioritizing sports over humanity. Just because somebody can throw a football or coach football, they’re excluded from their wicked acts.”
There are going to be plenty of opinions going around on this, and I honestly wish I didn’t feel compelled to give mine. Say what you want about Paterno, but man…maybe I was raised differently. To say you’re proud of the fact that you (accidentally, mind you) broke the leg of a man just a few weeks away from turning 80? That’s classless. It’s also ignorant, because like I’ve said often in recent years, to truly believe Paterno truly is as at fault for what happened at Penn State as Jerry Sandusky is, you have to marry yourself to the Freeh Report that has not stood the test of time as far as being a comprehensive, unquestioned document. To believe Paterno looked the other way for decades, you have to take the word of the one defendant whose testimony Penn State’s president has chosen to speak out against publicly. To insinuate Paterno alone should have stopped Sandusky, you have to ignore the fact that there were so many institutional failures (Second Mile, CYS, other state agencies), and you also have to ignore the fact that the only person we know of without first-hand knowledge of Sandusky’s actions who reported an eyewitness account is indeed Paterno.
I don’t imagine DeAndre Levy looked that deep into the matter. I do imagine he did what a lot of people do: He took the little he knew about an incident and formed an opinion. Look, I don’t think Paterno is completely innocent here. He could have called the police after it was clear nothing was coming from the university of Mike McQueary’s report. He could have told Sandusky to keep out of the locker rooms or the practice fields or even Beaver Stadium. He certainly had the clout to do that, you’d think. But to suggest he’s as much to blame as Sandusky — and you’d have to, to make breaking his leg (accidentally, mind you) 10 years ago a proud moment — I don’t know. It’s a crazy world, man. A crazy world.
All that said — and I know this is going to be difficult for Penn State fans to do and it’s going to cause me some headaches from some fans who are going to tell me to do something that is not physically possible to do — please try to understand where Levy is coming from.
This is a guy who has done a lot of good —
a lot of good — speaking out against rape culture in professional sports. In October,
he led a fundraising campaign that raised more than $30,000 for a group known as Enough SAID (Enough Sexual Assault in Detroit), and that money is being used to test and investigate the results of 11,000 rape kits that were left untested in the Motor City.
He started
a T-shirt campaign in Detroit to raise awareness for domestic violence. The proceeds from the clothing go toward educating the public that domestic violence is not just a women’s issue. The T-shirts and sweatshirts are emblazoned with the words “Our Issue.”
He spoke out, forcefully, against the “locker-room talk” that became part of the recent presidential election when old video surfaced of then-candidate and now President-elect Donald J. Trump suggesting he could grab women freely as one of the perks of his celebrity. I won’t use the same words the future president did.
Penn State fans can — and surely will — get angry about what Levy said about Paterno. But this might be a good opportunity for those who feel he wronged Paterno not to excoriate Levy, but to try to educate him on why they feel that way. Plenty of Paterno’s most ardent supporters have done fine work recently bringing to light the myriad institutional failures that enabled Sandusky, and that makes them a lot like Levy, honestly. As unfortunate as Levy’s words were today, everyone just might be on the same team here when it comes to the real issue that needs to be brought to light.
End of the day, let’s all try to remember one thing Levy said that should be emphasized above everything else.
“We’ve gotta stop prioritizing sports over humanity.”
I think the man is right on that count. I bet you agree with him, too.
And you can replace the word sports in that sentence with every other noun in every other language used around the world, and we’d all be better off.
