RIP JoePa

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Jan 272012
 

When the Sandusky scandel broke at Penn State last fall, I insisted that Joe Paterno had to go. I wrote

As a proud Penn State alumnus, I was trying to tune out the news from Happy Valley in the last few days. I think Joe Paterno is on the Mt Rushmore of college coaches and for 4+ decades his program has been the standard-bearer that all other programs are compared to. Even at their 3-9 worst in 2003, I maintained that on reputation alone, Joe Paterno alone should be able to decide when his coaching career should come to an end.

The local sports talk radio station that I enjoy, and that NEVER talks about college football, couldn’t stop piling on Joe, that because of his failure to bar Sandusky from the Penn State football facilities after he first learned of child sexual abuse allegations in 2002, his entire legacy was tarnished. After JoePa died last Sunday, it started all over again.  In many ways what he failed to do is unforgivable, but when looking back at someone’s life, I think it’s a shame to focus on any one thing.

This reader email to Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish sums it up nicely for me

Why do so many people feel the need to ask, “In light of the scandal, how do we remember Joe Paterno?” Why can’t we remember him and his life exactly as it happened? One heinous act does not undo all the good he did in his life, much like a major kindness does not undo a life of evil. Joe Paterno was an excellent football coach whom many considered to be a paragon of morality, good will, dedication and service. But he also made mistakes, most notably he failed to act on information concerning the safety of children and in all likelihood enabled the further abuse of children. But most importantly he was a human, and like all of us he is neither black nor white, but some shade of grey. The need to classify him into a category of “good” or “evil” seems like folly to me.

I think there’s a lesson here for all of us.

As far as his grand experiment, that a nationally-competitive football program didn’t have to sacrifice academic standards?  I think it was a success, Penn State was rank FIRST in this years Academic Bowl.

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  • John Ann

    I agree that Patero’s failure in this case does not tarnish Paterno’s entire legacy, but was this really one mistake. As someone wrote in our local paper:
    “Paterno’s defenders say he is unjustly being found guilty by association, and that one mistake shouldn’t ruin an otherwise exemplary life.But it was more than one mistake.In the last nine years, what must Paterno have thought when he saw Sandusky hanging around the practice facility? And what did he think when he saw a little boy by Sandusky’s side?Paterno didn’t make a singular mistake by not following up on McQueary’s claim. He repeated that mistake thousands of times — every day that he stayed silent since McQueary came to him seeking guidance.But just as his 409 wins do not paint the entire portrait of Paterno’s successes, his unwillingness to follow up on the allegations when his superiors did nothing does not make him a villain.It puts him somewhere in the middle.”I agree will Sullivan’s final assessment, even if I think that this is more than just one mistake.The author I was quoting reached a similar conclusion:”Paterno’s legacy is going to be debated for a long time. The Penn State family feels a deep loyalty toward their coach that they are eager to defend; a lot of other people insist he’s nothing more than a man who deserved his fate.Neither side is right.Paterno was a great man who probably did more for this world than any of us have. But he also was flawed, and he’d humbly be the first to admit that.”It turns out Joe Paterno was human. And that’s how he should be remembered.

   

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