The game of football doesn't need us to cover for the mistakes of its heroes. It only needs us to love it for what it is. Football will outlast even Joe Paterno.
Nov 10, 2011 - Deep down, I get it, at least a little bit. If your belief in something, or someone, is strong enough, you can, and will, fit the facts around your own deeply engrained narrative. For a good portion of the students expressing outrage over Joe Paterno's firing or impersonating reporters in the board of trustees' press conference (please tell me those were students and fans, and not actual reporters), Joe Paterno has been an infallible human being, not only since they were born, but since their parents were born. When you are raised with a truth that strong, that inherent, you can apparently convince yourself that Paterno did the right thing by simply passing along an allegation and moving on with his life, and that his firing was due to media injustice, or overreaction, or temporary outrage and bloodlust.
I know how this thought process comes about. But I also know that one day, probably soon, the outraged students and protesters will begin to understand that the trustees' action was an absolute necessity, that the benefits to allowing Joe Paterno to coach four or five more football games (giving a man who has represented Penn State for 60 years what you feel is his proper send-off) were drastically outweighed by the potential downside (allowing a man who, at the very least, did not properly pursue justice for child molestation to represent your university for even one more second).
Are all the facts in? No. Were enough in to realize what had to be done? Absolutely. And they will get that one day. Joe Paterno has received his proper send-off.
The thought of what Jerry Sandusky allegedly did to a growing number of young boys fills me with rage. The fact that he was quite possibly protected because he was once a good football coach makes me sad. In the end, we are just talking about football. In the 142 years and four days since Rutgers and Princeton gathered on a field to knock each other silly, this game we follow -- this game we adore -- has become an incredible part of our general makeup. It has thrived, and it is hard to envision a future scenario in which it isn't thriving. It doesn't need our protection, but every time we attempt to protect it, we weaken it. We should get rid of the bad actors, the bad blood, the moment we know they exist. Preserving it does no one any favors. Not the coaching profession, not the fans, and especially not the innocent children likely still haunted by Sandusky's positively disgusting actions.
We will hopefully continue to hear more from Paterno and other Penn State higher-ups regarding why they didn't act fully on the eye-witness accounts to Sandusky molesting a young boy within the Penn State athletic facilities, three years after he oddly retired and four years after he was first accused of wrongdoing. We will hopefully continue to receive explanations for why Sandusky was still allowed, basically, full access to said facilities almost a decade later. As Missouri coach Gary Pinkel put it yesterday, "I just know Joe Paterno. He’s one of my heroes in coaching. He is a good man. Why he didn’t do more, I don’t know. Some day he might explain it."
For all we know, Paterno might be able to come up with a sufficient explanation for why, after passing word of Sandusky's suspicious activities up the chain of command, he failed to attempt any sort of reasonable follow-up; the odds aren't good, but technically it could happen. Similarly, perhaps the now-former athletic director can explain how word of this activity never reached the police department. Perhaps erstwhile Paterno assistant Mike McQueary can explain why he didn't choose to pursue any action on his own despite witnessing Sandusky's act with his own eyes. And the now-former university president can explain why he thought it was a good idea to give "unconditional" support to Paterno and company a few days ago, despite the subject matter and evidence at hand, and despite the fact that a grand jury has been investigating Sandusky for an extended period of time (and, therefore, it is not like any of these allegations came out of left field).
No matter if, how and when we get answers, however, we are currently left to assume that all of the actions took place (or did not take place) for fear of football.
Paterno passed the word along, then evidently just quietly hoped the matter would take care of itself, and he wouldn't have to do anything publicly to jeopardize his legacy. And it is easy to assume that now-former athletic director Tim Curley, former university vice president Gary Schultz and former university president Graham Spanier took their (in)actions because you lose your job if you go against the football program.
As one of the probably hundreds of thousands of people in this country who can claim to have their bills paid by the game of football, this angers me. As did Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee's "I hope [Jim Tressel] doesn't fire me" joke from this spring. As do the hundreds of other examples of university officials who fail to do what is right for the university they represent, simply because they are afraid of public outrage, afraid of losing their jobs because of the game of football. Football is only as strong as the rules -- both rules of the game and of human decency -- that oversee it, and when the checks and balances break down, reputations get sullied, and the game we think we are protecting takes a significant hit.
This is the game of Saturday's America. Of Glenn Davis. Of Keith Jackson. And the other Keith Jackson. Of the Stanford Thunderchickens and LSU's Chinese Bandits. Of mascot-on-mascot violence. Of the Little Brown Jug, and the Keg of Nails, and the Old Oaken Bucket, and Paul Bunyon's Axe. Of Death Valley. And the other Death Valley. It doesn't need our help. It is a monument of its own at this point; monuments begin to show cracks after a while, and that is okay. We don't need to pretend the cracks do not exist. When bad actors are involved, they should be purged, not protected. In the end, failing to act does more damage and creates more cracks.
This game does not need a facade of greatness -- it is great. But the weakness of some in charge of it brings about weakness in all of it. This sport can stand on its own. But we have to let it.
For more on the Nittany Lions, visit Penn State blog Black Shoe Diaries. Follow all of SB Nation's coverage of the Jerry Sandusky investigation in our StoryStream.
10 comments
1
Jan 9
Comments
Don't worry
Several reporters who were there said some fans got into the press conference.
Team Speed Kills -- SBNation's SEC Blog
If you're so inclined, follow me @Year2
by Year2 on Nov 10, 2011 8:22 AM EST reply actions
Yes, a thousand times yes.
I’m sharing this with everyone.
Fan is short for "fanatic" nimrod.
#THWG. Love, North Ave. Trade School
by littlepecan on Nov 10, 2011 8:48 AM EST reply actions
This so much needed to be written.
"An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." *Victor Hugo*
by K.S.B. on Nov 10, 2011 9:08 AM EST reply actions
Great read and you are right.
Tim Tebow's career record is 3-3. He is the worst 1st round pick EVER!!!! He is embarrassing!!! Did I say that with enough conviction to get a job with ESPN?
by McGeorge on Nov 10, 2011 9:35 AM EST reply actions
These students will understand better.
When these students have children of their own they will understand. You look into your childs eyes and realize that you would do anything needed to protect them from harm. You hope—actually expect, other adults to do the same for your child or any other child.
Had this happened to the children or grand children of the people who ignored this I would go so far as to guarantee that the police would have been involved as soon as the accustations were brought to them.
"Next season will be better" circa 1990
by Yarin on Nov 10, 2011 9:40 AM EST reply actions
Respectfully disagree.
Would you like some Freys with that?
by ChrisP Wildcat on Nov 10, 2011 11:13 AM EST reply actions
Penn State needs to do MORE than just fire a couple people. They should just shut down their ENTIRE athletics program for a couple years and send the money they would have spent on it to the victims and their family as a show of support to them.. and if any student riots or does anything stupid in defense of Paterno, they need be expelled immediately. The only way Penn State is going to get over this is to show that CHILD ABUSE IS BAD and those who turn a blind eye or support those who do are nothing but SCUM and should be disassociated with their university.
by INTOTHEMEATGRINDER on Nov 10, 2011 11:28 AM EST reply actions
Great perspective . . .
. . . and well said.
Child molestation (and other equally despicable crimes) invade all aspects of life. Criminals use fear and shame as shields against being exposed for what they truly are.
Genuine respect of one’s fellow man will never allow fear of personal loss to oneself or some other person to overcome the need to expose evil in our society.
Justice is being accomplished in State College, Pa. – just too late to save many children from the personal devastation of this hidden evil.
by countrycal on Nov 10, 2011 1:47 PM EST reply actions
Very well said Bill
Writer (and a handsome one at that),
And the Valley Shook
by Billy Gomila on Nov 10, 2011 2:21 PM EST reply actions
They didn't riot on behalf of football, I don't think
The best explanation I’ve heard is that a big part of the reason you go to Penn State is for the football. A chunk of the thousands of dollars in price premium you shell out (ant that leaves you, as often as not, deep in the red) is to be a part of that scene, that tradition, and to be able to tell people later in life “I was a Penn State guy. Yeah, I saw Paterno coach, and let me tell you”. They’d invested their selves into the reflected glory of the football hoopla and attention and fame and notoriety…
And now it’s been taken away from them. And that hurts. And so the motive is to explain it away. To minimize it. To isolate the wrongdoing to one crazy guy, to have it not reflect on anyone else. Ok, Sandusky was bad, but when Paterno found out, he reported it upwards. Which is what he should have done. He fulfilled his legal obligation. His hands are clean! What more do you want beyond his legal obligation to report the bastard. They got the guy to resign when it became clear he was doing this stuff, so they punished him. End of story. Now stop ripping away the legacy that I’d bought with thousands of dollars and years of my life! Stop invalidating me! How dare you! Why do you want to hurt me?!?
Sadly it’s a human thing. The way Germany treated WWII (acknowledge, be remorseful, remember it) is an aberration not the rule. Japan still pretty much pretends in its history books that they didn’t really do anything much bad in WWII. OUr textbooks in the west tend to gloss over the nasty things the allies did (firebombing Dresden, etc). We’re often tribal creatures at heart. Stuff that my tribe did just wasn’t really that wrong, there were extenuating circumstances, and they weren’t a big deal so just shut up about them already and stop being an a**hole already.
Glory glory Man United, AND the other MU, AAAAnd the Leafs. Experiencing cheering whiplash for decades..
by Wan Ihite on Nov 11, 2011 4:39 PM EST reply actions
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