The Penn State football team will take the field for Senior Day on Saturday, and according to a report on Thursday night coaches asked that friends and family of the players wear white in support of Joe Paterno.
Multiple sources connected with the Penn State football team tell TMZ ... coaches held a meeting with players today and told them their friends and family should show support for ousted coach Joe Paterno by wearing white to the game on Saturday.
The veracity of the report is unknown, but if true, this seems like a bad idea all around. The players and coaching staff are loyal to Paterno -- that's understandable. But asking for friends and family to wear white when a huge movement to have those in attendance wear blue to support victims of child abuse seems unsavory. Going against an established, and great, cause would seem to create a volatile situation in a stadium that will already be incredibly emotionally charged.
Again, nothing about the report has been confirmed, and who knows if this will actually take place. As of now, the Penn State community has asked fans to wear blue as a symbol of support for the victims.
For more on the Nittany Lions, visit SB Nation's Penn State blog Black Shoe Diaries. For the latest news updates on the Jerry Sandusky investigation, follow our comprehensive StoryStream.
3 comments
36
Nov 12
Comments
Wear blue! Wear white! It'll look TOTALLY DIFFERENT from every other PSU home game!
Sigh.
Paterno’s apologists just don’t get it.
He. Lied. To. You.
And himself. For years.
The man you’re defending is not the man you thought you knew. His continuing acceptance of Jerry Sandusky after 2002 (or 1998) was a shameful corruption of everything he claimed to stand for. Joe Pa the myth deserved a dignified, honorable, cheering send-off. Joe Paterno the man deserves no such thing.
He did many great things for Penn State. Absolutely. He showed great decency for much of his life. No doubt. But decency is easy when there’s no risk. He was the king! The aptly-named father figure! He built a library with money he didn’t need (at the time; civil suits could change that).
It’s when the feces hits the fan that you get the measure of a man. And now we know that the tough decisions expose him as a coward. That he even attempted one last power play by announcing he’d retire after treating himself to a farewell tour shows jaw-dropping levels of self-absorption. It’s not about you any more, Joe. You forfeited the right to control that narrative.
His final years as coach were those of an arrogant, enabling, outdated old fossil clinging to power and bedazzled by his own legend. He lost his dignity when he chose the blissful mirage of “victory with honor” over the brutal reality of pedophilia.
Put it this way: Regardless of what exactly McQueary told him in 2002, if that kid had been Paterno’s own grandson, would Joe have done more? Wouldn’t… shouldn’t the Joe Pa you thought you knew have fought for anyone’s grandson as hard as he would for his own? Don’t his own actions violate the conception of him he asked you to believe?
He might be in the clear from a criminal law perspective, but that should come as cold comfort. The so-called King of Happy Valley, the most powerful man on campus, the man who can refuse to resign, has no legitimate claim to ignorance, to plausible deniability, to have been “just following orders.”
Joe, your inaction hurt and betrayed many people in great ways and small, and you have no one to blame but the man in the mirror.
May that thought haunt you to your grave.
The Blue-Out is a great, if kinda easy, way for PSU fans to declare they’re anti-child rape. I really hope there’s no patches of white in the crowd on Saturday.
And if the new coaches really requested this, if this game or season gets dedicated to Paterno in the locker room… go Huskers, Buckeyes, and Badgers.
11 01 10
Veni Vidi Vixi
by WhereThere'sAWillieThere'sAMays on Nov 11, 2011 5:04 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
to be fair
The blue shirts have raised 50,000 dollars for child abuse.
by Mark Mandingo on Nov 11, 2011 8:23 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
I am assuming this is all bs. Too disgusting to be true. If not, fuck Penn State forever.
by bangkokhoosier on Nov 11, 2011 8:49 AM EST reply actions
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