Why some of us have complicated feelings about Joe Paterno

Bill McBlueState

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Thu Nov-10-11 10:09 AM
Original message

Why some of us have complicated feelings about Joe Paterno

From the time my dad was growing up in poverty in rural Pennsylvania, the son of an alcoholic and one of eight children, he has idolized Joe Paterno. By extension, I've had a mountain of respect for Paterno, too. Joe's decades-long advocacy of hard work and higher learning may be partially responsible for inspiring my dad to build a solid middle-class lifestyle for his kids. I now have a PhD and I work in academia, and I'm convinced that major college football, on the whole, is bad for major colleges. But Paterno was -- as far as we knew until this week -- an exception to the trends.

None of the accomplishments described below excuse Paterno's moral failure to do more about Jerry Sandusky, and none of the accomplishments described below justify the destruction of property in State College last night. But learning more about Joe Paterno may help thoughtful people to grasp why some of us have complex emotions about his firing, even if we agree it's the right course of action. His public life has transcended the game of football, and it's very hard for his fans to come to grips with his shocking moral lapse.

Finally, while Paterno is a Republican, note that much of what he's known for -- funding a library, getting kids to graduate, advocating for minority athletes -- are things any liberal would admire.

...distance and perspective will eventually create a more nuanced legacy. The record will show that Paterno won more games than any other coach and that his teams annually graduated more players than any other public school. Video clips and photos will forever immortalize his black shoes and spectacles. The library on Penn State's campus, for which he helped raise $13 million, will still stand, and a university to which he devoted not only his entire adult life but $4 million of his own money will continue to educate generations of students.

And five decades of former players who went on to achieve their dreams will be here to remind us of how Paterno affected their lives. On Tuesday, Adam Taliaferro -- the former Penn State cornerback who was paralyzed by a hit in 2000 and at whose bedside Paterno held vigil when Taliaferro was told he may never walk again -- was elected to public office in Gloucester, N.J. There are thousands of other men currently excelling in their chosen fields who would be quick to share how their experience under Paterno helped them get there.

Paterno won 409 games and two national championships, but he also helped transform a rural college in a remote Pennsylvania town into a nationally respected institution. It may sound disingenuous now in light of current events, but "The Grand Experiment" -- Paterno's self-professed vision upon his 1966 hiring to prove that a program could excel both on and off the field -- served as a model for coaches of all levels of every sport for decades thereafter.

He used his platform to raise awareness for the plight of black athletes in the 1960s and '70s; he was a constant advocate of NCAA reform; he spent 40 years pushing (unsuccessfully) for a college football playoff; his early '90s push for Penn State to join the Big Ten -- a seemingly bizarre move at the time -- proved to be visionary; and he was the impetus for the Big Ten (and in turn the rest of college football) implementing instant replay.

In 1986, Sports Illustrated named Paterno its Sportsman of the Year. Rick Reilly's accompanying article included the following anecdote: While recruiting sought-after defensive tackle Bob White, Paterno put a condition on his scholarship offer: White would agree to read a dozen novels over the spring and summer before his enrollment and file a two-page book report every week.