I recently discussed the status of Penn State University football with a friend. While watching the Nittany Lions face off against Rutgers University on Sept. 13, we noticed some Scarlet Knights fans wearing t-shirts with the phrase “Joe Paterno is in hell” written across the chest.
Distressed and offended, I instantly tried supporting my childhood hero. I struggled to come up with a shred of material that could help Paterno’s case, but to no avail. No matter how hard I tried, I was unable to defend both the team I grew up adoring and its legendary head coach.
Being from Philadelphia, I have several friends and relatives currently attending Penn State. For the vast majority of my life, I considered PSU – a nationally distinguished institution – a viable option for my own college education. The child abuse scandal escalated quickly during my sophomore year of high school, though, and I opted against applying to a school with a permanently stained reputation.
Assistant coach Jerry Sandusky’s despicable actions, combined with the university’s disgusting attempt to cover them up, nauseated and infuriated me – and they still do. Sandusky’s indignities that wreaked havoc throughout the Penn State community occurred over three years ago. I find that very hard to believe, however, since news headlines continue to constantly remind me of Sandusky’s acts.
Overall, tensions have simmered down significantly since 2011-12, though. In fact, the NCAA has lifted its sanctions against the university, making PSU eligible to play in the 2014 postseason and renewing its scholarships in full beginning in 2015.
Penn State has certainly done everything right since the child abuse scandal. Former FBI director Louis Freeh, who conducted the investigation back in 2011, made 119 recommendations to the University. Penn State has observed 115 of them and has started three others. As such, the NCAA deemed that they earned the removal of their sanctions.
Penn State cannot go back and undo perhaps the worst scandal in the history of college sports. It cannot console the victims of the repugnant crimes that its officials operated. But it can play postseason college football. They committed the most sickening behavior in recent history and were let off early on good behavior.
However, students went too far when they began chanting, “Where’s our statue?” referring to their one true coach: Joe Paterno. The statue, which depicted Paterno raising his finger in the air leading his team out of the tunnel, was removed from its pedestal outside Beaver Stadium in July 2012.
A new statue of Paterno will be built in 2015, but it will not return to its pedestal. Its new home will be outside the Tavern Restaurant, a popular bar located about two miles away from Beaver Stadium.
When the scandal was first exposed, most people defended Paterno. After some investigating, Joe’s followers remained steadfast. “He did what he was supposed to,” they would say. “He reported it to his supervisor, fulfilling his responsibility.” Some still say the same thing. I cannot.
Imagine being in Paterno’s shoes. Consider everything you’ve worked for, altogether 61 years of dedication, on the cusp of being stripped away because of someone else’s immoral actions. It makes perfect sense for Paterno (and Penn State as a whole) to want to keep the scandal hidden. Although Paterno technically did everything he was required to do, it is highly unlikely he made a convincing effort to unmask a disgrace that would only tarnish his own reputation.
I once saw a comic of Joe Paterno at the Golden Gates of Heaven. Saint Peter greets him, and says, “Oh, you’re here! I’ll eventually get around to telling my superior…”
In my opinion, Joe Paterno is the greatest college football coach of all time. His 409 wins, five undefeated seasons and two national championships over his 46 years at Penn State all prove his magnificent value on the football field. And although the NCAA has taken away over 100 of his wins, the wins can never be given to the teams he defeated. A win is an achievement that cannot sensibly be taken away.
But there is no evidence regarding the scandal to show his integrity. Rather, there is only evidence to suggest his treachery. The thought that Paterno was an evil man harasses me, haunts me, hurts me. But the unfortunate truth is that I cannot possibly stand up for him or the university he worked for so diligently for so long.
Joe Paterno was full of wise verses. My favorite quote of his reads, “Believe deep down in your heart that you’re destined to do great things.” I wish people, including myself, would remember him for his words.
But actions, or in this case, inactions, always speak louder than words.
“Talking to other people” is not a good way to get factual information on which to base your opinion. Neither is reading media articles. Provide real evidence to back up this “opinion”. When you take the time to do that, you will realize how wrong you actually are.
Mike,
You “struggled to find a shred of material that could help Paterno’s case, but to no avail”? Perhaps you use the term struggled differently than I do. You could have started with the Freeh report and actually read it – critically – but I realize that’s a lot of work and might surpass the measure of “struggled”. Well, Mike, you’re totally in luck today because I’m sending some links:
http://www.paterno.com
http://notpsu.blogspot.com/
http://ps4rs.org/
There is a TON of information there. And you know what, giving you three quick links was so easy that it wasn’t even a struggle. Maybe if I “struggled” this would have been really hard and I wouldn’t have found a shred of material. And then again, maybe not.
Steve
This is an unfortunate column. The entire case against Joe Paterno rests upon the belief that he was explicitly told a child was being abused. There is simply no evidence to support such a claim. You can tell that to your friend next time.
I agree that Paterno should have done more. A close family friend was part of the investigation and believes the same. However, I believe that the entire world fails to see that Sandusky is a master manipulator like, if not actually, the devil himself. Sandusky’s wife, as far as I am aware, still believes the man to be innocent. The social media has basically forgiven a janitor that saw the horrible acts because he was afraid of loosing his job. It also isn’t mad at an assistant coach for not intervening. But it is horribly pissed at a man who acted on someone else’s account of seeing a horrible act. Ask yourself this, how far would you go on the reporting of someone else? Would you go above and beyond? Would you do what you should(Joe did)? Hindsight is always 20/20.
The fact you claim Philadelphia as home is all the information I need. Probably the most Myopic/Schadenfreude populous of any major city.
This is an exteemely ignorant article. There are easily hundreds of data points which easily allow you to defend Joe Paterno. Here are the most obvious and bullet proof:
On day one of the story the woman who would win the Pulitzer Prize on the story wrote an article with a clear attorney general source saying that Paterno should be praised for his handling of the situation.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/paterno_praised_for_acting_app.html
Secondly, the Sandusky lead prosecutor told CBS that Paterno was not part of a cover up and did more than anyone else.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/09/jerry_sandusky_prosecutor_no_e.html
If you care to get further educated about this case, please go to http://www.FramingPaterno.com
It’s a widely accepted belief that the entire motive for this alleged “cover-up” was to protect the Penn State football program from bad publicity. But in three years, nobody has ever explained what this publicity would be or how it would hurt the program. We have a former employee, who was given access to university facilities as part of his retirement package over the objections of the coach who is the alleged ringleader of the coverup, committing crimes.
How would that bring bad publicity to a team with whom the abuser is no longer associated? Moreover, what motive does this give Paterno for covering up what Sandusky did on campus, when he specifically objected to it several years prior? It seems more like a moment of vindication for Paterno, an “I told you so” moment that he would readily report, and not a we have to cover this up moment. So much of what people at Penn State said or did is exactly the opposite of the behavior one would expect to see from someone masterminding a coverup.
Also, when pointing fingers at people who should have done more, why do lawmakers get off for not making laws that would have given Joe more instructions on how to handle the accounts someone else saw?
Mike – I hate to be harsh here, but I’m stunned that at your age, you feel you can moralize and pontificate about an older adult and his 61 year legacy at one institution, his impact on the student-athletes he coached, the imprint he had on making Penn State the large teaching and research institution it is today.
I also question whether you actually read the Freeh report and the errata – instead, I think you simply went with whatever was spewed forth on ESPN and Deadspin. Football & the Paterno name was the shiny object driving web hits, clicks and advertising dollars. Admit it – you too were used to drive traffic & increase stats in obscene efforts to rake in the cash.
If you’re from Philly, you’d be wise to factor in the local and state politics behind this story. You’ll find plenty of that elusive evidence of which you speak. I’ll even throw you a bone here – the 33rd Trustee & Rendell .
Sandusky fooled the child protection professionals at the PA Dept. of Public Welfare, Centre County Children and Youth Services and Second Mile’s PhD child psychologist CEO for over 30 years. Paterno and the others at Penn State didn’t cover anything up. They just didn’t believe that Sandusky was sexually abusing children.
Nice guy child abusers can abuse for years or decades because they are good at fooling people according to child protection experts, such as Ken Lanning.
http://www.yellodyno.com/pdf/ojjdp_child_molesters_behavioral_analysis.pdf
Mike,
Most reasonable people who have followed this issue recognize that Paterno did what he was supposed to do legally. Some think he (along with the rest of the world) was fooled by Sandusky. Some think he should have done more–that he should have investigated Sandusky personally or intervened in the investigation. Few now believe he was trying to cover up/enable Sandusky: while this is possible, the evidence that has been presented so far (including the fact that he reported the incident) argues against a cover-up.
I’m sure you wrote this for a class, and you didn’t have time to research the case–so you merely wrote an opinion based on what you happened to hear. Perhaps you could investigate the issue more fully and write a follow-up piece?
I would also be careful about condemning other people generally. The condemnation of another person is a very serious undertaking–whether in person or in writing. Check out Borges’ “Poem of Quantity.” You seem like a bright young man, and I wish you well.
Mike,
Your “struggle to come up with a shred of material to help Paterno’s case” only proves that you haven’t followed the developments of the case. As John Ziegler stated above, the lead prosecutor in the Sandusky case stated there was no evidence to show Paterno was involved in a cover-up.
I would like you to answer how you could conclude there was a “disgusting attempt” by the University to cover up Sandusky’s crimes when:
NO ONE disputes the FACT that PSU reported Sandusky to indivduals outside the University. More specifically, they reported him to the very people (The Second Mile) who controlled his ACCESS TO CHILDREN. Some of these children would later become victims.
GARY SCHULTZ made at least seven statements under oath that he believed PSU reported the incident to the local child welfare agency (i.e., Centre County CYS).
Former PSU attorney, WENDELL COURTNEY, who performed legal research on the 2001 incident, also stated he believed the incident was reported to Centre County CYS.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has yet to produce a witness from Centre County CYS to refute the claims of Schultz and Courtney.
There was indeed a cover-up (or two) in this scandal, but those facing charges right now didn’t cover up anything…and neither did Paterno.
Mike,
Perhaps with the research you did do, you could explain to me how your state allowed a convicted pedophile to adopt 6 children and place 20+ foster children in his care of a period of 30 yrs, along with allowing him to start the largest children’s foundation in the state. Have you ever asked yourself where all the background checks, home visit reports and exit interviews are? Have you ever asked yourself how Sandusky surrounded himself with the very people supposedly best trained and educated to spot signs of grooming and abuse and still the only people punished for his crimes are a football coach and some college administrators? Have you ever asked yourself how a 27 yr old man (Mike McQueary) supposedly saw this abuse and 6 well educated men with impeccable histories, (McQueary’s dad and his family doctor Danov, Paterno, Schultz, Curley and Spainer) after hearing of the alleged abuse all acted in a similar fashion? Do you really believe they all willingly risked their names, reputations, fortunes and freedoms simply to protect a football program that didn’t need protecting (even now the program is fine–and they would have known this) and all were so immoral as to do this while knowing they were allowing more children to be raped? There is so much more (and less) to the real story. Please grow up, stop moralizing to others and educate yourself.
Wow Mike,
Your piece has spurred some of the most knowledgable minds on this scandal to respond. They have provided some really great information to you for your follow up piece on what really happened. If you want to be a journalist this is a great opportunity for you because the truth is going to be far more interesting than Governor Corbett’s false narrative. I think I can speak for the vast majority of Penn State alums that above all, more than anything, we want the TRUTH …warts and all. To date, all we have been met with is”move on” and constant obfuscation by state politicians, university administrators and BOT executive committee members. 3 years on and still many questions remain unanswered.
You have a fantastic opportunity… if your serious…