11/10: What can I possibly say about The Penn State Situation that hasn’t been said? When ESPNMars and The Food Network are both running Paterno Marathons that’s a pretty good indication it’s super saturated our society.
What I can come up with that 8,000,000,000 Chinese sports anchors haven’t beaten to a bloody pulp?
I’m doing this in a traditional BLSays column rather than the mid-week Rimshots.
Joe Paterno made a very serious error in judgement. Mistakes have consequences even for icons. The more glaring the mistake, the more serious the consequences. Being in a high profile celebrity position brings with it a high profile vulnerability to serious misjudgment. Glass Houses & Pedestals.
Joe Paterno was never a handsome man. At 84 his is a pretty gnarly countenance. You knew what he looked like. A lot of jay-walking Americans (and Chinese) did not. The Paterno face on the screen this week is as scary as the charges being discussed. A lot of jay-walkers probably think it was Joe, not Jerry, that “did it”. A lot of people are clueless.
Joe Paterno is an incredibly modest man. He and his wife of 50+ years live in a very unassuming 60s house on a 1/2 acre lot in a middle class neighborhood. His salary is slightly more than Auburn’s Offensive Coordinator. Penn State forced him to take that much. There is A LOT about Joe Paterno that is genuinely worthy of his beloved icon status.
Joe Paterno should have retired 10-12 years ago. He did not. There are more Bowdens and Paternos than there are Tony LaRussas and Phil Jacksons. Could a 45-60 year old coach have exercised the same poor judgment as an 84 year old. Yes. We see proof of that all the time.
A mutual friend of Paterno and mine says Joe is a very very “good man”. I believe him. We are all subject to being overwhelmed by events around us. Bad Things do happen to Good People.
Has Penn State’s football program been as Boy Scout clean as some would imply? No, actually there have been an ever-increasing number of serious bad boy incidents at Penn State over the past decade or so. Paterno covered them up pretty much like Bobby Bowden did, using their own versions of “…… Angels don’t play football”. The AD and Admins were complicit in that too.
Did Paterno really think it would just go away? Apparently so. The AD and Sr VP thought so too. That seems absurd in retrospect. Joe’s fatal mistake was not taking decisive action when he discovered what Jerry Sandusky was doing. It would have been a delicate PR matter to finesse back in 2002; but compared to now ???
Is all this a further indictment that Big Time College Sports is Eeeeevil and that The NCAA is worse than The Mafia or The Nazis? No, “this” actually has absolutely nothing to do with the many eeeevils of BTCFb.
If we had “a playoff system” and Boise State could play for the National Championship …. Jerry Sandusky would still be a homosexual pedophile.
If The NCAA Rule Book was reduced to a 5×7 index card ….. Jerry Sandusky would still be a homosexual pedophile.
If college athletes were legally “paid” ….. Jerry Sandusky would still be a homosexual pedophile.
If conferences were based on geography and natural rivalries ….. Jerry Sandusky would still be a homosexual pedophile.
Holy Smokes BobLee. You just used the H-word four times. That’s the only three times you’ve heard “the H word” this week. …..
Why is that BobLee? Because “the mainstream media is scared spitless of the homosexual lobby. The mainstream media is not allowed to assign any negative implication to the word “homosexual”.
There are a handful of “hot-button issues” I purposely stay away from on this website. Abortion – Homosexuality – Global Warming – and Was Jonah Really Swallowed By A Whale? It’s not because I don’t have opinions on these issues, I just assume you’d rather read about other opinions I have.
Jerry Sandusky IS a homosexual pedophile. He preyed on male children and he is a male. I’m not really sure what all was going on physically. There were penises and orifices in various combinations. Like every law-biding heterosexual American male, I have had a Deliverance / Prison nightmare. My nightmare did not include a defensive coordinator.
I have no clue why the Jerry Sanduskys do what they do. I’m sure they have rationalized it to their own satisfaction. Other than the outspoken members of NAMBLA – The North American Man Boy Love Association (Yes, there IS such an organization); the rest of us find “what they do” abhorrent.
This is NOT a Football or even a Sports issue. There are Jerry Sanduskys throughout our society. They are in religion, politics, education, corporate America, law firms, hospitals, not-for-profit organizations, et al. There are 100s, 1000s of Jerry Sanduskys preying on kids right now across this country. In most cases someone knows about it and, like Joe, is covering for them to avoid a messy public scandal.
As those people read about The Penn State Mess they are saying “I‘ve got our situation under control. Are you covering for anyone?
We all have known people for many years in social and professional situations. You do not know EVERYTHING about them nor do they know EVERYTHING about you. Even your spouse doesn’t know EVERYTHING.
How many of you have drawn a Butch & Blake comparison to Paterno & Sandusky? “….. 30 year friendship blah blah blah .”
What Butch claims he did not know about was John Blake’s blatant day-to-day professional behavior. The rest of Butch’s staff knew what Blake was doing. The players knew what Blake was doing. Only Butch didn’t know – according to Butch and his toadies. Butch and his Fat Cat Toadies did run a cover-up and stonewalled; which is similar to Penn State. The AD and Admins in both cases were coerced to “go along”.
What Paterno didn’t know about was Sandusky’s darkest personal secret. The respective “he did’s” cannot be logically equated. “Logically” being the key word. No amount of goggle-eyed partisan hatred can draw that comparison. Please don’t try. But some are trying – it’s all just a Dungeons & Dragons game to them.
You want a comparison? Howsabout Dean Smith & Phil Ford. Didn’t Dean “cover for” Ford’s alcohol problem? That did not result in a drunk driver fatality but it easily could have. That was OK because it was OUR icon? It’s not OK when it’s someone else’s clay-footed icon. Would you have stood by Dean regardless? Many would have.
Who is the designated “arch rival” of Penn State? It used to be Pittsburgh. Every BTCFb program has to have “an arch rival” …..and a Jumbotron. It’s a rule. Somewhere there is an arch rival snorting “I KNEW it” just like Wuffs are snorting about the Butch Mess. ….. just a big Dungeons & Dragons game to them.
I’m always amazed when fans apply heavy layers of sanctimony onto their own coaches and players – “our guys would never do something like that” …… boola boola sis boom baaaa. A portion of any fan base will forgive ANYTHING if the team “just wins”. If Penn State was 3-6 right now the We Love Joe crowd would be a lot smaller.
ESPN just showed angry Penn State students Rallying For Joe in downtown State College. Does that seem silly? No sillier than the bazillion other “causes” that angry self-righteous students (and many adults) glom onto to. If it wasn’t JoePa it would be free-range chickens. Will there be an Occupy Beaver Stadium protest on Saturday? “Anger & Acne” are synonymous with college students.
I asked Kid what she thought “about Joe Paterno”. “Who’s he Dad…. does he play for the Cardinals too?” She didn’t know who Duke Snider was either. As a parent you can do only so much.
Who else got hurt in all this other than the innocent children of course? Kim Kardashian got relegated to Page Two. ………. Dungeons & Dragons …… Arch Rivals & Jumbotrons …… Anger & Acne ….. Glass Houses & Pedestals.
