Penn State Sanctions and What It Means to Paterno's Legacy

           Earlier this month, on July 13^th, I wrote a blog about Paterno's statue in front of the stadium at Penn State.

            Well, that statue was taken down earlier this week. Many Penn State fans and supporters of Paterno are still angry over this. I heard one woman's reaction on the radio, saying that Joe Paterno did not deserve this, that he was not to blame since he did not actually commit these acts – Sandusky did.

            True, but Paterno was all powerful at Penn State, and he surely had the power to put a stop to the abuse, one way or another. He may have lost a coach on his team - and perhaps a capable one at that – but he likely would have survived an ugly incident with his reputation intact. Since Paterno chose otherwise, favoring instead to take the convenient way out and pushing off the horrific chapter that could prove to be highly controversial if it ever broke out, things are different. Now that the news has indeed broken out, Paterno seemed to have a gut feeling about exactly what this would do to his legacy. I do not know what was on the man's mind in his last days, but it is not unthinkable that there was no small measure of guilt there. Again, he just seemed to know that his reputation would not be salvaged.

            Indeed, it very well might not be, despite the intense loyalty of die hard Penn State and Paterno fans.

            Penn State finally learned it's fate yesterday, as NCAA President Mark Emmert announced the verdict. Penn State will have to pay $60 million in fines, which to my understanding is roughly the cost of the football program annually. It will lose scholarships for four years, and the Penn State football program will not be eligible for the postseason for the next four years. Since this controversy perhaps will scare potential talented recruits away for at least the next four years, and maybe longer, there really is no telling when the football program might hope to recover – if it ever does. This was a four year ban, but who knows if Penn State will ever return to what it once was.

            As for Paterno himself, who had been the winningest coach in college football history, over one hundred of the wins that he recorded from 1998 until the present were invalidated, as the NCAA took those victories away, officially. That means that Paterno, who held the record for wins with 409, now moves him down below several other coaches.

            Speaking of other coaches, Paterno had some disparaging things to say about some of them in the past. He mentioned that he did not like the idea of retiring because he did not want to "leave college football to the likes of Barry Switzer and Jackie Sherrill." At the time, those two coaches headed programs that had faced probation for perceived infractions of NCAA rules. That seems a rather holier than thou thing to say, from a coach who was perhaps beginning to believe all the hype about his own demigod status. Given what we know about the crimes (yes, crimes) committed at Penn state on the watch of Coach Paterno, crimes that he was aware of and did nothing about, this comment seems incredibly absurd and presumptuous, as well as arrogant. He seemed to presume that those two coaches were classless. Will his own approach to the sex scandal at his school be remembered as classy? Most likely, it will be seen as worse, far worse, than the infractions by those two other coaches. Switzer, for example, does not enjoy the greatest legacy, but he will be remembered for other things than the scandal. Paterno likely will be remembered best now for this controversy. All because he wanted to maintain a perfect image for his football team, and for his status as it's head.

            I personally might have more sympathy for Paterno, and those who are agonizing over his legacy being so forcefully torn apart at the moment, if he himself had not taken his image of perfection so seriously. However, there are too many indications that he not only embraced, but even advertised his own merits as the ideal coach. It might not have been him who originated the whole mystique, but he certainly did not seem to show any modesty. In fact, he seemed to actively relish the role, and do everything within his power to protect that image. That would seem to include trying to sweep this whole scandal under the rug and keep it from the public's eye. That was a very imperfect decision, and has gone a long way towards ending the mystique and tarnishing his once unblemished image. I might have a lot more sympathy for him, had he shown some greater sense of reality about himself, and kept his feet planted firmly on the ground, and his head on his shoulders, accepting reality. Instead, he wanted to help perpetuate a self-serving myth, and present himself as larger than life. Given that, there is some measure of justice that the untouchable reputation that he once possessed, and actively fostered, is now gone.

            Another legendary coach, Vince Lombardi of those great Green Bay Packers teams of the 1960's, once said, "Winning isn’t everything, it's the only thing."

            A lot of people have used that quote, and believe in it, even swear by it. I can only imagine that Joe Paterno likely agreed with this quote, although I cannot say for sure.

            I do not agree with it. In fact, I think that much about what is wrong with our society is largely evident in that very quote, and how highly regarded it has become. Don't get me wrong, Vince Lombardi is a great coach, and I cannot help but admire his approach to coaching, or the illustrious history of the Green Bay Packers organization. But I certainly do not agree with that sentiment that the only thing that matters is winning, especially if people begin to apply this outside of the football field.

            There is another saying that Paterno himself came up with, and that became the motto of the Penn State football program. "Success with honor". For a long, long time, it was popularly believed that Penn State actually epitomized this rather self-serving slogan, that it lived up to it's billing. There were boasts that the football players were actually students with strong academic performances, and that they needed to meet Paterno's standards before donning the football uniform. Everything about the Penn State football program advertised the very highest standards of excellence.

            And then, it all fell apart, and quickly.

            This whole abuse scandal will never be lived down at Penn State, and mostly, it is because of those very boasts, and the illusion of purity. The very image of excellence on all fronts and at all times has come back to bite Penn State and it's reputation in the butt, and the scandal now effectively mocks this formerly idealistic image. This thing took on a life of it's own, and tore the pristine reputation apart, so that now, most likely, nobody will ever think of Penn State in the same way. Since Paterno essentially became the face of the success that this program seemed to embody, it is only fitting that he now is the face of it's largest failure, since he himself was apparently far more at fault than most people dared imagine.

            To be sure, this whole thing was an ugly incident, and Penn State would surely have received negative publicity from it if it ever broke out, one way or the other. But I believe the publicity would have been limited to Sandusky alone, and no one would have blamed Paterno or the university itself for any failings, had they done the right thing. But it seems that Paterno took a gamble, hoping perhaps that by ignoring it, this thing might go away. In so doing, he allowed innocent children to suffer, quite literally. Yes, it was a gamble, and it was one that Joe lost. All those years of winning, and now, what he perhaps will forever be remembered for is losing this gamble. Funny thing is, if things had worked out slightly differently, and the scandal has remained swept under the rug, Paterno would still have a largely untarnished reputation, despite his actions (or inactions). But now, everyone knows, and nothing will be the same at Penn State again.

            Once again, I will maintain that some things are more important than football, and more important than winning. Joe Paterno seemed to understand that fully towards the end of his life, but only when he was forced to. Taking his statue down is a statement on the importance of learning that lesson and trying to gain a larger perspective on life before the crime of the excesses of such thinking comes crashing down all around you. I do not know, and will not comment, on whether or not the NCAA's ruling is fair or just or excessive, or what. What I will say is that Joe Paterno seemed larger than life for far too long at Penn State, and his statue is symbolic of that. Pat Forde wrote an article on this subject (see below), and he wrote of Paterno: "His is a fall from grace unlike any in collegiate history."

This horrible tragedy that allowed children to suffer was in large part his doing, because he chose, quite literally, to do nothing, when he was perhaps the main person who could have intervened and put a stop to it. It diminishes his status, as well as his accomplishments, and it is only fitting that the symbolism of his larger than life statue at Penn State should come down. He is, after all, only a human being, and not a God. It might pain some to hear that, but the truth is the truth.

           

Below is a link to an article, NCAA's Mark Emmert establishes with Penn State sanctions that he's in charge like no one else" by Pat Forde, that I utilized in this blog, especially the quote by Paterno regarding a coupe of other coaches:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--mark-emmert-ncaa-president-penn-state-sanctions-exclusive-interview-joe-paterno.html