The Freeh Report is out. It is clear that Joe Paterno, former legendry coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions , was complicit in the covering up of Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of young boys.
The Paterno family is asking the American public to not let this one bad act undo a lifetime of good Joe Paterno did. Surely, Paterno should be judged on the accumulated good he did rather than this one bad act. Surely, Paterno’s good far outweighs his bad.
In many instances I would agree with this line of argument. Generally, we should not judge people by the last thing they did. We should judge them on their accumulated work. We all fail, we all make mistakes, we all, at some time or the other, have done something that would be considered bad. We don’t deserve to have our lives judged by that one bad act.
However, there are some bad acts that so taint a person’s legacy that it is impossible to see the person in a good light. What Joe Paterno did is no run of the mill bad act. His actions concealed the fact that there was a sexual predator in their midst. Worse yet, his actions protected a man who was sexually molesting and raping young boys.
Some people want to give Jo Pa a pass by suggesting he was a product of his age, an age where such things were hidden rather than reported. Perhaps this is so, though I highly question whether it really is, nonetheless, Jerry Sandusky was preying on children. Let’s make sure we not, in the midst of all the Jo Pa justifying, forget that Sandusky was preying on CHILDREN!
Years ago I saw a sign on the wall in a gas station. It said something like this:
One aw-shit wipes out fifty atta-boys.
And this is exactly what has happened to Joe Paterno and his legacy. The shit of his actions has so fouled his life that we can no longer see the good that he did. Perhaps in the future we will view Jo Pa in a better light. But, for now, I see him in the same light as I see the pastors and denominational leaders who protected their own at the expense of the children they molested. There is not enough good acts that can be done to cleanse the stain of such evil acts.
Toufuckinche, my friend. Touché
You are right on Bruce. There are many transgressions that can be overlooked as a foolish mistake. He covered this up for over a decade. Even when the scandal came to light, he did not apologize for the error of his ways. My best guess is (provided he were still living) do it the same way again. He kept quiet for the same reasons most others do: image of the college, church, family, etc. He is a coward and his legacy is a pile of crap.
Agree, wholeheartedly.
Got to protect the institution no matter the cost. This becomes a problem when men are elevated to such a position of power. Such an ugly story. If he would have stood up for those boys, he would have been a hero.
It is unfortuneate, but I disagree. He would be vilified more so for jepordizing the all important football game. Even now, there are many who are still singing “Jo Pa’s” praises. It is terrible but oftentimes even close immediate family members turn a blind eye towards child rape and molestation.
It’s not ‘one bad act’. It’s a long series of turning away from child rapes and saying and doing NOTHING about it. Anyone who does that is as guilty in my book as the rapist, because the rapist was allowed to continue and continue and continue. How many children might have been saved had he done the right thing and come forward with what he knew?
I hate our sport/athlete worshiping culture anyway. It’s disgusting and the people who allow shit behavior/look the other way because the perpetrators are good athletes (or coaches) are assholes.
Ami,
Exactly! This shows the power of the entertainment business run on university campuses. The sports program elevated the coach to the status of king. Nobody would oppose the head coach since he brought in so much money.
The report showed that even the janitors knew about this, but they were in such fear of the king that they did not report it. They were right since we see that this crime was known about but not dealt with.
This was not one bad act, this was systemic abuse and the guy at the top is responsible for knowing and not acting on that knowledge.
It’s too bad that football is so much like a religion that it will hide pedophiles as diligently as the Catholic church.
Human psychology seems to give weight to the latest act. Take, for example, a field goal kicker that misses an easy 3 points, thus losing the game. Everyone is mad at the kicker for “losing the game”, but they seem to forget the other 59 minutes of the game in which the rest of the team failed to score points.
The saying that one aw-shit outweighs 50 atta-boys is very true. Think about Pete Rose, who was a spectacular ball player, but has been refused entry into the baseball hall of fame because he was a gambler. It’s funny that drug use is much more tolerated (Daryl Strawberry comes to mind).
I guess the weight of the aw-shit moment depends on the degree of badness. And Joe certainly should have known better than to tolerate the likes of Sandusky.
If people’s “aw, shits” were as obvious as their faces, we’d probably end up respecting no one.
“The Paterno family is asking the American public to not let this one bad act undo a lifetime of good Joe Paterno did. Surely, Paterno should be judged on the accumulated good he did rather than this one bad act. Surely, Paterno’s good far outweighs his bad.”
I simply question how much good did Paterno do? I don’t know one thing about sports and I’m not even sure what sport the man coached but … Just coaching a sports team is not doing good. Just like it takes more to be a good human being than playing a sport.
As for not having the last thing you do be the last word on your life, that is rather true. Unless, of course, it is found out that you were a creepy serial murderer or maybe you had been cruising the neighborhood raping women or you beat children to a pulp or you dip a cat’s tail in tar and light it on fire and to watch run or, in this case, totally ignoring and not even firing a guy that is apparently raping young boys in the locker room. That is just icky, to say the least.
We all have things we aren’t proud of in our past but some things are so sordid that it cannot help but over ride whatever alleged good has been done.
I completely agree Bruce. His legacy is forever tarnished!
Agreed, Bruce. Paterno’s moral laziness was inexcusable, because REAL CHILDREN got hurt. No matter what era he grew up in, no matter how much he did for Penn State, the fact remains that he did nothing about a child abuser.
Right now, the Penn State community is discussing whether or not the Joe Paterno statue on campus should come down. I for one think it should.
There’s just no way to sugarcoat this:
The man was willing to turn a blind eye to abuse because uncovering it might have threatened his own ego-driven career. That is not the kind of person I look up to at all.
There’s simply no doubt that Sandusky should have been stopped, and that’s where the chief moral failure is–not only not reporting Sandusky, but not STOPPING him. I can somewhat understand not reporting him, given the rubbernecking hysteria that passes for news in this country, and the need to eviscerate institutions for the sins of an individual in the most flagrant manner imaginable (because it sells newspapers). But to not STOP Sandusky is utterly unconscionable, to not remove him from the institutional opportunities to commit these heartbreaking atrocities, THAT is to aid and abet a child molester, and it is THAT that destroys Joe Paterno’s image forever. And not to diminish that crime in any way, we as American people stand just as guilty as Paterno in our quiet acceptance of the countless deaths of Iraqi and Afghani children in the name of an alleged war on terror. We ARE the terror. Let us reflect on that as we condemn Paterno.
Today I read that the officials took the halo of the paterno statue. it will be interesting to see if they remove the entire statue at some point.