Joe Paterno is gone, but our struggle with his legacy endures
Statues come in bronze. People are more complicated. (AP photo)
In death as in life, timing matters. Had Joe Paterno died Jan. 22, 2011, he’d have been hailed as the one coach who’d negotiated the murky waters of contemporary college football and left, both his sport and this world, with dignity shining. Every obituary would have included, no further down than the second paragraph, the line: “He did it the right way.”
But Joe Paterno died Jan. 22, 2012, and today every first paragraph is duty-bound to mention of his forced departure from Penn State 2 1/2 months before his death, a departure triggered not because some recruit was given a new car but because a longtime assistant coach was indicted for child sex abuse.
Joe Paterno took two national championships, won more games at the major-college level than any other football coach and never saw his program penalized by the NCAA. Had he died at age 84, as opposed to 85, we would have mourned his passing while celebrating a life lived about as well as is humanly possible. Today the response is more muted and infinitely more jumbled.
We cannot reduce the non-action that cost Paterno his job and a chunk of his legacy to asterisk material; at the same time, we cannot in good conscience say that one mistake, even one of massive dimensions, should outweigh the good done in a life of 85 years.
In the 2 1/2 months between Jerry Sandusky’s indictment and his employer’s death, we’ve had the chance to review our feelings toward Paterno. Was he enabler or scapegoat? Was he a villain for not speaking up louder and sooner, or was he a victim for being shunted aside in the wake of a media storm unprecedented in American sports? Was he a good guy who’d done a bad thing, or was the thing he did — or, in this case, didn’t do — so bad that all claims to goodness were forfeit?
We’ve had 2 1/2 months to reconsider, and we might need 2 1/2 decades to reach any consensus. The allegations against Sandusky triggered such a visceral response that it was possible to hear an ESPN commentator insist that Paterno should be locked away in a jail cell next to his former assistant. For the crime, we can only presume, of not doing the right thing. But if not doing the right thing every moment of every waking hour constituted a felony, none of us would be free today.
The belief here is that Paterno erred because he came to care more about his legacy than about people. The man who’d made “Success With Honor” his credo was handed a loaded choice: Do I speak up, knowing full well that speaking up will stain a program I’ve spent more than a half-century nurturing, or do I keep quiet and hope the storm passes?
Indeed, Sandusky did resign as defensive coordinator in 1999, a year after Penn State investigated him for showering with a minor. (I will never believe thatSandusky wasn’t pushed aside.) But he never quite went away, and it was a 2002 incident — witnessed by then-grad assistant Mike McQuery, who reported what he saw to the head coach — that brought the Paterno and his proud program low.
Maybe if Paterno hadn’t been hailed as a paragon of virtue — if he’d been a football coach of more dubious portfolio — our shock and disappointment wouldn’t have been so pronounced. We expected more of him, but how many among us would have done differently had the loaded choice been ours? (Oh, we can say we would’ve, but virtue is easy to proclaim when it’s not yours on the hook.)
And now Paterno is gone, leaving us more confused than ever. Had he died a year ago, the charges against Sandusky would have still come to light, but they wouldn’t have been placed so squarely on Paterno’s shoulders. He wouldn’t have been fired with two regular-season games remaining in his 46th season as head coach, wouldn’t have precipitated such a debate within us all. Had he died a year ago, the obits would have been easy to write. They just wouldn’t have been complete.
A year ago we’d have canonized this man as St. Joseph of State College, Pa. A year ago we’d have said he did it the right way and left it at that. Today we must rewrite that line to reflect the complexity that enfolded this life the same way complexity enfolds all human life. Today we must say of Joe Paterno: “He did it the right way — except for the one time he didn’t.”
By Mark Bradley
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307 comments Add your comment
katherine
January 22nd, 2012
4:57 pm
exactly beast from the east
katherine
January 22nd, 2012
4:59 pm
phil
January 22nd, 2012
4:57 pm
Some people who don’t have kids love to talk about how others would feel if it was their child that was abused this way….
That has been taken into consideration.
I do have a child and I was myself violated..so I know very well how they feel….
phil
January 22nd, 2012
5:01 pm
Grand jury testimony is different from trial testimony and a jury verdict upheld on appeal, guys.
Testimony in a grand jury proceeding is not subjected to cross examination, for one thing.
Read the constitution and bill of rights, folks.
It doesn’t look good, obviously. But grand jury testimony is only an early part of a process.
All i’ve been saying is that Paterno wasn’t given a fair shake.
katherine
January 22nd, 2012
5:05 pm
those kids weren’t given a fair shake…..all the adults involved failed them miserably
PSU player
January 22nd, 2012
5:05 pm
Beast from the East. Were you among us or is this something you picked up while sipping a beer in a bar someplace? I never heard the jokes you refer to, and I was on the team.
phil
January 22nd, 2012
5:06 pm
I know you don’t like me, and that’s fine, but i am sorry that’s the case for you.
I truly hate that and hate it terribly. I would kill anyone who did that to my child if I could.
I really revered Paterno in the context of athletics. I simply think he had earned a chance to defend himself. That’s all. He probably did screw up royally, but he had earned better treatment than he received.
Again, i am genuinely sorry you were treated any such way.
phil
January 22nd, 2012
5:08 pm
Absolutely those kids weren’t given a fair shake.
katherine
January 22nd, 2012
5:09 pm
Thanks
phil
January 22nd, 2012
5:10 pm
PSU player – condolences on the loss of your coach.
Beast from the East
January 22nd, 2012
5:11 pm
PSU player,
Not among you, but I heard more than one interview from former players that said it was common knowledge and was joked about. Not sure why anyone would make a statement like that if it wasn’t the case. Either way, it’s all just a terribly sad story and a shame that someone who lived his life trying to do things the right way will forever have any part of this attached to his name. It’s certainly not how I CHOOSE to remember Paterno, but I can’t help it.
phil
January 22nd, 2012
5:15 pm
And of course i didn’t know a thing about Paterno that i haven’t heard all of my life on TV. He might have been a real bastard for all i know. None of us that don’t know can possibly ever know for sure whether anything we hear about him is the gospel truth.
But I do know this….
Don’t we all hear people praised at funerals who were, in reality, real SOBs to the most part?
Often times, in the end, it just might all be more talk than reality.
Joe was great. Joe was horrible. I don’t know and neither do most of us.
B
January 22nd, 2012
5:15 pm
Paterno admitted to knowing about an assistant molesting a child and just telling authorities is not enough for someone that is in the position he was in. He shold have pursued the issue and his legacy is tarnished because of what he admitted that he failed to do. It is disgraceful that he allowed the thing to be swept under the table. Paterno could have blown the whistle on Sandusky but didn’t. He let it go and people were hurt by Sandusky. I’m sorry but I’m having a hard time feeling sorry that “this happened at the end of his career” it didnt have to be that way and he knew it was wrong not to do more. Great Coach with a tainted legacy is about right.
OkieDawg
January 22nd, 2012
5:18 pm
Yesterday and tomorrow I will judge. But today, I will put aside my judgements and mourn the death of Joe Paterno.
phil
January 22nd, 2012
5:20 pm
Fire Bill Bellichek!!
BIG MIKE
January 22nd, 2012
5:29 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong….but I don’t remember a single journalist on your staff (or any other for that matter) reporting on Michael Jackson’s indiscretions, the day he died, or the day after, or the day after that. Why did he get a pass on something he did and Paterno is vilified for something a member of his former staff did (or may have done).
Paterno reported the incident described to him by McQueery. McQueery admittedly didn’t provide Paterno the entire picture when he reported it. Why isn’t McQueery being called to task on his omition of details in his report to Paterno.
This is all a bunch of B.S. and you know it Mark. Paterno will always be a man to hold up as an example of how to conduct your life and lead.
Nativebird
January 22nd, 2012
5:32 pm
We cannot overlook the institutional protection of the PaternO we are now finding out about, the ego, the ambition, the narcissism to the end. To allow and protect a MONSTER to rape and abuse children on your watcH, your ship, your responsibility is as guilty as the one doing it. And this egomaniac comes out and proclaims his mere retirement from coaching would settle that debt? Are you freaking kidding me? His crime transcends sports and any flipping coaching record that any level headed well adjusted person would ever even think about. Bottom line: the continued effort at using the celebration of thIs man’s coachIng career to blunt or lesson the abject horror he condoned is equivalent of excusing child- rape….period. And if that is unpalatable to you….so be it. Truth is ugly…truth hurts. Examine yourself, examine your inner core and ask yourself if you’ve allowed the worship of sport idolatry to trump your concept of goodness. And if you can’t stop thinking about his records? You’ve answered the sad question. Evil is cordoned No sympathy.
catlady
January 22nd, 2012
5:35 pm
I think we all knew JoePa would not live long after being fired. That is the way it frequently happens.
I think eventually we will realize that he was just a man, an 85 year old man, confronted with something that was unthinkable–that someone he knew could have done something he couldn’t imagine. There was nothing in the playbook on this, and given his age and the life he had led he did not know what to do immediately.
I think every bit of anger and blame that have been focused on this very old man should be focused instead on the young man (who, growing up when he did, DID know about male on male rape and actually WITNESSED it) who did not stop it and get the police immediately, on the other, middle-aged administrators who did not handle the allegations vigorously.
Let the dead be buried. Remember him for what he was–a frail human being confronted by allegations he found impossible, for more than one reason, to believe.
Oily Rags from Pennsylvania
January 22nd, 2012
5:36 pm
JoePa loved those little cheese crackers. I will always remember he carried a pack of those cheese crackers in the pocket of that big ol’ coat he’d wear on game days. Sometimes he’d have crumbs on his face and sometimes he’d absentmindedly throw the wrapper down on the sidelines and an aide would gracefully recover the wrapper and give it to an adoring fan. They say those cheese cracker wrappers JoePa threw down can bring up to $75 on e-bay. Now, they will skyrocket in value. RIP JoePa.
fball fan
January 22nd, 2012
5:46 pm
There is no mixed legacy other than the one that PSU created. Shame on them for making Paterno out to be the scapegoat in this situation. Joe Pa was Penn State football. He gave millions of dollars, as well his life to a school he loved.
DP
January 22nd, 2012
5:46 pm
Mark,
Another gem. Loved the last line.
phil
January 22nd, 2012
5:47 pm
At least Nativebird believes in the constitution and that right to confront one’s accusers….
Nativebird is THE reason i’m glad we have some protections.
Lord help us if his/her ilk were judge and jury of you or me.
Plenty of blame to go around
January 22nd, 2012
5:48 pm
Saddest thing for me is how a great man is RIGHTLY removed from a situation that should have ended in 1999. Sandusky had absolutely no right to be on campus ever, not in 2002 and definitely not in 2011. How could so many people (and Mainly JoePa) continually blunder. Sandusky was pushed out in ‘99 for his pedophile activities, given a chance to maintain his dignity, literally blew it in 2002, given yet another chance to maintain his dignity ( at the expense of too many young boys) all the way up to 2011. Everyone that let this happen deserve scorn and a lot more… they had too many chances to come clean and never did.
Good job Mark, you are right on!
phil
January 22nd, 2012
5:49 pm
Mark and DP…
True love i guess.
Mike
January 22nd, 2012
5:49 pm
Joe’s bosses asked him to retire and he said no. How many other coaches in the country have that power…ever?
If Joe wanted to be the total control freak, he shares responsibility with everyone that knew of Sandusky’s actions and did nothing.
phil
January 22nd, 2012
5:53 pm
Has Mularkey taken over in baltimore? Stupid.
JoePa's Hubris
January 22nd, 2012
6:01 pm
Ambition ruined his legacy. Retired at an appropriate age and JoePa gets out clean. He didn’t and he didn’t.
phil
January 22nd, 2012
6:27 pm
That same ambition is ruining America.
If only our entire citizenry would stop trying to work as long or as hard as Joe Paterno, we wouldn’t have so many problems.
Gainesville Dawg
January 22nd, 2012
6:34 pm
who are you to criticize Paterno??? Shame on you!!!!!!! The media is sooo perfect!!!!
Rest in peace finally, Joe Paterno.
Paul in NH
January 22nd, 2012
6:35 pm
Mark,
Excellent piece – you’ve obviously been thinking about it for a while. I am not sure what posterity will make of Paterno – hopefully he will be remembered for the good as well as the bad.
Perhaps Mark Antony was correct – to paraphrase
“The evil men do lives on after them
The good is oft interred with their bones
So shall it be with Paterno”
Sam
January 22nd, 2012
6:46 pm
I hope the media and the legions of the politically correct are happy that they’ve hounded this poor old man to death. A sterling reputation and a lifetime of unblemished achievement will be buried along with his body because they were so eager to show their righteous indignation by having the man fired before all the evidence was in. It seems to me there is very good indication that Paterno did what he should have done by notifying his superiors and not making the same kind of rush to judgement that his critics have. It’s too bad that we have fair trials for everyone but those brought before the court of public opinion.
South Carolina DAWGS
January 22nd, 2012
6:54 pm
I will PASS on this Mark and just say that I never have been a Penn State believer of all their pronounced virtues. We move on and its over!!!
Gwinnett Fred
January 22nd, 2012
6:57 pm
He really died the day he was fired. Even Las Vegas laid odds on that same day it was even money he wouldn’t live 6 months.
When he lost football, he lost the will to live. This is possibly the same tunnel vision philosophy he had when he escalated what was reported and then never thought of it again.
The problem is that assisted keeping the predator on the loose for many more years. Too many cases of head coaches simply living football and everything else be damned.
And as much of a tech fan as I am, it’s even more reason UGA should be thankful they have a head coach with the level headedness that they do. I respect Coach Richt both as a coach and a person and the combination of both is something many more need, unfortunately that includes Joe Paterno.
FROM THE OUTSIDE
January 22nd, 2012
7:02 pm
Bad article Mark especially when a man is perished and can not defend his self. No class,i respect Joe p. Who knows who he had notified and was pushed aside.
katherine
January 22nd, 2012
7:03 pm
The man had cancer…..getting fired didnt kill him..the cancer did. I’m sure he was a good man..but in the end he decided the reputation of his program was more important than what Sandusky was doing….no one forced him to make that choice. And Mark is a sports journalist…of course he would be talking about this….it’s current and relevant.
Stinger2
January 22nd, 2012
7:05 pm
I am not going to comment on Paterno because I did not know him. I will say that every journalist or media person who writes about him should do so only once. That is enough. Obviously, each of the media people can say what they want but don`t drag it on and on. There is enough new that is happening. Write about that.
katherine
January 22nd, 2012
7:05 pm
FROM THE OUTSIDE
January 22nd, 2012
7:02 pm
Bad article Mark especially when a man is perished and can not defend his self. No class,i respect Joe p. Who knows who he had notified and was pushed aside.
There is his testimony to the grand journey…and Mark is a sports journalist…of course he would be writing about something that is very current and relevant
Johnny DangerDawg
January 22nd, 2012
7:06 pm
” A year ago we’d have said he did it the right way and left it at that.” More like 12 years ago. After Penn State started to slip at the turn of the century, Joe Pa began recruiting more questionable characters and looking the other way when misbehaving (but talented) players deserved to be punished. http://on-msn.com/vhzH9f
99 %
January 22nd, 2012
7:18 pm
Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Peter,
all fell short,
Thou without, cast the first stone.
joseph
January 22nd, 2012
7:19 pm
The man’s legacy should be secured. A mistake should never erase all of his years of absolute dedication. Also, how about the terrible call or rather missed call on the Raven’s TD? Should have been ruled a TD! Oh well, that would have meant the Pats would have lost the AFC championship at home, can’t have that!
S
January 22nd, 2012
7:20 pm
The timing of his death sure is fishy. Can you say DR Kevorkian….
ninety nine --- per cent
January 22nd, 2012
7:21 pm
thou without
cast the first stone.
katherine
January 22nd, 2012
7:21 pm
joseph
January 22nd, 2012
7:19 pm
The man’s legacy should be secured. A mistake should never erase all of his years of absolute dedication. Also, how about the terrible call or rather missed call on the Raven’s TD? Should have been ruled a TD! Oh well, that would have meant the Pats would have lost the AFC championship at home, can’t have that!
A mistake? It was way more than a simple mistake….and his legacy now will always be that he protected his beloved football program and its reputation instead of the kids that were being molested. You will never be able to say Joe Paterno without people thinking of those kids…sad but true.
katherine
January 22nd, 2012
7:22 pm
of course my comments dont show up as usual
Ellis Island
January 22nd, 2012
7:31 pm
.. that’s the bad thing about
erecting statues at the wrong time.
Fan of the Game
January 22nd, 2012
7:38 pm
I can tell you about his legacy. I will remember him as one of the greatest college football coaches ever. He stayed at one school and demonstrated loyalty to that school. I am sure many men are men today because of him. As far as the controversy it is sad that it happened. What happened to those kids are just an example of our society today. Where were these kids’ parents at? Kids haven’t changed, parents have. Thank God we have had men like Joe Paterno. He is the type of man that made this country the great country it is. He was a heck of a football coach, but he was more of a coach of life. Thanks Coach Paterno!
JOEPA: It was all about me don't believe anything else.
January 22nd, 2012
7:42 pm
I never cared about the kids.
Here are the facts.
1966 thru 1987 PSU finished in the top five 11 times including his only 2 national championships.
1988 thru 2010 PSU finished in the top five 3 times.
I interviewed with grand jury Jan 12, 2011 but it took 10 mths for my inaction to come to light. Just long enough for me to get the 409 wins.
Everybody involved was complicit in my setting the record. We are Pedophile State!!!
Phillip Jarrett
January 22nd, 2012
7:49 pm
Only God’s judgement matters. You and I and Mark have no right.
Tim
January 22nd, 2012
7:50 pm
Those are your opinions, Mark, but obviously not everyone’s. Joe’s firing was a knee-jerk reaction. And don’t you think he deserved better than to be fired by a phone call? Obviously, the legal authorities didn’t think he committed wrongdoing or he would have been further implicated. He did what he thought was right and his legacy is eternally secure.
Larry
January 22nd, 2012
7:53 pm
I have two daughters, 10 & 13. You don’t know me well enough to know what I might do if some pervert…
Moving on…
I am willing to yield to over a half a century of greatness in character and behavior and wait for all the facts to come out before condemning this man…make that soul. It sounds like, based on the same stuff I too have seen or read in the media, that he could have done more.
However, what little I do know is he did in fact report this to the proper authorities. I look forward to everything coming out, but I can say for certain that Joe Paterno just left this earth in a manner no good man should. 50+ years as a great coach and 85+ years as a great man, husband, father, grandfather and mentor to many a young man’s lives.
May he rest in peace; may his wife and family be given peace and comfort.
DJ
January 22nd, 2012
8:00 pm
I feel bad that Paterno died and I feel bad about the way his career ended, that being said, Penn St. deserves the Death Penalaty, because they covered up 10 year boys being raped by Sandusky and kept allowing him to use the facilities. And thats far worse than anything SMU ever did. I alsothink they school need all Federal Funding taken away from them because again they COVERED up sexual abuse towards children, just so Joe Pa could have the record. As someone who has been a victim of childhood sexual abuse I feel that all those responsable should pay and all privileges such as football should be taken away from this corrupt institution. I still have a tough time dealing with what happened to me and I bet all those now men do as well. Plain and simple Football is not more important than a childs life!!!!!