Some Final Thoughts from a Pennsylvania Boy

I'm not from PA, so I can't ring in from that perspective.  But I'm hopeful Joe Paterno can still make some good come of this.  As someone in another thread here pointed out, JoePa still has the ear of many and stands on quite a soapbox.  He could use that platform for good.  It won't erase the stain that many feel is on his character, and it won't turn back time for the victims.  But I'd like to have a world where Joe Paterno used his time to work tirelessly to raise awareness & prevent future incidences of abuse.  Not to mention promoting people acting bravely & promptly when they suspect it is happening.

My wife is a PSU alum, and we live in the burbs of Philly. It seems like people who are fans are walking around in a haze, totally in shock and not really sure what to think or what to do. My wife was and still is definitely upset and I think for her and many of her friends, not really sure what the future will look like in Happy Valley. Nice post.

I think you can make fun of everything...but I just can't, because the situation is really sad. Maybe not for some of the perpetrators, but for the program as a whole, environmental organism?  Sad.

Because while I doubt I would just completely give up Michigan Football if it came to this, I certainly could NEVER look at it in the same light, or love it as much.  It would always be tainted, till the day I die.  I mean, the basketball program took a long time before it could elicit any enjoyment....and a teenager taking a lot of cash is lilliputian potatoes compared to this.  And for that, I feel sad for the players, families, and fans, who had no knowledge or nothing to do with this.  For them, it has changed forever.

(Add to the list I saw CRex say he was a Penn. native).

The only people worth serious thought in this tragedy are the victims and their families. PA, or otherwise.

While you don't live in PA, so you might now see it, the people in PA are victims of fraud.  That's what the whole post is about. 

I know that there were more heinous crimes committed, but yeah, people can feel sorry for all victims.

I felt/thought many of the same sentiments you've expressed. 

I grew up outside Harrisburg and faced childhood being "persuaded" via blu-and-white garage doors, blue cars, uncles who made their daughters' husbands-to-be put on PSU jerseys at the rehearsal dinners... 

I, of course (maybe "teen rebellion"), always wanted something else: something more exciting, maybe more arrogant, not slow, black-shoed, and boring.  I didn't want a part of "earning" success, I wanted "expected" success.  Enter Michigan.  Even after Bo and his Wolverines became (and have been for the last 30+years) my team, I still had a strong sense of respect for the power that was PSU through that part of my life.  It lead me to look for ways of disparging it in family arguments:  telling my sister that PSU "stole" the Clemson Tiger paw and just painted it blue; asking friends why PSU insists on playing Janet Jackson's Black Cat intro growl every time they have a good play, how thick would JoePa's glasses/high high above his ankles would his pants cuffs be this year... Their wasn't real dirt or fodder to chastise them about, ever.  They didn't do ANYTHING wrong.

If there was one thing that anyone could always go to that was inarguable, it was "how" PSU went about their ways:  No names, no flashy look, no acting like asshats - even when confronted by the likes of camo-wearing Hurricanes - let alone always seeming to beat the "bad guys".  They were in essence a sense "poetic justice" for that period of time.

Now, their devoted fans are scrambling to understand.  They haven't even begun to "pick up the pieces".  It's so far out of character, almost existential.  Even though we no longer live in PA, my daughter has camped at PSU for volleyball. She asked my sister (an alum who still lives there) for a new PSU Vball sweatshirt for Christmas.  She called yesterday because she can't bring herself to buy it.

I know comparisons are petty, but those truly invested PSU fans trying to believe this kind of thing could happen at their particular school, would be like asking me as a parent to believe that my own father was guilty of molesting my kids, and that my wife somehow has known for years.  I can't imagine the range of digust/sickness/sorrow/anger that would overcome someone, short of visualizing it as a personal matter - For this PSU "family", that's what this really is... "personal". 

"We" are for 5 days now all appalled and want vengence, querying "How was this abomination allowed to happen?"  "They" are now trying to put new meaning to feelings/certainties that they've held as true for 50 years. 

I don't think many people, let alone fanbases, can truly comprehend it.   

Very well written Six - Zero.  As angry as i am at the parties involved in this horror you do give an excellent take on the "collateral damage" on the average PSU fan. 

I just wish this whole thing never happened. Its all i can say.

in the right direction: 

"I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief. I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind: To serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care. I have the same goal today. That's why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can. This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more. My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this University."

Obviously leaves a lot of questions, but so do five or six different agencies clearing Sandusky and letting his "charity" continue, letting him adopt, foster, etc. Also knowing that Paterno and Sandusky were not friends clears a little more space between Joe and any obvious complicity. And his admission that he should have done more, statement that he doesn't want it to be about him. . . at least a BIT of decency and humility there. 

Though I'm from New Jersey, I actually grew up a Penn State fan like most kids I grew up with.  They were the adopted team for most of New Jersey because Rutgers was so terrible and we didn't want to give New York any satisfaction by recognizing Syracuse.  I grew up idolizing JoePa, Kerry Collins, Curtis Enis, LaVar Arrington, and still hating Ohio.  

But now, the team of my childhood, pretty much the only college football I followed until my junior year of high school, is different.  To think I was the same age of some of these kids at the time these atrocities first occurred is scary.  My family almost moved to PA around this time.  I could've been one of these kids.  I do not want to even come close to imagining what they went through.  But I have, and it has tarnished part of my childhood.

I hope what can be done is done and that PSU can heal from this gash to a otherwise great university.

People are always shocked to believe that their heroes are people just like everyone else - flawed, imperfect, human. Joe Paterno made the decision to pass the buck for a number of years, but in the end, it was really one decision. It was the wrong one. "The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones" is a line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar - and it's as true today as it was then. 

Joe Paterno is a hell of a coach, and, I believe, a decent person. He made a decision that you and I make from day to day - to let someone else handle it. Unfortunately for Paterno (but especially for the victims), it was the wrong choice. I can't even begin to understand what drives someone to do the things that Sandusky allegedly did, and I can't begin to understand what it must feel like to find that out about someone. Some people are legends for their obvious humanity. Others are larger than life. All I know is that it's disgusting what Sandusky did, it's awful that Paterno didn't speak up, and, in a culture that reveres its legends like none other, it is a shame that they are now one fewer in number.

Good to hear a non-national (although I thought Weinreb's article was very good) take on this. Well done Six 0.

All I can say is that despite the accusations and assumptions that he would be leaving not one PSU fan I know was expecting him to actually leave. Everyone is shocked, myself included. I know some of his family members and I know they are shocked. He is one man who unites so many people here in PA. One person I would compare him to is the Queen of England he is that much of an icon. He IS Penn State football and to see him gone is deeply saddening. Jerry Sandusky is now responsible for casting this terrible shadow over one of the greatest coaching careers in football history on top of his unspeakable crimes. He is the worst type of person. Sorry for the incoherent rant just my take.

And of course, the only ones who might possible be, not happy about this situation, but less than devastated are the Buckeyes. To take heat off of them and give the college football world a new focus - and not just a focus, a complete out-a-nowhere left hook making their mishaps of the last year seem less than trivial - makes them feel a little less sorry for themselves. And that, I find very annoying.

Pray for the victims and for justice to be done.

Thank you for writing this, and well done.

Of course, the victims of Coach Sandusky are, and should be, foremost in everyone's thoughts and prayers.  But I understand what you are saying here, Six-Zero, and feel much the same.  No matter how many horrible stories we hear of both small and large evils, we like to believe that there are people and places who are above it.  Sometimes, those people become institutions whose values become defining characteristics to which many look to with hope.  Paterno did that at Penn State.  Even though I never was a fan, I always listed Paterno among the coaches to whom I would entrust my three boys.  

So, when we find out that we were wrong, and that the institution and the man that we believed were above such things (not perfect, mind you, but willing to do what was right even when it was hard), we lose something, too.  That loss is incomparable to that of the victims, but it is still a loss, and worthy of acknowledgement.

All that we can do is pray for those boys, and remember that there are still good people in the world worthy of our trust and faith.  Some of them are leaders of men in prominent roles, and some are posters on this blog who are great dads, uncles, big brothers, and friends.  So hold the kids in your lives tight, and promise yourself that you will do what is right, even if it is hard, if ever put in the position to do so.

Thanks for the insights. I cannot think of another sports-related story that has generated this type of reaction

When this is over the shell of a program/university is what will kill JoePa.

One phone call fixes this situation, but thats hindsight. Do whats right and life my not be convenient, but at least you won't worry about regrets.