Coach Joe Paterno - Still a Hero

My father was a high school football coach.  Although I never played myself, I picked up from him a lot of knowledge about the game, and an appreciation for the qualities that make a winning team.  My father was also a very practical, down-to-earth man, not much impressed by fame or position.  The people he most admired and emulated were people he knew, either personally or by reputation, not the ‘superstars’ that impressed most people. 

My father also was a man of great principle.  He did not care much for people who achieved success at the price of more important things in life – like education, family, or integrity.  One of the few national-level sports figures that I ever heard my father admire was Coach Joe Paterno.  What impressed my father about Coach Paterno were not only his talents as a coach.  I think it also had something to do with the fact that my father recognized that Coach Paterno was, like himself, a man of honor and integrity.

Even as a young head coach in the late 1960s, Paterno was top notch, fast on his way to becoming the icon of excellence that he has been for decades.  He built a football program at Penn State that is legendary.  He stands alone among coaches in 2011, a human monument to quality, perseverance, and accomplishment. 

Beyond all the winning seasons, championships, all the gridiron greatness, Joe Paterno was a man of principle who always kept his feet on the ground and his priorities in line.  Five undefeated seasons, 35 finishes in the top 25, two national championships, and 350 former players in the NFL are impressive.  So it the fact that Coach Paterno’s players graduate at rates much higher than in other comparable programs.  Coach Paterno has always emphasized the importance of academics and social responsibility to his players.  On the field and off, Coach Joe Paterno made his people better.  He showed us how a real leader can keep the big picture, live according to right priorities, and make everyone around him better in the process.

Joe Paterno came to Penn State in 1950 as an assistant coach and never left.  He served as an assistant for 16 years until Coach Engle, his predecessor, retired.  Could he have made more money in a bigger market, or with an NFL team?  Sure.  He chose not to leave, because Penn State was his place, his home, where he found his joy coaching college football.   He showed us that a man of principle doesn’t need to chase big money or notoriety or accolades.  He showed us that a man who has found his right place in the world can change the world, a little bit at a time, from wherever he has been planted.  And for Coach Paterno, his place since 1950 has been in State College, Pennsylvania.  Coach Paterno showed us firsthand that it is important to be loyal.  He showed us that a winning lifestyle is not about living extravagantly, but about living well.

Coach Paterno has been a role model for countless people: his players, the Penn State student body, fans and admirers across the country.  He showed us that if you believe in yourself and your team, if you accept responsibility for your own situation, if you make the best of what you have and work hard, if you remain true to your cause, then victory will come.  He inspired us.

Coach Paterno’s legacy is so much bigger than the injustice and pettiness at the end.  In defense of this man of honor, I am obliged to speak up in his defense.  Someone committed a terrible crime and deserves to be punished.  That person was not Joe Paterno.  Coach Paterno, when he had reason to suspect that a crime had been committed (although not proof), reported his suspicions to the leadership of the university.  What more the leaders of Penn State expected from him is unclear.  Apparently they believe that Coach Paterno was or should have been omniscient.  Apparently they believe that the Coach somehow shares guilt with the perpetrator, even though he did no wrong, because they worked together.  How illogical!  Joe Paterno did no crime, and the crimes of Jerry Sandusky are his alone to atone.

The fact that an innocent man has been tainted by association, fired for something done by another, says the leadership of Penn State understands nothing about justice.  Shocked by the crimes, they wanted a scapegoat.  Instead of assigning responsibility to the perpetrator, they sought others to share blame.  So, in accordance with their perverse sense of retribution, or perhaps in cowardly response to public demands for action, they flung their vengeance at the most respectable and well-known man in the immediate vicinity.  What they have done is not justice but vengeance, misdirected at that. 

The firing of Joe Paterno is morally indefensible.  It was spurred by the need to inflict speedy punishment for crimes, even if that punishment had to be inflicted on the wrong person.  The implication that Paterno had anything at all to do with these crimes is profane.  It is the betrayal of six decades of high standards and loyalty.  It is the sacrifice of an upright man of honor on the alter of public anger in a pitiful attempt to appear virtuous.  What the Penn State leadership has done is add another victim to this series of crimes.  It is an abomination. 

Ironically, in one news story I saw a photo of young man holding a sign which stated, “Paterno is not the victim.”  The article went on to state, “…people should be less concerned about the legacy of football coach Joe Paterno, and more concerned about getting some help for some kids…”  The author seems to think the pursuit of justice is an ‘either-or’ proposition.  No one would disagree that the victims of Sandusky deserve our compassion and help.  What I cannot understand is how the author and the sign holder make the leap of logic from “there are victims who were more traumatized,” to “we should not help anyone else but them.”  Concern for one victim (or group of victims) should not blind us to injustice perpetrated against another.  Our goal should not be justice for the most aggrieved, but justice for all.  By accepting “lesser” injustices, we  devalue the concept of justice.  By refusing to repudiate injustice in any form, we empower and validate the concept of the scapegoat.  Personally, I do not see how accepting or perpetuating injustice on an innocent person helps in any way. 

Obviously the guilty one should be punished, to the maximum extent of the law.  The leadership of Penn State should have the wherewithal to realize that the guilty one is not Joe Paterno.   Do they fail to understand that he did nothing wrong?  Does his record of 61 unblemished years at Penn State count for nothing?  How could they have turned on him so suddenly, so dramatically, and with so little reason? 

Faced with the injustice and inherent disrespect of his firing, Joe Paterno reacted with the integrity that has always been his trademark.  He did not complain, although he had a right to.  He absorbed the blow with moral fortitude that would be beyond most people.  Despite the undeserved insult, Coach Paterno stayed true to form.  His character came through once again.  Although he had fulfilled his legal obligation in the wake of Sandusky’s offenses, with compassion he admitted that he wished he had done more.   With courage, he showed us that decency, compassion, and honor are more important to him than even his position at Penn State.  He remains, until the end, a man of integrity.

Like my father, Coach Joe Paterno is a great man.  That is true no matter how little the leaders of Pennsylvania State University appreciate him.  Even if the university to which he gave so much has failed to do right by him, many of us want him to know that he continues to have our appreciation and respect. 

I never had the privilege to meet Coach Joe Paterno.  If I ever do, I will count it a great honor to shake his hand and say, “Thanks, Coach.” 

Gryphem