Coach Paterno

I haven’t been proud to admit it in recent weeks, but I’ve been a Penn State football fan for as long as I can remember. At an early age, Paterno’s style of coaching and the manner in which he ran his football program connected with me. Initially, I loved that there were no names on the back of the jerseys (I’m a life-long Indiana basketball fan for much the same reason) and always found the simple uniform-design to be glamorous in their own way. I grew to love the way Coach Paterno used football (sports in general) to teach life. He took kids and turned them into men. Players graduated at rates commensurate with Ivy League schools, yet the program won at rates that were the envy of the country.

Therefore, I’ve been devastated that his legacy will be forever linked to a critical lapse in judgment. I tend to believe he was incredibly naïve. It seemed he knew three things…family, football and education. While he bares enormous responsibility for not taking more action when he first learned of Sandusky’s conduct, I also believe that, in his death, it’s worth paying tribute to the uncommon things he did in his roles of coach, father, mentor and friend.

I’ve been reading articles about Paterno all weekend hoping that somebody would articulate how I feel. While the alleged crimes are egregious, it bothered me that most authors used their respective platforms to continue to dwell on the abuse scandal. Not surprisingly, Rick Reilly (previously of SI, now with ESPN) came through with a gem. He doesn’t dismiss Paterno’s inaction with respect to Sandusky, yet Reilly chooses to focus on some of the reasons why Joe Paterno became an icon of sports.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7492873/rick-reilly-paterno-true-legacy