Multiple reports are indicating that later today, legendary Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno will resign in the wake of the pedophilia scandal that has rocked the football program and the school. And that’s good news.
Not as a crime story, where the focus is and should remain on the victims. And not as a sports story, since a 60-year career that combined on-field success with a sterling reputation for integrity will now forever be remembered in disgrace. Ask Woody Hayes, whose sin was far less egregious, how that works.
But Paterno is so iconic, in sports and in our larger pop culture, that as tragic as the whole mess is, a lot of good will come out of this. The Catholic Church’s sex scandals mortified Catholics, but for people not deeply religious in general or Catholic in particular, the oddity of a priest’s (supposedly) celebate lifestyle and the archaic nature of the Catholic hierarchy left the scandals at an arm’s length.
For better or worse, in America, football is a much more widespread religion, and the better analogy in terms of the cultural import of this story is Magic Johnson’s announcement, 20 years ago this week, that he had contracted the HIV virus. Johnson’s announcement took AIDS/HIV out of the gay ghetto; for many, the combination of his celebrity, his race, and especially his (vigorous) heterosexuality meant that AIDS was now a disease, not simply a judgment of God upon people who have nothing in common with “normal” Americans. And the way mainstream culture treated (and funded) AIDS/HIV victims and research was never the same.
Similarly, as either a local crime story or a huge sports story, Paterno’s fall is a tragedy. But it also is likely to be a pivotal moment in how we treat the sexual abuse of minors – like AIDS in the ’80s, a topic most people are deeply uncomfortable with. The idea of someone raping a child enrages and horrifies most people – which is precisely why, when confronted with evidence that it’s happening, the instinct of a lot of people is denial. “Jerry is a nice guy; I’ve known him for years. He’s no monster. He can’t possibly be doing that.”
Well, yes, he can. And is. And the value of the downfall of Paterno is twofold. First, it underscores that a situation like that can happen anywhere, to anyone – even in a place as idyllic as Happy Valley and with the moral rectitude of Paterno’s football program. Secondly, while Paterno has been legally exonerated of wrongdoing, there’s also been a pretty clear public moral judgment that his actions were not adequate. That as the most influential man in his community, he should have followed up. He should have asked why Sandusky continued to be around his program – with more young children in tow, no less – for a full decade after the initial allegations against him. When nobody else contacted authorities, Paterno – among others – should have.
The damage of this story to Penn State University as an institution is enormous not because of the crime; pedophiles are uncovered in positions of authority, including among the ranks of sports coaches, with disturbing frequency. It’s the lack of an appropriate response that is going to cost the school hugely in terms of its reputation and its pocketbook, and that has now led to the downfall of college football’s all-time winningest coach. As a cautionary tale, it is powerful and pervasive in a way the Catholic priest coverup scandals, for all their appalling and sordid details, never were, for the same reason that Magic Johnson’s contraction of HIV as a heterosexual had greater impact on AIDS awareness than Rock Hudson’s death as a gay man. Priests aren’t usually viewed as paragons of masculinity (and, by extension, healthy male sexuality). Football coaches are.
Pedophiles operate, compulsively, until they’re caught; theirs is almost never a one-time-only crime. A lot of victims will be avoided, and a lot of perpetrators brought to justice, because of what has happened to the career and legacy of Joe Paterno. The fact that it happened to him, and not to, say, the football coach of Texas Tech or Bowling Green, will quite literally save lives. This is a terrible story, but it’s also a watershed moment that many people will learn from. That may wind up being Joe Paterno’s greatest legacy and gift.
A small nitpick: he is going to retire at the end of the year, not resign. At least to me, resign implies immediacy.
Personally I am surprised and disappointed that he is not resigning immediately. That seems like the clear proper choice of action, and I hope the school’s board of trustees forces him to leave.
I should have specified that in my post, though in the college sports world it’s common for resigning or fired coaches to serve out the season and rare for them to be fired or resign in mid-season.
In a perfect world he’d be out today, but I think there’s a lot of institutional pressure to help him save face by cushioning the blow. Given what Paterno has meant to the school, spiritually and financially, that’s not surprising. Not appropriate, but from the institution’s standpoint you can see why they’re trying to finesse what should be a black and white issue.
It is common, but so is an immediate departure. We’ve already seen several examples this year – Mike Stoops, Mike Locksley, and Bob Toledo.
I understand all that went into this situation (I am a huge college sports fan and have been following this closely) and while I can see why they want to soften the blow for Paterno, from what I know of Paterno I simply can’t understand why he’s not returning the favor by just walking away now.
The entire program needs to be shut down indefinitely! The president and anyone who knew or heard about even a single allegation of inappropriate behavior with those children and did nothing should be fired. Let’s call this what it is. GREED! No one in power at Penn wanted anything to interfere with its cash cow. Those poor kids were expendable. What kind of person with even a semblance of a conscious witnesses the RAPE of a child and doesn’t stop it? The same for someone who hears about the RAPE of a child and only follows “protocol”! It’s been said that a person’s character is revealed by what they do in a moment of crisis. It’s crystal clear that none of these bastards had any character and should be treated as such. And I don’t want to hear any bull shit about Peterno being old. He’s about the same age as my grandmother, and she would give her life to save a child as would any decent human being. There should be an occupation of Penn state until they clean house. This is as much about the haves and have nots as anything that occurred on Wall Street.
The entire football program at Penn State should be shut down immediately. I completely agree with you.
As does Jennifer Rubin: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/penn-state-football-should-be-retired-permanentl
y/2011/11/07/gIQA9oiL0M_blog.html
It is beyond unconscionable that these heinous acts have been kept under covers at Penn State for a decade. Years and years of all of these enablers coming to work and giving the lie that Penn State had ‘honor’ in their football program.
Had there been no grand jury to release its findings on Saturday, no one at Penn State would have said anything, and we would all have been much more ignorant.
The NCAA “death penalty” has been applied before. And it needs to be applied here and now.
That may wind up being Joe Paterno’s greatest legacy and gift.
Yeah, it wasn’t much of a gift to all of the children violated by Sandusky during the decade or so that Paterno was hiding his crimes from the world.
I knew that college football was basically a corrupt, evil institution. But I never imagined it could be this depraved, so completely bereft of even the barest shred of morality.
The fact that Penn State is even playing football games right now is sad. The fact that Paterno is still coaching the team is an utter disgrace.
(a) So when does he go to prison for his part in the coverup?
(b) You write, “For better or worse, in America, football is a much more widespread religion” in comparison to Catholicism.
I don’t believe it for a second.
Evidence, please?
A quick Google yields numbers of 75 million Catholics in the US (including a large number of nominal or non-practicing), and 90 million people watching at any given moment during the Super Bowl, which is just one game (albeit the most popular) out of the thousand or so pro and major college games each year.
The US Catholic Church is a bigger institution financially, but culturally, IMO, its reach does not extend much beyond its adherents. Check out your average local newscast and get back to me about how much time gets spent on Catholic doctrine, in any market, and how much is spent on clips, scores, and other news from football games.
You’ve got to be kidding.
Sorry.
Not fair.
If I could erase that I would.
Once again I will mention;
Rapes of children were taking place in the football locker room showers.
At least two coaches knew about the rapes and did little.
The rapist was allowed access to the buildings until last week, and came to practices WITH CHILDREN where both coaches were working.
Both coaches still have their jobs.
And you think this is some sort of watershed? It is not. It is the exact opposite of what you say. Think about it! Paterno and McQuery (SP) will both be on the sidelines for the final games, both will coach a bowl game. The OTHER coaches apparently have no problem with this. (which is amazing in itself)
Instead of being a watershed of change, it is like the perfect example of WHY child molesters get away with their crap.
Proper watershed response;
Paterno and McQuery are fired last week. Locks are all changed and both are told NEVER to step on campus again. President is fired as soon as he put out that ‘defense’ press release. It is announced that there will be no bowl game. At the end of the season all coaches, all assistants, EVERYONE involved in the football program is fired.
Who really believes that the staff did not know? Who believes that McQuery never whispered to his friends what he saw, and told them to watch their kids around him? Here is the thing, raping a child is so bad, so horrible, that those who cover it up, or ignore it, are CHILD MOLESTERS, almost as bad as the actual rapist. That is because their silence allowed further rapes.
You say; “The idea of someone raping a child outrages and horrifies most people”. Errrr, not on this coaching staff. If they get on the sidelines with McQuery and Paterno, they are saying they are fine with child rape.
And you think that is a watershed.
nalbar
Everyone is now tainted, yet what you described is very much business as usual.
I wrote pretty clearly that this is a watershed for how people will know to respond (or more appropriately, not not respond) in the future.
As far as what Penn State is doing, either ten years ago or today, it’s a pretty good example of what not to do.
I think you were pretty clear. My only question is, is Paterno that well-known? I’d never heard of him before this.
I’m guessing Paterno is pretty well-known. Even folks like me who barely follow football know his name.
Slight problem with your “Proper watershed response”:
Again, this is ALL about money/power (as usual), and related, the brand called Penn St. football.
Paterno is paid $1,000,000 bucks per year- a nice gig indeed, but peanuts compared to the TV contract, sales of again, the brand: the game tix, the jerseys, hats, coffee mugs etc. All of that is worth multi-millions per year.
Brand-building isn’t easy, and when the big money is flowing to all the “right” people, the tendency is to not upset the apple cart.
One more thought, which I probably should have put in the original post. These comments presume that any sane person would move heaven and earth if confronted with evidence of the rape of a child. But in the real world, that’s often not how it works. That’s what has the potential to change as a result of the publicity around this case.
To take a very specific example, two years ago I spent two traumatizing week serving on the jury in a pedophilia case – a 57-year-old man accused of grooming and then repeatedly raping a 10-year-old girl over a 18-month period. (I wrote about my experience in the case here.) The perp was a friend of the single mom of the victim. Mom didn’t want to know, because the perp was a nice guy; the whole mess came to light because the victim told a friend, who told her mom, and she went to the cops.
Even then, it was mostly the girl’s word against the perp’s. (With a string of incriminating and genuinely revolting text messages as additional evidence.) The girl, then 13, testified in court, which was incredibly brave of her (and heart-wrenching beyond description.) It also emerged that the perp had been tried before on similar charges. And we still had a terrible time getting convictions – eventually the perp was convicted, but only on two of the lesser charges – because two (male) jurors were inclined to think there was a chance the girl was lying or had been coached, or both. They, like the mom, didn’t want to believe that somebody who seemed like an ordinary guy could do such a thing. It’s just too uncomfortable.
From a distance, it sounds like exactly the same sort of thing that happened with Paterno – someone he’s worked with for 30 years, probably a friend, gets accused of this, and he doesn’t want to believe it, and so he washes his hands of the whole thing. It’s a more common reaction than you’d think. Hopefully, after all this, a lot less common.
Allegedly, someone on the staff was an eye-witness and Paterno knew it.
Didn’t want to believe?
Maybe not, but there comes a point where either you believe or your refusal is as guilty as intentionally enabling.
Again, everyone involved in the coverup including JP deserves prison.
And they won’t get it.
Dontcha know that football is more important to PennState than kids. Whaddya mean the board of trustees was deadlocked on how to handle it? (as one report today had it)
I don’t know what the chain of authority is, but the entire board of trustees needs to be fired, the president of the system needs to be fired, the chancellor at State College needs to be fired, and down the line to and including Joe Paterno. The word “fired for cause” should be in the action.
And if the Governor and state legislature or whoever pulls the strings on the board of trustees can’t do that, they need to be forced to resign.
It is clear that the PennState supporters organization and alumni association are driving the decision-making.
With Penn State and this child sex scandal, the Pittsburgh Steelers and their serial rapists QB, the Dream Team Eagles and dog killer Mike Vick … I’m just about done with the state of Pennsylvania and athletics.
This post is very persuasive; it crystallizes the issue very well, particularly the points regarding the masculine football world and Paterno’s previous status as an icon of moral behavior in the sports and scholastic worlds. Thank you, Brother Parrish.
I think that Joe’s retirement is another example of the class of the guy. You can criticize in a lot of ways, but his retirement simply allows the trustees of PSU to attend to business.
Way to go, Joe.
Thankfully the dude got fired altogether. He’s coached his last game.