New Paterno biography won’t change my negative opinion of football legend

"Say it ain’t so, Joe.”

Such was the line supposedly said by a young kid to White Sox player “Shoeless Joe” Jackson back in September 1920 after being investigated by a grand jury that he and seven other teammates took part in an attempt to fix the World Series in what became known as the Black Sox Scandal.

As a result of that, Jackson, along with his seven teammates, were banned from major league baseball.

That quote may have been the stuff of baseball legend. I can’t help but wonder, however, if the faithful fans who stood by former Penn State University Football Coach Joe Paterno weren’t thinking the same thing following the release in July of "The Freeh Report" surrounding the child-sex scandal involving former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky that among many things laid the blame for not doing enough to stop the abuse on Paterno’s doorstep.

When the scandal broke last November I told a few people I knew that Penn State’s Board of Trustees were right in firing “Joe Pa.” Among the responses I got to that was “Don’t blame Joe.” “Don’t be going all out rushing to judgment.” “Wait to find out how Penn State’s human resources department handled it” were among some of the statements said to me.

What I got in reading the report’s findings is it was clear to me that JOE PATERNO WAS HUMAN RESOURCES when it came to keeping the sex abuse charges under the rug all for the good of Happy Valley’s beloved football program.

"The evidence shows that Mr. Paterno was made aware of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky, followed it closely, but failed to take any action, even though Sandusky had been a key member of his coaching staff for almost 30 years, and had an office just steps away from Mr. Paterno's," the report read.  "At the very least, Mr. Paterno could have alerted the entire football staff, in order to prevent Sandusky from bringing another child into the Lasch Building. Messrs. (Graham) Spanier, (Gary) Schultz, Paterno and (Tim) Curley also failed to alert the Board of Trustees about the 1998 investigation or take any further action against Mr. Sandusky. None of them even spoke to Sandusky about his conduct. In short, nothing was done, and Sandusky was allowed to continue with impunity."

Watching Penn State students make jackasses of themselves last November flipping cars over in reaction to Paterno’s firing not only made me want to yell at the television, “Oh how proud the parents must be of all their idiot sons and daughters knowing this is what their hard-earned money pays for in tuition.” The incidents once again demonstrated what happens when people put such idols, be it athletic coaches, athletes, Hollywood icons and presidents, past and present on high pedestals thinking they can do no wrong, only to get blindsided the minute it turns out they weren’t as perfect as they thought they were.

I haven’t picked up author Joseph Posnanski’s biography, "Paterno", which hit bookstands Aug. 21. Quite frankly, I have about as much desire to read, as Entertainment Weekly writer Chris Nashawaty describes in his review of the book, about the Nittany Lyons’ coaching legend’s “undefeated seasons, bowl games, and anecdotes from past gridiron greats about their playing days in Happy Valley” as I do in searching eBay for a copy of Jerry Sandusky’s 2000 autobiography, "Touched." In short, I’ll put my money to better use elsewhere like on gas.

The best quotes I have found don’t come from the Paterno biography but from author Posnanski.

“When people ask me if Penn State was right in tearing down Joe Paterno's statue in light of the Freeh Report's conclusion, I ask a different question: "Should they have built a statue to him in the first place?", Posnanski wrote in a recent sports column in USA Today. “When people ask me if the NCAA was right in unleashing draconian penalties against Penn State, I ask a different question: "Should they have held up Joe Paterno as a paragon of purity and virtue for more than four decades?"

Such is the reason why I will never look up to such notable celebrities, whether they are in politics, in entertainment or in athletics. If you are looking for someone to model yourself after, try starting with your own parents or grandparents, provided they raised you right.

I know there are probably still many out there that includes Penn State students past and present who will argue I should remember all the good things Joe Paterno did in his 85 years which I am sure is all chronicled in Posnanski’s book. I am sure they all say I should look past what occurred last November to the time he passed away in January this year to the release of The Freeh Report and its aftermath.

My answer to that is if the American people refused to forgive President Richard Nixon for covering up a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate offices in June 1972, why should I even bother forgiving Joe Paterno for only giving a damn about preserving the reputation of his prestigious athletic football program and doing little to nothing about protecting young kids from a convicted child rapist.

If I am to believe Posnanski’s biography, however, my guess is “Joe Pa” does not care what I think from even beyond the grave.

“[The criticism] really doesn’t matter,” Posnanski wrote in the book of his last conversation with Paterno quoting him. “It really doesn’t. I know what I tried to do. Maybe somebody will see that in time. Maybe they won’t. Maybe they will judge me by what I tried to do. Maybe they won’t. What difference does it make? I just hope there is justice for the victims.”

I am not one of those people who will change my negative opinion of him. Joe Paterno’s final legacy will always be in his own words what he said after the scandal broke.

“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.”

So do we “Joe Pa”, so do we.

©8/23/12