Joe Paterno

During my academic career, I was on the research faculty of The Pennsylvania State University. Considering he was coaching at Penn State when I was still in diapers, Joe Paterno was already a fixture in those mid 70's when I was there.

My oldest two kids know there are African lions, mountain lions, and Nittany Lions. I've had ice cream from the Campus Creamery. I hit my hand while splitting wood and had to go to the hospital for an X ray to see if I had broken it on a Saturday afternoon during a home game. To get to the hospital, you had to drive past Beaver Stadium.

The doctor in the emergency room was wearing an Orange Bowl watch.

Anyway, I have taught at 4 universities and 1 college over the past 35 years (not the whole time, just some of the time). And, I feel somewhat qualified to make a comment or two about the Paterno situation.

I think the Board of Trustees is running scared. I think they are dishonoring Mr. Paterno if not outright disrespecting him. So far, I have not heard any allegations of wrongdoing by Joe. Oh, yeah, he himself admitted he probably could have and should have done "something more." But his inaction did NOT violate any rule or law of which I am aware. Action, had he taken it, would have been in response to something within. If you get right down to it, even, taking action might have been against University policy, and from what I have heard would have been based on third party hearsay.

If ifs and buts were candies and nuts we'd have a jolly Christmas. There is a big if and but game that could be played. The bottom line that I see is that in response to some definitely wrong actions taken by other people who may or may not have been under Joe's supervision, and by the people up the line to whom Joe duly reported what he knew, Joe Paterno has been thrown out with the rest of the dirty washwater. A coach that got away, allegedly, molesting children for years would obviously have been really good at hiding what he did; Joe Paterno has not been shown to have had first-hand knowledge of anything.

He should have retired a couple of years ago. He didn't. I don't think that was necessarily out of any personal vanity but out of a love for PSU and in the firm belief that he would be spending the rest of his life doing for the school what he had spent the prior rest of his life doing for the school. It is inconceivable (yes, I do know what that word means) to me that Joe Paterno could willingly and knowledgeably do anything to the detriment of The Pennsylvania State University. He was, and is, a dedicated, honorable and committed man of impeccable integrity. Now, he has been slammed by a handful of people who are not nearly up to being his peers, without having any charges that have been publicly acknowledged (by the board or by Joe), apparently without having any witnesses for or against his actions. And, in typical Paterno fashion, his response is: that's their decision, I shall live with it.

Now I heard they're going to take down his statue.

This whole thing is a malevolent aggregation of excrement, and it stinks to high heaven. Coach Paterno deserves better. We should give it to him.