All Things in Moderation

The following was written by John. Since he refuses to become an administrator, I must post it for him. But sometimes there are comments that ought to be above-the-fold posts.

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, via espn.go.com

In an odd reversal universe, I will now become a Penn State fan again.

As an alumni from the late 70’s, I used to sit 4 rows behind Joe Paterno at Mass in Eisenhower Auditorium on Sunday. Back then he was just a terrific football coach, and good man all around. Something happened in the last 10-12 years or so, that had made me root against my alma mater though. It had ceased to be Penn State University, and had become Paterno State University.

It seemed at the time to be happening just on the football field, though now we know that much more was occurring elsewhere. When Sandusky “retired” in 1999 he was presumed to have lost some sort of internal power struggle. Tom Bradley took over the defense and essentially saved Joe’s reputation as Bradley produced quality defenses year after year producing the team’s winning records. Meanwhile on the offensive side of the ball where Joe ruled, ossification, nepotism and gerontology ruled the day. The coaching got less and less competent as prep stars came and went without ever achieving their potential. Joe’s son was given responsibilities clearly beyond his capability but was as untouchable as the ancient Galen Hall and Dick Anderson rounding out the oldest coaching staff in the NCAA, perhaps the oldest ever. Personal animosity seemed to rule the day as when QB Rob Bolden requested a transfer but was denied a release by Paterno.

I need not go into the by now well known details of how this were happening off the field as well as on. A lesser known tale perhaps though is that Graham Spanier the President and Tim Curley the AD tried to retire Paterno in 2004 but were rebuffed. So out of proportion had things become at the university that a then 78 year old head coach could simply refuse to leave and be upheld.

Never a material or acquisitive person Paterno loved the spotlight and cultic status bestowed on him more than anything else in the world. He perhaps knew better than anyone else that he could never have that adulation in pro football and decided not to go when the offers came.

To say he was drunk with power, is not exactly accurate. It was the “love” he craved, not the power per se, not even the victories. For you see any coach as good as Joe must have known that his insularity was sacrificing victories. He didn’t gather his sycophantic band of offensive stooge coaches around him because he thought they were good. He did it because they were no threat to him on any level. No one could ever say that the Penn State program had a lot of bright young minds that were REALLY responsible for the victories. To that extent also, the players were anonymous and purposefully so. Tim Tebow could never have happened at Penn State. Penn State is one of the last major programs where the players don’t even have their names on their jerseys or are be made routinely available for interviews.

While the particular cause of the ending is both shocking and horrifying, the fact that it could ONLY have ended this way, was inevitable. Paterno and Penn State University were locked in a death grip struggle that could only have ended when something pried one out of the cold dead hand of the other.

Filed under: Uncategorized |