The Penn State Football Show

Just let it go. That’s the best way I can put it now is just let it go. We are Michael Vick defending dog fighting. We have no ground, moral or legal, to stand on. I am as big a Penn State fan as I know. And it is with defeat and sadness in my heart now that I beg of you just to let it go.

When the allegations first struck I was as angry and rabid as every kid in State College who felt our beloved coach had been given a raw deal. I defended him for doing his civic duty of reporting this to the head of the campus police and was enraged at the media who I felt were grasping at straws claiming a “moral responsibility” to do more.  The way he was dismissed further fueled my rage and his subsequent passing made me weep for a man who had done so much good to be sent out like this.

Then time passed. Media coverage slowed. Sandusky’s trial received what I felt was adequate media attention. It was covered enough so that most of the country knew it was happening without warranting its own ESPN bottom line. The trial was short yet horrific as details emerged. Details that make me cringe now as I think of what I read. The jury quickly found Sandusky guilty and he was whisked away to jail where he will remain for the rest of his life.

Then there was nothing. No more Deadspin articles. No more 30 minute blocks on Mike and Mike. The world seemed to move on. I hoped the world might find contentment now and I could simply go back to enjoying something I held dear since I could remember; simply loving to death Penn State University.

Not long after that is when the leaked e-mails started and machine turned back on. The Freeh report came out and I read every page. By the time I had finished numerous news outlets already pointed out the undeniable data showing Paterno was briefed on the 1998 incident. If you are reading this and about to refer me to the John Ziegler article please don’t. That man is a moron and I beg him to stop. The timeline for those e-mails can be about nothing else and every time someone writes one of these articles and PSU people post them on facebook or message boards it only further fuels the national thought that we are cult followers who drank too much of the kool-aid. The 1998 incident really did fall in to a gray area as far as criminal allegations. Horribly over the line but criminality might have been tough to prove. What it should have done and failed to do was put people on alert.

When the McQueery incident occurred, red flashing lights should have gone off in numerous people’s heads. They were same people who heard it all before. One time is a little shady and weird, two times for something like this should have been taken way more serious than it was. That is the first time I have admitted that. It pains me to turn on Paterno so quickly after all the good times he has given me but it pains me more that it took me this long to come to terms with it. We have to let it go.

While I still hold that he has garnished an unfair share blame, it can’t be denied he deserves a good deal.  I know it was not his job to stand outside East Area Building to ensure Sandusky wasn’t showering with kids, but I also know he carried a lot of weight on that campus and there was little he couldn’t influence. I know that I had to have my name on a list and show a student ID to an unforgiving university employee just to use the weight room at East Area. Perhaps all we needed was a snippy college girl there at all times with a bigger list.

So now the media is calling for us to take down the Paterno statue. I really don’t know what good it will do but I also don’t know why we need it up so bad. I wish it could remain as a testament to the good things Coach Paterno did but the fact is there are greater things at stake here. If taking down a hunk of bronze allows us to get back to what we hold dear then we need to. I know many may read this and think that what I mean by “greater things” is football. It is part of it yes. I will make no attempt to deny that. What football does is feed our university, fund athletics from badminton to wrestling, endow our campus with one of the finest research institutions in the world, and provide a lifeblood to a region which would otherwise have cattle outnumber people. If we can save all that by taking down a statue we need to. I think Coach would agree.

Removing a statue does nothing to remove what Joe Paterno means to me. I never liked the damn thing anyways.  I still am overwhelmingly proud to call Penn State my alma mater and I believe in the ideals Coach Paterno preached to his players.  Besides, if you want to take down the physical manifestation of Joe Paterno’s accomplishments, you’d have to take down State College, Pennsylvania.