Hard to believe that its been 10 years since Sandusky was arrested for child abuse, and the grand jury presentment with Paterno's damning statement about being told about Sandusky's actions.
In a few days, it will also be the 10 year anniversary of Cook's "Let the healing begin statement."
What was fascinating to me about the whole thing was the way the extreme Paterno defenders were willing to throw Paterno's intelligence under the bus to defend his moral integrity, publicly, and apparently, in their own minds. If you're younger and don't remember, for years (decades), PSU fans would wax on and on about how Paterno was SO MUCH MORE than a football coach. He was a highly educated, Ivy League graduate, who loved to read the classics. Huge contibutor to the university library, adamant that his players understood the value of an education, and interested in the issues of the day including politics (he spoke at Bush's nominating convention).
Then, when the scandal broke and Paterno's own words confirmed he been told about Sandusky, these fans parsed his words to argue that while he was told, he didn't understand what he was told because....he was just-a-football-coach. Other than football, Joe didn't know nuttin' bout nuttin'. He was the only adult in America that never heard of men preying on boys, offering up a stupid argument about how he grew up in a different time, and they didn't know about these sorta things. John McCain called BS on that by the way, because it was insulting to that whole generation...they knew then when they were young, and oh btw, if even they hadn't, they weren't living in a cave for the past 50 years and would've learned about it as everyone younger had.
The cleaner and simple way to defend Paterno would've been to say that Joe should've come forward but didn't, but that many others didn't either, in this and in many other similar incidents. Coming forward was not common then, and while he should've, he was far from alone.
But, since they had elevated Paterno to a perfect godlike icon, admitting any moral failure/shortcoming was unthinkable. So they defended him by reducing him to being the village idiot.
In a few days, it will also be the 10 year anniversary of Cook's "Let the healing begin statement."
What was fascinating to me about the whole thing was the way the extreme Paterno defenders were willing to throw Paterno's intelligence under the bus to defend his moral integrity, publicly, and apparently, in their own minds. If you're younger and don't remember, for years (decades), PSU fans would wax on and on about how Paterno was SO MUCH MORE than a football coach. He was a highly educated, Ivy League graduate, who loved to read the classics. Huge contibutor to the university library, adamant that his players understood the value of an education, and interested in the issues of the day including politics (he spoke at Bush's nominating convention).
Then, when the scandal broke and Paterno's own words confirmed he been told about Sandusky, these fans parsed his words to argue that while he was told, he didn't understand what he was told because....he was just-a-football-coach. Other than football, Joe didn't know nuttin' bout nuttin'. He was the only adult in America that never heard of men preying on boys, offering up a stupid argument about how he grew up in a different time, and they didn't know about these sorta things. John McCain called BS on that by the way, because it was insulting to that whole generation...they knew then when they were young, and oh btw, if even they hadn't, they weren't living in a cave for the past 50 years and would've learned about it as everyone younger had.
The cleaner and simple way to defend Paterno would've been to say that Joe should've come forward but didn't, but that many others didn't either, in this and in many other similar incidents. Coming forward was not common then, and while he should've, he was far from alone.
But, since they had elevated Paterno to a perfect godlike icon, admitting any moral failure/shortcoming was unthinkable. So they defended him by reducing him to being the village idiot.
