Joe Paterno knew of Jerry Sandusky's disgusting acts. Let's all say it together: Joe. Paterno. Knew. Why are three words so difficult to comprehend?
Joe Paterno won a bunch of football games. Congrats. Congrats on a hugely successful career teaching young men how to push a ball past a line while preventing the other team from doing the same. Congrats on the 409 wins, 24 bowl wins, three Big Ten titles and two national championships. Congrats on the coaching awards, Hall of Fame induction and dozens of NFL Draft picks.
Those are remarkable accomplishments that can never be erased. Nor will the remarkable ignorance and failure to protect children from a pedophile.
I'm long past the point of bewilderment as I watch Joe Paterno defenders praise the former head coach's character. Still, when 298 former Penn State players lauded Paterno as a man with "character, integrity and [a] moral compass" my jaw dropped.
Joe Paterno knew of Jerry Sandusky's disgusting acts. Let's all say it together: Joe. Paterno. Knew. Why are three words so difficult to comprehend?
Those 298 players were so disgusted with HBO's "Paterno" movie that they wrote this statement in response (via Fox 43 News):
As Penn State Lettermen, there was never a question that one day we would see a movie made about Joe Paterno, one that showcased his impact on the game of football, on Penn State University and, on the thousands of men he coached and mentored over his 61-year career.
Sadly — and wrongly — HBO’s ‘Paterno’ is not that movie.
It has been described by producer Barry Levinson as a work of fiction, which is likely the only truth in the entire project. Incredibly, in making the movie, Levinson and his team never consulted a single person who was close to, worked with, or was coached by Joe Paterno. Not even family members or us, who undoubtedly knew him best of all.
As a result, this uninformed depiction of Joe fails in every manner about the man we knew and loved. Deviously using ‘fiction’ as his shield, Levinson takes shameless liberties about the Sandusky scandal and Joe’s knowledge of it that would certainly be proven libelous if Joe were alive today.
As a coach, educator and philanthropist, Joe Paterno was a positive force in our lives, molding us not only to win games, but to win in life. His character, integrity, and moral compass will live on in us long after the ill-gotten ratings of this reckless attempt at entertainment fades away.
The first four paragraphs are fair. They can be upset with Levinson at his "work of fiction" that, in their opinion, does not paint an accurate portrait of the Joe Paterno they knew. After the first 171 words, they should've stopped writing and signed their names. Instead, it ended with a fifth paragraph that praised the Paterno they knew.
"His character, integrity, and moral compass will live on in us…"
Wow. I sure as hell hope not.
I sure as hell hope the moral compass of Paterno — a man who knew of Jerry Sandusky's acts on at minimum two prior occasions (1998 and 2001) before Sandusky was caught and did not do enough to stop it — is not in anyone else. I hope that character and integrity does not live on.
Stop praising this man.
