Nobody will remember Joe Paterno as the coach who won more Divison I college football games than anyone else in the history of the sport. Nobody will ever remember that his teams had some of the highest graduation rates among the sport. Those spotless credentials will never, ever be brought up again in the same sentence with the hated Joe Paterno.
He will only be remembered for his shameful protection of a pedophile on his staff, overlooking the safety of children in his efforts to keep his legacy and that of Penn State's clean. Joe Paterno himself is now one of the most hated men in football history, perhaps trailing only OJ Simpson in that regard.
OJ himself is very similar to JoPa: nobody will ever remember his Heismann Trophy OJ Simpson won at USC. Nobody will every remember his record breaking 2,000 yard rushing season as a running back for the Buffalo Bills. None of that ever comes up when speaking of OJ. He is only remembered for murdering two people in cold blood, and getting away with it.
Also included in this club is Richard Nixon. Nixon was one of the most successful politicians in U.S. history. Is Richard Nixon remembered for serving nearly two decades as one of the leading members of the Republican Party, two terms as Vice President of the United States, and two successful elections to the Presidency of the U. S.? Nobody remembers any of that. Nobody remembers Nixon opening the trade doors to China through 'ping pong diplomacy,' nope, that stuff has been buried forever when talking about Richard Nixon. Nixon is only remembered for the Watergate cover up, and his fall from grace in 1974.
Joe Paterno has now joined that loathsome rogue's gallery of the once mighty who have fallen farther from grace than anybody else in our culture's memory.
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5 comments:
And yet, there are rabid fans out there who still defend him...
On another site I was reading about a controversy regarding a statue of Paterno. Some want to get rid of it, some want to keep it. I like what one commenter said: "We should just spin it around so he can continue looking the other way"
Every time I see this Penn State cover-up of pathetic and evil proportion, I think of Johnny Miller every time he narrates a golf tournament after some golfer hits his ball into the woods then tries to make an impossible shot to the green and ends up 4 times worse off, than if he just pitched the ball back into the fairway.
"When you got in trouble, Get Out Of Trouble." !
Joe Paterno was always a monster.
He won football games exactly by being a monster.
He was smart in terms of football stategy, but he was a monster, just ask anyone who ever played for him.
He taught, trained and "developed" his charges by treating them like a monster treats people.
Only his teams won so much that everyone, I mean everyone, overlooked his monsterhood and fed him praise and kudos.
He never knew the concept of teaching by showing dignity and respect to his players.
You can force a person to do what you want him to with fear and intimidation.
What he never realized is that you can raise people to the point of being willing to do anything for you willingly if you treat them with dignity and respect.
He was a monster personally, morally, spiritually and by practically every other measure.
And he did well as a monster for a season.
But as with all seasons, Fall is coming.
And great is his Fall.
He might have had a high graduation rate but who knows now if it was legit or not? How far did his turning the other way GO?
It's very sad when people who've done other wise good things, though, suddenly find their good things so tarnished with the bad. Good point, Fredd.
I can't help but mention that every time I think of Nixon, I wonder how many on the left have done so much worse but nobody was there to catch them.
I sincerely hope that's not also true in colleges where nobody caught other pedophiles or coaches who turned the other way.
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