I know that in the past week, basically everything there is to be said about Joe Paterno and his legacy has already been said, but I wrote this little editorial for my school paper and figured I might as well post it here as well. Enjoy.
When most public figures die at the age Paterno did, their legacies are already well established. Their obituaries are already written and the only thing that needs to be added is the date and cause of death. The same could have been said about Paterno until a few months ago when Jerry Sandusy, an assistant coach under Paterno for three decades, was indicted and arrested for forty two counts of child molestation over a fifteen year period. According to a grand jury investigation, Paterno was alerted to an alleged case of sexual assault by Sandusky in 2002 and reported it to his immediate superior and other university officials, but never the police. These revelations, of Paterno fulfilling a legal, but not a moral responsibility, led to Paterno’s dismissal as Penn State’s football coach on November 9 after 46 seasons leading the Nittany Lions.
In the aftermath of this scandal, we are still struggling to make sense of all that has happened in recent months and how it fits into the preconceived model of Paterno that had already been established for decades. He was seen as a shining light of academic and athletic integrity, the last remnant of more noble days as the sport became more commercialized and more compromises were made for the sake of winning. With these recent revelations, the idea of Joe Paterno died before the man himself did.
In hindsight, it was a legacy that no man should have been expected to sustain, but amazingly, for over four decades he did. In 1986, Sports Illustrated named him their Sportsman of the Year and a glowing article written about him calls him “a beacon of integrity” and lists several other achievements, which make him sound more mythical than human. Even the author seems amazed that a man who balances both academic and athletic success, and whose team personifies those same virtues, could exist in the era of Barry Switzer’s and Jimmy Johnson’s successful yet brash Oklahoma and Miami teams.
In 1980, a cover story from Sports Illustrated on Paterno after a mediocre season led with him saying, “there’s a lot of people who think I’m a phony and now they think they have the proof.” In 1980, he was speaking of his skills as a football coach, but now, 32 years later, the words are even more applicable, but instead in regards to his integrity as a human being.
Now the man is gone, but Penn State is left with a statue erected to represent victory and integrity that now can also be seen to represent moral compromise. Meanwhile, everyone who ever cared about the man is left struggling to figure out what to think about him.
What can we make of his legacy now in light of all that has happened and been revealed? Do we continue to lionize him or should his legacy be entirely demythologized?
What needs to be realized is that Paterno was neither a hero nor a villain, but a flawed human as opposed to the mythical hero he was portrayed as for the final three decades of his life. It would certainly be a mistake to assume that an amendment to the end of his already written obituary is all that is needed just as it would be a mistake to act as if every positive thing he did for Penn State University and college sports has suddenly ceased to exist.
We simply need to embrace nuance and realize that condemning his actions in regards to the Sandusky scandal and praising his coaching skills and promotion of academic integrity are not mutually exclusive actions.
Legendary Alabama head coach Bear Bryant diagrams a play during a 1980 photo shoot for TIME Magazine. The Crimson Tide could use some of their old coach’s brainpower as they prepare for Monday’s BCS Championship Game against LSU. (Neil Leifer/SI)
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Lee Corso drops an f bomb on College Gameday, Kirk and Chris lose their minds.
Obit of the Day (Historical): Marshall University Football Team (1970)
On the evening of November 14, 1970 the Marshall University football team, most of the coaching staff* and several students and fans boarded a flight from North Carolina to West Virginia. At approximately 7:45 pm, a few thousand feet from landing, the plane hit a tree-lined mountain and crashed. All seventy-five passengers and crew were killed, including the entire football team. It was the worst sports-related crash in history. Equipment malfunction, and possible pilot error, were considered the probable factors in the Marshall disaster.
(Coincidentally, a few days before the accident a U.S. Army aircraft went down in nearly the same location killing three soliders and injuring a fourth. And just six weeks prior, on October 2, Wichita State University lost half of its football team in an unrelated air crash in Colorado.)
The remainder of the 1970 season was cancelled and the the future of the entire football program was debated. A little known fact was that the Thundering Herd were placed probation during the 1970 season by the NCAA after they discovered 144 recruiting violations the season before. Acting president Donald Dedmon thought it best to simply shut down the football program. But students and fans, as well as new coach Jack Lengyel convinced Dedmon to allow the program to rebuild. (The aftermath of the Marshall disaster was made famous in the fictionalized film account, We Are Marshall.)
*Two Marshall coaches, Red Dawson and Gail Parker, were not on the flight, heading instead on a recruiting trip to Virginia.
Besides the plane crashes involving Marshall and Wichita State, there is a long history of sports-related transportation disasters, which is no surprise based on the amount of travel by teams. Some of the most well-known incidents:
February 15, 1961 - U.S. Figure Skating Team - The entire U.S. team died in a plane crash in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where they were to participate in the world championships. Nice piece on the 50th anniversary by Frank DeFord for NPR here.
October 13, 1972 - Old Christians Club rugby team - Flying over the Andes, a Uruguayan Air Force plane crashed. Passengers on the flight included the rugby club from Chile. Eighteen passengers and crew died within eight days. Twenty-two others survived. Only sixteen were rescued, two months after the crash, having resorted to cannibalism to survive. The disaster was recounted in the book and film, Alive!.
December 13, 1977 - Evansville University men’s basketball team - The entire team was killed when their overloaded DC-3 crashed en route to a game versus Middle Tennesee State. Tragically, the one member of the team who was not on the plane died soon after in an auto accident.
September 7, 2011 - Yaroslavl Lokomotiv - Russia professional hockey team crashed upon takeoff, killing thirty-seven players, coaches and staff.
(Image of the 1970 Marshall University football team is copyright of Marshall University.)
Some Very Rough and Fairly Brief Thoughts on Andrew Luck
Tonight, Andrew Luck and Stanford lost to Oregon 53-30 overcome by an overwhelming offensive attack that the Cardinal were unable to match essentially killing any chance Stanford had of playing in the National Title Game and any chance that Andrew Luck had of winning the Heisman. Now, I want to write about Luck and I come neither to bury or praise him, but remain indifferent towards him.
I live in Indiana, attending a small liberal arts school about an hour north of Indianapolis. The Colts hold their training camp on my campus and the city comes together more for this training camp than for any other event or holiday. While there are several other fanbases represented on campus, Sundays are largely devoted to the Colts. This year, past the season’s midway point, the Colts are winless and with no hope of a playoff birth, many are cheering to the Colts to lose the rest of their games, finishing winless in order to secure the first overall pick so they can draft Andrew Luck. Suck for Luck has become a catchy and well known phrase to anyone who follows the NFL and a rallying cry for several inept teams. Luck’s universal acceptance as the best prospect and consensus number one pick has caught me off guard, not that I am unaware of who Luck is or how good he is, but instead throughout this season, I have been more enamored with several other quarterbacks such as Brandon Weeden, Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III, Kellen Moore, Tajh Boyd, and Case Keenum. This is not to suggest that I would pick all or any of these players ahead of Luck, but the universal consensus of Luck’s greatness over all other prospects has continually caught me off guard despite the fact that all these players have their obvious issues as prospects.
A large part of Luck’s universal acceptance as a future NFL quarterback is the simple demarcation between what can work in college and can work in the NFL. The pattern for success in the NFL has already been set and adhered to for decades with unwavering devotion. While innovations and shifts do arise, they occur uniformly with no single team bearing a truly unique offensive style. While the Saints may pass more than any other team in the league by a large enough margin to be noticeable, it is not a large enough margin to be truly unique. Luck simply fits the mold of what is predetermined to work in the NFL; he is a consistent and intelligent quarterback who can read defenses quickly with both good arm strength and accuracy. He is regarded by some as the best prospect in over a decade, but these characterizations and prognostications of greatness do less to set him apart and instead make him into a prototype, dulling whatever unique qualities he may have. He also already has polish with the media, always saying the right things where it has reached the point that the next interesting or revealing interview with him I see will be the first. Luck has essentially become the Tim Duncan of college football: a reliable and consistent star whose greatness is unquestioned, but a player that few fans will flock to watch due to consistency and a lack of distinct stylistic flair.
At no point this year have I wanted to watch Andrew Luck play. Maybe I just don’t have the proper appreciation for pro-style pocket quarterbacks, but for whatever reason I have sought out other individuals to watch. With a Luck performance, I can predict to a fairly certain extent what I am going to get from him: a very good game, but within a certain range of excellence. In both 2010 and 2011, Luck has never had a game in which he has thrown less than two touchdowns or more than four. Also, he has never thrown for more than 400 yards in a game in these two years. There is no signature performance comparable to Denard Robinson’s game against Notre Dame last year in which he accumulated over 500 yards of total offense, Robert Griffin III’s masterful game against TCU to open this season, or Case Keenum’s 9 touchdown performance from a few weeks ago. It’s rare for a player to be this consistent in a sport where, by their very nature, careers are so very ephemeral. It says a lot that Luck’s most notable play this year had him catching the ball instead of throwing it.
Ladies and gentlemen, the A.J. Graham era is underway and it’s looking good!
USC RB Reggie Bush somersaults into the endzone during a 2004 game against UCLA. Bush had split the Bruins’ defense and scampered 65 yards for the score. USC won the game 29-24, but were forced to vacate the victory after the NCAA ruled Bush received improper benefits while a college student. (John W. McDonough/SI)
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I miss this Reggie Bush, the one of limitless possibilities and tons of untapped potential that will never be recovered.
