A truly great man passed away today after losing his battle with cancer. Joe "Papa Joe" Paterno was the winningest coach in football history, even surpassing the record of a lesser known football coach, Eddie Robinson, the legendary coach of the Grambling Tigers. Joe Patterno eventually won more games, but only in the 2011 football season. But Joe Paterno was about more than winning football games. He was a man of principle, a man who walked tall just as he talked. With Joe Paterno what you saw and heard was who you got. His football coaching as well as the life lessons he passed on to his athletes and to the students of Penn State as well have lived on in the thousands of lives he touched over the years.
I cannot remember a time in my life that he was not leading the Penn State Nittany Lions, striving for victory, but always urging the best from his team no matter the outcome. It was the same with his life. He always urged the best from himself and from those around him, even from those, like me, who never knew him except from his larger than life persona seen each fall on sports television. It speaks volumes for this man that his influence spread so far beyond those he knew in day to day life, spreading all over the nation by the time he was asked to leave Penn State last month.
There are those already rearing their heads in the news and in sports commentary proffering their solemn praise of Joe Paterno, but then always qualifying their stories with statements like "until the news broke in December" or "he walked the walk until Coach Sandusky was indicted." As if Joe Paterno was the one who abused those children, or even that he was the one who did not go to the police. Joe Paterno took Coach McQueary personally to the powers that be (or were) at Penn State. That was his job - he did it. He did not witness the act McQueary saw, who by the way DID NOT call the police when he saw the rape in progress.
I for one do not "qualify" my respect for Coach Paterno with caveats like those above. I believe Paterno did all if not more than he needed to do. I think this opinion is borne out by the statements of regret and rehashing later made by Penn State officials as they came to realize that they had done a great injustice themselves by bowing to pressure from the howling talking heads of the media who were screaming for Paterno's head, while paying scant attention to the facts regarding the discovery of Sandusky's criminal attack on a poor young man. I respect Joe Paterno and honor him for his commitment to his athletes as well as the other students that walked the halls of Penn State over the years. I admire him for being the great football coach he was, standing in the same light with Bear Bryant or Bobby Bowden. But I admire him most for carrying his talk right into his walk, for caring about those around him, for his desire to share his experiences with young people in order to help them become all they could be.
It is truly a measure of the character of the various talking heads, the various college officials, and yes, even the general public, who joined in the pathetic hue and cry for the head of Joe Paterno instead of simply praising the justice system for the arrest and indictment of Coach Sandusky. Remember him? The guy that molested all those boys? Paterno did what he was supposed to do, and Sandusky is in the process of receiving that lot that falls to child molesters. I admire someone else for his courageous honesty in the face of this most undeserved firestorn, too. Jay Paterno stood tall and told the talking heads that if he won the Big Ten Championship, he would take a "sticky note" and replace his father's name on that grand award, the Stagg-Paterno Trophy, that the Penn officials had removed with the haste borne of desperation in the face of the media outcry.
Joe Paterno is gone now, but his legend lives on, unblemished and unmarred. I wonder if anyone will be able to say the same for the talking heads and the Penn state officials who brought so much undeserved pain and heartache to Joe Paterno. I somehow doubt it. In fact, I believe that most of these people will leave the same mark in this world that one leaves in a bucket of water when he removes his finger tip. Think about that for a minute.
Rest in Peace, Papa Joe, and my deepest sympathy and prayers to the Paterno family.
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