Penn State Football: Why the School Will Never Rename Stadium for Joe Paterno

Should Penn State rename Beaver Stadium after former head coach Joe Paterno? You could make a solid argument as to why they should, but it will never happen.

Penn State is one of the most prestigious programs in the country. They've won over 800 games all-time, won two national titles, produce some of the best NFL talent and are simply one of the most well-known programs out there that takes the field on Saturdays.

But all of that can be forgotten in the blink of an eye, as we witnessed last year. The college football world was rocked when former player and defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was accused of allegedly sexually molesting young boys on the Penn State campus, of all places.

Now maybe that has nothing to do with coach Paterno, but the fact that he knew about what was going on and didn't step up when nobody else would makes him somewhat guilty as well. Even Paterno himself felt guilt and said he wishes he would have done more, in his last interview given before he died on the whole mess that blew up last year:

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“I should have said ‘Hey where are we with this thing?’ ” Paterno said. He described himself as paralyzed by the unthinkable subject matter. He had “backed away,” he said, and trusted his bosses to handle it.

“I didn’t know which way to go,” he said. “And rather than get in there and make a mistake . . .”

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A recent poll says that Penn State should rename the stadium in honor of Paterno. But even the poll shows some doubt, considering only 46 percent are in favor, and 40 percent disagree with the idea. That's not exactly definitive if you ask me.

There were a lot of people within the program that knew what was going on, and Paterno was one of them. Either nobody wanted to do something about it, or didn't know exactly how to handle it.

This topic has really been beaten to death, and everybody will have different emotions about the whole thing. But this is still an ongoing investigation that involves arguably the biggest college football scandal of all-time. And whether we like it or not, Paterno's name will forever be tied to it in one way or another. Two national championships, 409 wins and 24 bowl victories will never change that.

The place where the Nittany Lions play will forever be named Beaver Stadium, at least for now.