Penn State Football: Grambling's Call for Vacated Paterno Wins Is Misguided

We like Eddie Robinson around here. We do. It's long been a shame that his coaching record has gone under-appreciated for so long, especially when the "major college" label was applied to lesser win totals in order to get Robinson off the top of the record books when he had the career mark for wins.

Robinson was Joe Paterno before Joe Paterno, and (as far as we know) without the horrifying skeletons in his closet. That the Sandusky scandal broke days after Paterno broke Robinson's all-time win mark is...well, it's something. 

That all said, according to the Shreveport Times, there's a petition from the city of Grambling to restore Robinson's name to the top of the collegiate win record ("major college" be damned), and that's by asking the NCAA to vacate Paterno's wins in the wake of the scandal: 

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The Grambling city attorney, in concert with Mayor Edward Jones, has sent a letter to the NCAA asking the college athletics governing body to vacate some of Penn State coach Joe Paterno's wins in order to restore the Division I football victories record to Grambling State's Eddie Robinson.

Pamela Breedlove of Bossier City sent a three page letter to the NCAA on Wednesday, explaining the city's position regarding Robinson, who won 408 games in his 57-year career at Grambling State.

“Even though it was done by outside counsel, the Freeh Report was the university’s report,” Breedlove said. “It said what their employees, including coach Paterno, did wrong. We’re hoping the end result of this is coach Robinson will get his record back so everyone will think a great man holds this record.”

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Again: We like Eddie Robinson. But asking the NCAA to play morality police with its records is so far removed from the principles of sport that it boggles the mind. To do so in Robinson's name only cheapens his legacy.

Joe Paterno, for his faults, came by those wins honestly and fairly. They're his. Nobody has ever disputed that, and not even Breedlove's petition disputes that. Paterno may be a scoundrel, but if so, he's a scoundrel who won 409 games, and Robinson won 408. That's just how it is.

Also, granted, this is likely nothing more than a good-faith (if easy) effort on behalf of the city to show support for its local football program and its late beloved coach. Breedlove is an attorney, so she's probably smart enough to know the petition's going to be ignored by the NCAA. But if that was never the reason for filing it in the first place, then the petition's work is already done.

Eddie Robinson is a good man. Nobody disputes that. And in a situation with two coaches where one has the win record by one game and the other is an indisputably good man, which would you rather your coach be? We're guessing it's the latter.

We guess the latter because of one simple truth, and it's a truth that Breedlove and the rest of Grambling's fans would be wise to remind themselves of: character trumps wins. So let's not go equating the two instead.