Penn State Football Scandal: What Does It Say about Us as a Nation?

The first thing to understand about this column is that it's not an "excuse" designed to somehow rationalize the deplorable behavior of those within the Penn State Athletic Department. It's also in no way whatsoever  designed to exonerate, excuse or in any way shape or form lessen the levels of disgust that most people myself included likely feel regarding Jerry Sandusky and the actions he is accused of committing. 

With all of that being out of the way it's very much worth exploring some of the various rationales given in an attempt to somehow excuse the behavior within the Penn State Athletic Department and specifically those of former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. 

Among the most popular rationales for the defense of Joe Paterno is that he's a "good guy" who has raised a ton of money for Penn State over the years. The rational continues to state that Paterno did exactly what anyone in an business was supposed to do by reporting the alleged incident which he did not witness first hand to his superiors. If you don't believe that, I'd direct you to this frequently "shared" public note on Facebook by a Penn State alum which is just chock full of baseless rationalizations and has decided that (as usual) it's the media's fault (yawn).

The fact that a lot of what was said in my previous paragraph is in many ways true is a major problem for our society. First of all, at what point did raising a lot of money become some sort of automatic moral standard of success? Financial success and being a good person are not in any way shape or form inexplicably linked. There are some very good people in this world that have wealth, there are also some very good people that don't. Their level of wealth or even worse, their ability to raise money shouldn't have anything to do with it. 

The ability to sell something isn't a good or bad character quality. It's merely a skill set. Yes, Joe Paterno raised a ton of money for the Penn State football program and the University as a whole over the course of his career. Yes, some of those things such as libraries have been very beneficial to numerous students over the years. That's great. It doesn't make Joe Paterno a good person though. I find it ironic that a society which watches so many movies seems to so often miss the point of the movies. 

In the movie a "A Few Good Men" Jack Nicholson's character Nathan Jessup uses his ability to defend a nation and rank as a high level Marine as a rational to allow a substandard Marine to be murdered in an act of Marine Corp self-policing. At the end of the movie, in spite of Jessup's total confidence that what he allowed to happen would "save lives," he went to jail. That's because his set of values quite simply did not match up with the values that we as a nation are supposed to stand for. 

In the movie "New Jack City," Wesley Snipes plays an uptown Manhattan drug lord. In spite of ruling over numerous blocks of upper Manhattan with a murderous regime, he routinely hands out food in an effort to paint himself as a pillar of the community. Of course what he's really buying is a form of credit. He can't have people questioning who he is or what he does within the community. So he tries to buy them off. 

No, I'm not equating Joe Paterno to either Nathan Jessup or Nino Brown. There are, however, some eerie similarities here. Brown's motivations as a drug lord were much darker than Paterno's, but his actions to "give back" to the community do pay off (not at the end of the movie but along the way they do).

Paterno was no where near the angry and brooding character that Nathan Jessup was, but as Jessup says at climactic end of the movie  "I did my job, I'd do it again, I'm gonna get on a plane and go on back to my base." This of course is the same sort of total disconnect from the reality of what the character thinks he is standing for and how his very actions have betrayed what he stands for. If you don't agree then I'd urge you to reread Joe Paterno's retirement statement from this past Wednesday Morning. 

My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this university." 

If Joe Paterno had a grip on the reality of the storm swirling around him, then that final statement would never have been made. It was of course his commitments to his players and staff that in many ways blinded him to the severity of the crimes being committed by a former member of his staff and witnessed by a current one.

As for "helping the university" it's safe to say that he missed out on his chance back in 2002. For had Joe Paterno been courageous enough to raise hell in order to make sure that these alleged incidents stop not only on the Penn State campus, but off them as well, he'd be more than just a great football coach, he'd be a literal hero. He'd have validated the deified status afforded to him by the throngs of Penn State football fans. Instead he "got on a plane and went on back to his base."

Movies are of course in most cases fiction. But fiction can hold value. After all, these films aren't written by fictional human beings. They're written by real people who have real values and in many cases are trying to say something. It seems like we as a society are watching these movies, we're enjoying these movies, but we're not really listening to them. Maybe we're just listening to the parts that tell us how great we are but not the ones that cast a more critical light? Maybe it's something else though? 

Back to the rational about how what Joe Paterno did was follow a code that is followed in companies and corporations all over the nation and the world. When you see something wrong you "go to your superior." I love the constant questioning of "if you were in Paterno's shoes you'd have done the same thing." I'm absolutely sure that's true as well as glaringly false. Were there people who would have acted the same? Of course there are. Were there people who would have raised hell and called the police? Yes they're out there as well.

To somehow allow us to follow the lower standard as a way to exonerate a "good guy" is a nice way to perpetually lower our standards as a society.

No more self initiative folks, no more individual thoughts, just "report it to your superior" as graduate assistant coach McQueary did and as his boss Joe Paterno did as well. Paterno backers who are angry at McQueary may want to contemplate where he would have learned such spineless qualities.

McQueary was born in State College PA, went to Penn State for four years, graduated in 1997 and returned in 2000 as a graduate assistant. In other words Joe Paterno has been his coach, mentor and boss for nearly his entire adult life. 

Business ethics and the directives of Human Resource Departments are not always terrible for individual businesses but they're also not ways to run a nation. They're all predicated on the protection of business interests. Those interests are profit. A nation should be run on human interests, not business ones.

Yes, of course we live in a world where those two interests intersect, but how we as a nation choose to strike that balance says a ton about who we are as a people. Paterno defenders need to take a long hard look at what they're defending. Even if Joe Paterno did what he was supposed to do in that circumstance, maybe it's worth exploring why he was "supposed to do that" in the first place?

Business interests are a hot topic in our nation right now. We live in a capitalist society and exist in an international economy that is rooted in capitalism as well. To continue as a decent society though we need to explore just how much we allow profit to determine personal value. Wealthy is just wealthy, that's all—nothing else.

Raising money can be very beneficial but it should not excuse anyone from being held accountable. Joe Paterno funded a library, thank you very much, that's wonderful. Maybe Penn State will need to sell that library now to afford the numerous civil lawsuits that are likely and deservedly coming down the road.

As I've stated before, Joe Paterno's past deeds which as Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist Christine Flowers put it, "built Penn State," don't excuse him from this. That claim also ignores the fact that his lack of action on this issue may come close to tearing down Penn State as well. 

In the end the best thing people can do is to forget about Joe Paterno. By that I mean barring his appearance on a police blotter related to this case. In spite of his desire to remain a part of the university, I don't see it happening. Alleged child rape as Penn State is likely already finding out, is bad for fundraising. Joe Paterno isn't Penn State though. Penn State is a massive university made up of over 40,000 undergraduate students alone.

Last night, approximately 10,000 of them showed up to attend a candlelight vigil in honor of the real victims of this series of heinous acts: the innocent children, more of which seem to be surfacing as the scandal grows in size and scope.

Ten thousand is almost a quarter of the entire student body. They didn't spend their Friday night drinking or partying as most stereotypes of college students would suggest. They spent it or at least some of it attending a vigil in honor of victims that in all likelihood none of them knew. If that's Penn State University, then ultimately it will be fine. Joe Paterno? He's just the ex football coach.