No Sympathy
We watched the HBO Paterno movie over the weekend.
Al Pacino did a great job of capturing the coach, and about halfway through I asked my beautiful wife if she thought that Paterno deserved to be fired, vilified and even charged for what happened at Penn State.
“He seemed confused by it,” she said. “I don’t think he knew.”
We kicked it around a little.
The whispers about Sandusky started 20-some years before all the shot went down.
At least twice, Paterno was directly told about it.
“He reported it,” Kathy said.
“And then he blew it off. Worse than that, he made sure it stayed quiet.”
Once again, I could feel myself getting angry.
I went back in time to an old blog I’d written about it.
“The kids were ten years old!” I had screamed. “Who cares about your football program or your precious name!”
I still feel that way.
The entire football thing got so big that Paterno, who seemed like a good man, just couldn’t control it anymore.
He knew that it would tear everything down.
“He just cared about football,” Kathy said.
“Exactly.”
The film did a good job of showing the passion of the Penn State fans, and the fans of Paterno.
There are plenty of people who are still more than willing to defend the coach, but the crux of the matter boiled down to a single sentence that Pacino uttered as Paterno.
“I tried to build a name that would last,” he moans. “Now it’s all gone.”
That’s exactly what he feared when he first heard about the abuse.
His life ended in turmoil.
Sandusky will never see the light of day.
Penn State was pretty good last year.
Paterno is in the ground.
All that lingers is lingering in the hearts and minds of all those kids who were abused.
I felt the anger rising in me again...
...I hope that time doesn’t rewrite things...
...and that statue is never put back on that campus.
Joe Pa needed to do more.
Way more.
Al Pacino did a great job of capturing the coach, and about halfway through I asked my beautiful wife if she thought that Paterno deserved to be fired, vilified and even charged for what happened at Penn State.
“He seemed confused by it,” she said. “I don’t think he knew.”
We kicked it around a little.
The whispers about Sandusky started 20-some years before all the shot went down.
At least twice, Paterno was directly told about it.
“He reported it,” Kathy said.
“And then he blew it off. Worse than that, he made sure it stayed quiet.”
Once again, I could feel myself getting angry.
I went back in time to an old blog I’d written about it.
“The kids were ten years old!” I had screamed. “Who cares about your football program or your precious name!”
I still feel that way.
The entire football thing got so big that Paterno, who seemed like a good man, just couldn’t control it anymore.
He knew that it would tear everything down.
“He just cared about football,” Kathy said.
“Exactly.”
The film did a good job of showing the passion of the Penn State fans, and the fans of Paterno.
There are plenty of people who are still more than willing to defend the coach, but the crux of the matter boiled down to a single sentence that Pacino uttered as Paterno.
“I tried to build a name that would last,” he moans. “Now it’s all gone.”
That’s exactly what he feared when he first heard about the abuse.
His life ended in turmoil.
Sandusky will never see the light of day.
Penn State was pretty good last year.
Paterno is in the ground.
All that lingers is lingering in the hearts and minds of all those kids who were abused.
I felt the anger rising in me again...
...I hope that time doesn’t rewrite things...
...and that statue is never put back on that campus.
Joe Pa needed to do more.
Way more.
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