by FREEHdom Fighter Jeffrey Simons
Joe Posnanski's
reflection on Joe Paterno's life in the biography Paterno accomplishes a rare feat for non-fiction: it is
extremely well researched and well written, engaging and informative, and will
please none of its readers. The Paterno haters will despise the fact that
it is NOT a 373 page indictment of Joe Paterno, the devil that was created in
November 2011 by some of the real villains of this tragedy. No grand
conspiracy of silence is revealed, no cover up, no evidence a great coach and
teacher willfully put the souls of young children on the back burner for the
greater glory of football..
Nor will the millions of alumni and adoring fans be pleased
by reliving the 2 months of hell the Board of Trustees laid at Paterno's feet
as he was dying of cancer. Ultimately, Posnanski perfectly captures the
tough but moral landscape in which Paterno was raised, and the 2 driving forces
of his life that served as both virtues and deep flaws: Joe's need to
live up to his parents' expectations (and his constant doubt he was doing so);
and his unwavering belief in the goodness and potential of those around
him. It was this latter trait, coupled
with his sense of fair play and due process, which ultimately created a tragic
blind spot when it came to the cunning child predator in his midst, Jerry
Sandusky.
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Posnanski’s book is cast as an opera, with chapter titles such as “Overture” and “Aria”. Indeed, Paterno’s life seemed destined for irrefutable greatness, and his downfall was so quick and so far that one might imagine it playing out like a Greek tragedy. Posnanski even cites Arthurian imagery in his opening pages:
“The
table in Joe and Sue Paterno’s kitchen was large and round, as if pulled from
Camelot.” – p. 5
It was in fact the second table built by Sue Pohland
Paterno’s father, August Pohland, and it served for decades as a focal
recruiting spot for the “knights” Joe would bring to the Penn State football
program. Throughout many tales from
former players and friends (including Paterno’s trusted sidekick Guido D’Elia),
we learn how Joe assembled his teams, one recruit or player at a time. And though he could be demanding beyond the
point of thoughtfulness, Paterno’s former players all shared the same
evaluation of their coach: a leader
whose lessons they often did not appreciate until many years later when the
demands of the world found them less challenged than when they played for Penn
State.
Paterno grew up in Brooklyn, where his father (Angelo) had
such a strong sense of justice and fairness, he founded the Interfaith Movement,
which sought racial and social equality.
His mother (Florence) was a constant driving force towards perfection,
and it was from her Joe derived one of his more famous quotes: “The will to win is important, but the will
to prepare is vital.”
After a brief stint in the Army, Paterno attended Brown
University. Though he and his younger brother
George excelled at football, another tale emerged from this time that would
exemplify Paterno’s strong moral code.
When a fraternity brother had anonymously voted to blackball a Jewish
pledge, Paterno stepped forward during a meeting of the brothers and falsely
admitted HE had voted to blackball the pledge, and wished to withdraw his
vote. He felt the person who had
initially done so was a bigot and a coward, and by stepping forward Paterno
knew he would not be challenged, and the Jewish pledge could then be accepted.
Angelo was a successful attorney, and had wanted Joe to
follow in his footsteps, but Joe’s coach at Brown – Rip Engle – implored Joe to
become his assistant football coach at a “cow college” in Central
Pennsylvania. Paterno took the position
to pay off some debts, and put his legal aspirations on hold. They stayed on hold for the rest of his
life. This would be a driving force for
Paterno . . . the feeling that Angelo may feel he was not living up to his
potential as a great litigator. But
Angelo expressed no disappointment; that would all be in Joe’s head for his
entire career. What his father told him
instead was: “Make an impact.”
For 16 years Joe served as a dutiful assistant under Engle,
leaving no time for a social life.
Posnanski writes:
“To players of the day, Assistant Coach Paterno seemed to be ever present. He was there when they went to class and there when they walked out. He was there when they ate, when they joked around, when they went on dates.” – p. 60
“To players of the day, Assistant Coach Paterno seemed to be ever present. He was there when they went to class and there when they walked out. He was there when they ate, when they joked around, when they went on dates.” – p. 60
For those who cling to the narrative that Joe Paterno was
“all powerful” in State College, an interesting event after the 1956 season is
one of the first to defy that notion.
Engle and his entire staff were recruited to coach at USC. Everyone voted to stay in State College
except Paterno. Ironically, the
disappointment he felt that day faded quickly, and he began to enjoy the quiet
community.
Paterno met Suzanne Pohland in 1959, and while their romance
bloomed, so did his success as an assistant coach. There were offers from the Baltimore Colts, Philadelphia Eagles,
Boston College, and most enticing was an offer by Yale in 1962 to be their head
coach. But his relationship with Sue
and his affection for State College made him stay:
“I’d just as soon stay here the rest of my life” – p. 69
“I’d just as soon stay here the rest of my life” – p. 69
Paterno was made head coach in 1966, and immediately set
about making an impact. Throughout his
entire career he approached adversity as a challenge to test his mettle both on
and off the field. Posnanski relates
tale after tale of players who butted heads with the obstinate and headstrong
Paterno, only to find later in life Joe’s heart and drive were in the right place. He pushed athletes beyond their limits (one
story relates US Marine Corps Drill Instructors commenting on a harsh Paterno
practice, that they would never get away with what Paterno forced his players
to endure), but he always put education first.
Thus was born “The Grand Experiment” . . . that Paterno would recruit young
men who were students first, athletes last.
His methods were often taxing and brutal, as he berated
players during practices and games:
“For
forty-six years, Paterno called them the same names when he was angry (boobs,
fatheads, con artists, hot shots, hot dogs, goofballs, knuckleheads) and
offered the same guarded praise when he was pleased (‘Do it like that on
Saturday!’ ‘That wasn’t the worst I’ve ever seen’) – p. 183
But he was not just building winning football teams; he was
building winning men who would live their lives after football with
intelligence, honor, and dignity. His
teams won 2 National Championships, had consecutive undefeated seasons in 1968
and 1969, went undefeated in 1973 and 1994 . . . but it was always the success
of the players OFF the field which built the reputation of Penn State
Football. The greatest source of pride
for Paterno was the high graduation rates, with no gap between white and black
players as with many other schools.
Even some of Paterno’s fiercest critics later in life had
been great admirers of his program.
Rick Reilly said before the 1987 Fiesta Bowl:
“Over the last three decades, nobody has stayed truer to the game and at the same time truer to himself than Joseph Vincent Paterno” – p. 215
“Over the last three decades, nobody has stayed truer to the game and at the same time truer to himself than Joseph Vincent Paterno” – p. 215
When defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky retired after the
1999 Alamo Bowl, many wondered when Paterno would follow suit. (Interesting to note in a chapter about
Sandusky’s retirement, Posnanski opens with this simple sentence: “The two men despised each other from the
start.” – p. 246).
Paterno kept a clipping from A.E. Hotchner’s book about
Ernest Hemingway, who described “retirement” as “the filthiest word in the language” – p.245
There is little doubt Paterno’s longevity had much to do with
his commitment to The Grand Experiment and his players, but as the twilight of
his career played out, he would repeatedly face heartbreak and
controversy. Amidst the losing season
of 2000, Paterno faced negative press for defending Rashard Casey amid
allegations he assaulted a police officer in a racially motivated fight (Casey
was exonerated). After losses to USC,
Toledo, and Pitt, Penn State was mired in a blow out by Ohio State.
After a hard hit on an OSU running back late in the game,
Adam Taliaferro lay motionless on the gridiron. Jay Paterno would later say he only saw his father cry
twice: when his mother Florence passed
away, and when he saw Adam paralyzed on the football field:
“I
think he felt like he had failed to protect Adam Taliaferro.” – p. 268
Taliaferro would eventually recover and run on to the field
during the home opener against Miami the next season, but his injury seemed to
take an emotional toll on Paterno. This
toll also seemed to carry over to the media, who Paterno said he no longer
trusted after that season.
In February 2001, another pivotal event brought much pain and
sadness to Paterno, an event that would eventually become his undoing 10 years
later. A graduate assistant named Mike
McQueary shocked Paterno one Saturday morning with the revelation that he had
seen former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky in the shower with a young boy
the night before. Though much has been
written about this event, and there is much speculation of what happened
afterwards, Posnanski makes one thing clear:
McQueary did not tell Paterno in full detail the seriousness of what he
later claimed in the Sandusky grand jury hearings and trials. And either due to his old school background
or McQueary’s reluctance to go into detail, it does not appear Paterno fully
grasped the severity of Sandusky’s crimes.
Joe in fact admitted he had to consult the University handbook to
understand what steps he needed to take to ensure this situation was handled
correctly.
At no point in the book does Posnanski suggest any element of
a willful cover up, or that Paterno had any knowledge of other victims of
Sandusky.
“Paterno would later say that if McQueary had told him he saw Sandusky raping a young boy, ‘We would have gone to the police right then and there, no questions asked.’” – p. 277
“Paterno would later say that if McQueary had told him he saw Sandusky raping a young boy, ‘We would have gone to the police right then and there, no questions asked.’” – p. 277
The 2001 season would be another losing season, and after a
brief return to glory with a 9 win season in 2002, Paterno’s teams would have
losing seasons in 2003 and 2004. Off
field incidents would further mar the team and Paterno’s reputation. But digging into his classical literature
background, Paterno rallied the program (and his career) behind Hamlet’s “to be
or not to be” soliloquy. About his
troubled players, he offered this take:
“I always thought it was my job to coach them and help them. I wasn’t going to hurt them and give up on them just so I could look good in the paper or some television report” – p. 296
“I always thought it was my job to coach them and help them. I wasn’t going to hurt them and give up on them just so I could look good in the paper or some television report” – p. 296
2005 saw a return to winning football, as Penn State was 2
controversial seconds away from another undefeated season. Penn State would not have another losing
season, until the NCAA vacated all wins dating back to 1998 as part of their
sanctions to correct the “football culture” they were erroneously led to
believe allowed Jerry Sandusky to victimize so many young boys.
One of Paterno’s last big battles, which would come back to
haunt him in 2011, was against Vice President of Student Affairs Vicky Triponey
(ED: it should be noted that Triponey was hired at the University of
Connecticut prior to working for Penn State by Mark Emmert, the NCAA chairman
who would later lay down the sanctions that vacated their wins). A controversial fight off campus occurred in
April 2007 that involved many players from the team. Six were charged for their role, charges that included
felonies. Triponey wanted to dismiss
the players from school and administer their punishment solely through the
Office of Judicial Affairs. Paterno
wanted to handle the punishment internally, after the players received due
process from the police investigations and trials.
Four players would have their charges dropped. The player who was at the center of the
fight had five of six charges dropped and pleaded guilty to a lesser
charge. Another player allegedly got
into another fight later that year and was dismissed from the team. The narrative the media and Triponey would
feed in the aftermath of the Sandusky indictments was that Joe Paterno ran the
school like a despot, asserting absolute control over all in his “kingdom.” The headlines read “The Woman Who Dared to
Stand Up to Paterno.” Yet Posnanski
closes this chapter with an anonymous interview with one of the players:
“If it was up to that woman, they would have thrown me out of school and let me rot. That’s how she was. They only cared about me on Saturdays. Some of them didn’t even care about me then. But now I’m a father, and I have a child, and I have a good job. I owe that to Joe Paterno. He wasn’t perfect. But he believed in me. When nobody else did, he believed in me.” – p 315
“If it was up to that woman, they would have thrown me out of school and let me rot. That’s how she was. They only cared about me on Saturdays. Some of them didn’t even care about me then. But now I’m a father, and I have a child, and I have a good job. I owe that to Joe Paterno. He wasn’t perfect. But he believed in me. When nobody else did, he believed in me.” – p 315
Paterno started the 2011 season believing it to be his
last. He intended to retire at the end
of the season, and invited the author of the book to accompany him for a year
to document his final chapter. News of
an investigation into Sandusky’s alleged actions with young boys broke in the Harrisburg Patriot-News in March, and
Paterno had already testified briefly to a grand jury about the 2001
incident. Scott Paterno and Guido
D’Elia urged Paterno to go public with what he knew:
“’We begged Joe to just say publicly what he knew,’ D’Elia said. ‘He wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t throw Tim [Curley – athletic director] or anybody else under the bus. He kept saying, ‘Just let it play out.’ In his mind, he had done what he was supposed to do, and he had told the truth about it, and that was that. That’s how he was. Do what you think is right, tell the truth, you’ll be fine.’” – p. 326
“’We begged Joe to just say publicly what he knew,’ D’Elia said. ‘He wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t throw Tim [Curley – athletic director] or anybody else under the bus. He kept saying, ‘Just let it play out.’ In his mind, he had done what he was supposed to do, and he had told the truth about it, and that was that. That’s how he was. Do what you think is right, tell the truth, you’ll be fine.’” – p. 326
Paterno achieved his 409th career victory against
Illinois on October 29, 2011. He had
passed Grambling’s Eddie Robinson as the Division I leader for victories. His life and achievements would be
celebrated and broadcast across the globe.
Paterno had proven the Grand Experiment was a success; that “success
with honor” was not just some hollow platitude. His life’s goals had come to fruition.
Less than a week later, it would all be destroyed. On November 5, 2011 the indictments against
Jerry Sandusky, Tim Curley, and Gary Schultz were announced. The Paternos issued a statement expressing
their prayers for the victims, but it seemed the storm was still to come. During the Grand Jury presentment, Paterno
was considered a truthful and cooperative witness, but in an impromptu meeting
with reporters after the presentment, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner
Frank Noonan opined that while Paterno met his legal obligations, he failed in
his moral obligations. This comment
cast a shadow on everything Paterno said from that moment forward.
The public was skeptical of his claims that McQueary was
vague. The Paternos reached out to the
Penn State Board of Trustees on the advice of crisis manager Dan McGinn, and
were completely rebuffed. Due to old
scores going back to Paterno’s refusal to retire in 2004, he had lost all
support on the Board of Trustees.
Paterno was dismissed as head coach on the night of November 9, 2011 via
a telephone call from trustee John Surma, CEO of US Steel. Paterno hung up in anger, but Sue
immediately called Surma back and chided him:
“After sixty-one years, he deserved better!” – p. 340
“After sixty-one years, he deserved better!” – p. 340
It was revealed a few days later that Paterno had been
diagnosed with lung cancer. He died the
morning of January 22, 2012 surrounded by family and friends. Though he was clearly heart broken – both by
the revelations of Sandusky’s horrible crimes that had happened on his watch,
and by the way the Trustees, the media, and the public unfairly cast him as a
man who willfully ignored the rape of children to protect his football program
– Paterno was often upbeat in his final days:
“’I’m not going to feel sorry for myself. I’ve lived a great life. Healthy children. Healthy grandchildren. Loving wife. I look around the world and see people who have real problems, serious problems. I’m the luckiest guy.’” – p. 343
“’I’m not going to feel sorry for myself. I’ve lived a great life. Healthy children. Healthy grandchildren. Loving wife. I look around the world and see people who have real problems, serious problems. I’m the luckiest guy.’” – p. 343
But there was also little doubt in his mind that the name and
reputation he spent his whole life building to mean something, was now gone.
Posnanski closes the book with dozens of stories from former
players and friends. Most relate some
irascible side of Paterno, some aspect of his personality that was often too
intense for his players, but full of lessons they took with themselves later in
life. Paterno was no saint, but no
devil either. He was human (“memento
mori”), but had a powerful commitment to education and building the knights of
his round table. He was a complicated
man who believed in the goodness and potential of others, who trusted in old
fashioned values even as the modern world made them seem obsolete, and he
always pushed others AND himself to reach for more in order to achieve
more.
Posnanski even reluctantly shares his own conversation with
Paterno, at the round table, in the weeks before his death. Paterno asked Posnanski what he thought of
all this. Posnanski replied:
“You are Joe Paterno. Right or wrong, people expect more from you.” – p. 361
“You are Joe Paterno. Right or wrong, people expect more from you.” – p. 361
It seems then that the expectations, more than the reality,
clouded the judgment of Paterno after Sandusky’s crimes were revealed. There is no evidence – not in Posnanski’s
book, not in the much flawed Freeh Report, not in any interview with Vicky
Triponey – that suggests Paterno was a tyrant whose lust for power and the
“good” name of the football program (and University) he spent six decades
building made him ignore the welfare of young boys. His commitment to the betterment of the young men who
participated in the football program suggests otherwise.
But this expectation lends one to believe that the reason
people were so quick to judge Paterno was because his exemplary life made them think
he should have done something more. Posnanski seems to confirm that the actions
Paterno took in 2001 may have been the proper actions by law and University
policy, but his impeccable reputation and standing within the Penn State
community compelled him to do “more”.
Though as with any conversation about Paterno, any further actions he
may have taken in regards to Sandusky in 2001 would have involved further
complications and fewer answers.
The core of Posnanski’s book can be seen in
terms of Paterno’s legacy, and how there will always be more than one. At the heart of this opera is the quizzical
notion that a man could spend over 80 years building and maintaining a football
program, a university, a community, a family, and a life that revolved around
doing things the “right” way . . . only to see it destroyed in the public eye in
under 80 hours.
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