The Joe Paterno memorial service on Jan. 26 was always bound to be a little uncomfortable. While Penn State followers like myself were trying to focus on remembering Paterno’s greatness, Jerry Sandusky was still too difficult to forget. Despite all the praise and grandiose proclamations about everything else in Paterno’s life, that one glaring asterisk remained too hard to forget when watching the memorial service.
At the least, the vast majority of the speakers kept their focus on honoring Paterno and everything he did before November 2011. But of all the people to directly address it and make the crowd give a standing ovation in defense of Paterno, it was a Penn State outsider that finally lit the fire.
Nike CEO Phil Knight isn’t a Penn State man, yet worked closely with Paterno and the university over the years. As such, he gave the biggest statement over how it all ended for the coach, stating “if there is a villain in this tragedy” it lay in the investigation of Sandusky and in what happened after Paterno reported Mike McQueary’s accusations against Sandusky in 2002.
On the surface, every word of that appears true, as there were much greater villains in the Penn State administration that let Sandusky roam free for nine more years. However, Knight and the Paterno worshippers still refuse to see a greater reality.
They continue to block out the coach’s naivety in just trusting the administration to handle matters, his seeming lack of curiosity over nothing being done after that, and his inability to grasp that this demanded him to go over their heads when it became clear they were doing nothing. Whether he eventually realized that or not before Sandusky’s indictment – and then made a choice to act or not – is something that still hasn’t been completely answered and might never be answered now.
None of that is something that is appropriate to say at a memorial service for Paterno, however. But it is something that is impossible to not think about, even in praising the rest of Paterno’s life. One certainly has to feel uncomfortable in wondering whether Sandusky’s alleged victims were watching the coverage, and what they might think over Knight’s words and Jay Paterno’s declaration that his father died “with a clean conscience.”
There is no way to really get around these painful truths, as addressing the scandal and excusing Paterno remains highly divisive to those outside of Happy Valley – as is deifying him and ignoring how the end was brought about. The lesser of two evils may be to just honor the best of Paterno, as most of the memorial service was focused on doing. But Knight went the other way, as it was perhaps inevitable that someone would – although the only surprise was that it didn’t come from a Penn State alumnus or letterman.
Paterno may have officially been laid to rest before the memorial service, yet the arguments over his actions or inaction are very much alive. It was already hard enough to try and ignore them during the rest of the service, yet Knight ensured that they wouldn’t take a day off even then, as he furthered a defense that is sadly still difficult to hold up under closer scrutiny.
Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident and Penn State fan.
Other stories by this contributor
Paterno’s lack of a broken heart can send message to mourners
Memories of Paterno even harder to sort out after death
Joe Paterno death watch further unending tragedy at Penn State
Paterno protestors are only hurting Penn State further
Paterno interview shows his time passed long ago
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