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In A Posthumously-Released Op-Ed, Joe Paterno Weighed In On The Jerry Sandusky Scandal

Tomorrow, the report documenting Penn State’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, led by former FBI director Louis Freeh, will be released. While the report is expected to be broad in scope, it’s also expected to be “very tough” on the actions of late, legendary coach Joe Paterno. And Paterno’s family has already taken a couple measures to counter this. First, they released a statement defending him and raising questions about the investigation.

And, perhaps more interestingly, earlier today Paterno’s family forwarded to many of his former players a column that, according to them, Paterno wrote shortly before he died. Fight On State, Scout’s Penn State site, posted the column. We won’t post it in full, since that’s already been done, but we do have a few things to say about certain parts of it. Here are the first two paragraphs:

For the last two months, at the request of the Attorney General’s office, I have not discussed the specifics of my testimony regarding the pending cases. And while I will continue to honor that request, I do feel compelled to address comments made subsequent to November 9; specifically, I feel compelled to say, in no uncertain terms, that this is not a football scandal.

Let me say that again so I am not misunderstood: regardless of anyone’s opinion of my actions or the actions of the handful of administration officials in this matter, the fact is nothing alleged is an indictment of football or evidence that the spectacular collections of accomplishments by dedicated student athletes should be in anyway tarnished.

Paterno was fighting a losing battle from the beginning here. Not discussing the specifics of his testimony was more than understandable, but his insistence that the football program be absolved of blame put him in a bind from the beginning, one he couldn’t – and didn’t – get out of. He went on the defensive, more or less saying, “Please don’t blame me” – and by the way, throughout the column, there was no acknowledgment of just how serious and how awful this scandal was. It was all “don’t blame football.”

And it wasn’t the fault of the sport of football. It wasn’t all Paterno’s fault, either. First and foremost, of course, it was Sandusky’s fault. But he’s been tried and convicted, and the power structure of the university needs to be held accountable, too. Because no matter the circumstances, that power structure didn’t do enough to stop Sandusky, and football is a major part of the power structure at Penn State. Penn State wouldn’t be the school it is – the great school Paterno describes – without the influence of football. But the influence of football sure seems to have played a part in the mishandling of the Sandusky scandal, too.

And Paterno was right in saying that Penn State is a great school – and he’s a big part of the reason why. There’s no question he played a positive role in shaping a whole lot of lives. But that isn’t what this investigation is about. The investigation isn’t about arguing whether this was a football scandal or an academic scandal – it’s about how it was a leadership scandal. And so passages like this from Paterno’s column ring hollow:

Whatever failings that may have happened at Penn State, whatever conclusions about my or others’ conduct you may wish to draw from a fair view of the allegations, it is inarguable that these actions had nothing to do with this last team or any of the hundreds of prior graduates of the “Grand Experiment.”

And it didn’t have to do with players – especially not the players on the 2011 edition of Penn State’s football team. It was hard not to feel bad for them – Sandusky already hadn’t coached at the school for years by the time they enrolled, and the entire scandal was something beyond their control. It wasn’t entirely beyond the control of people like Paterno, Gary Schultz, Tim Curley, and Graham Spanier. Freeh’s investigation is about their actions – or lack thereof – and trying to make sure others who might be in a similar spot in the future handle it better.

None of this is to say Paterno was evil, or a bad person at all. Again, he accomplished a lot of amazing things at Penn State, did tons of good for the school – and, according to those whose lives were shaped in part by him he did a ton of good for the people he countered, too. But the nature of the Sandusky scandal necessarily overshadows all that. Any fair assessment of Paterno’s tenure has to feature it prominently – and the fact that, in this column, Paterno seemed interested in protecting his program’s legacy above all else is exactly why.