Get Off Joe's Back

I usually don't post this kind of thing here. This is a personal blog about the happenings in my life and the life of my family. But sometimes big things happen that I feel the need to sound off about. This post won't make me many friends around here...but hey, as I often say, that ship has SAILED.

My parents are both proud Penn Staters. I grew up watching Penn State and root for them as 'my' team alongside any others that I actually have a first-hand connection to. For as long as I've been watching football, there has been one guy out there on the field coaching one of 'my' teams. He is an icon. He has, for all those years, stood out as a rare example of integrity in the increasingly corrupt and amoral world of major college sports. Scandal after scandal, violation after violation, at school after school, they all came and went, and still Joe remained. They have been talking about it being his last year for over a decade now, and still the old man forged on. One week ago, no one saw any reason to believe the status quo would change. But that was before.

What has happened at Penn State is tragic. And before anyone jumps down my throat, let me clarify exactly what I mean. The allegations against Sandusky are tragic. What was allowed to go on is tragic. The way Joe's unsurpassed career ended is tragic.

Make no mistake. What is popularly being called his 'sin of omission' was indeed wrong. I make no excuses for what he did...or what he did not do. And while there is also the aspect of letting an investigation run its course, there seems to be little of the typical backlash of denial from anyone involved, so I am taking things at face value for the purposes of this rant. I am assuming that everything happened as reports have indicated.

Joe was wrong. Joe should have done more. I do not deny this.

Should Joe have been fired? Tough question. Probably. In fairness to the people who had to make that decision, they were put in a no-win situation. If they 'let the investigation run its course' they are as guilty as every other program of using that as an excuse to let their football program bend the rules in order to keep winning. Joe wouldn't have wanted that. And on the ohter hand, we all saw the reaction on campus to what they decided to do. So whoever had to make this decision had the choice to be vilified by the nation, or by their own community. I will say that firing Joe over the phone was cowardly and small. But that's not the point of this rant. I accept that the decision made to let Joe go was one that had to be made, even if it could have been handled in a more respectful way.

So why am I so upset?

I am upset because it seems that everyone in the nation is now heaping scorn on Joe in a hypocrital holier-than-thou righteous indignation festival which is nothing short of shameful.

It has become very popular all of a sudden to say that Joe's reputation and career don't excuse his actions. I agree. But I don't think that Joe ever thought that. And anyone who really follows the goings-on at Penn State realizes that Joe wasn't trying to be above the law.

The man made a mistake. It was a big one. A tragic one. One that cost him the chance to end his career with dignity, and one that allowed terrible things to continue taking place when they could have been stopped. But to those who are dancing around pointing out that a lifetime of integrity can't absolve you of such a big mistake, I reply: It is also true that a single mistake does not wipe out a lifetime of integrity.

Get off Joe's back.

Truth be told, most of the people who are delighting in vilifying Joe right now have probably been living in shame of their own programs' sullied histories. Make no mistake. Joe's mistake was bigger than anything Tressel did. But Joe is still 50 times the man of integrity that Tressel ever will be. Tressel went around pawning himself off as some kind of saint. Joe on the other hand, hated talking about himself. When press conferences turned to him setting another new coaching record, he consistently attempted to turn the attention back towards the players, the game, the university. He didn't manufacture his reputation. He earned it. So at the end of the day, Tressel was a sleazebag who got caught. Joe was a great man...who made a greater mistake. Given the choice of who I would want teaching life lessons to my own son, I would choose Joe every time. Because no matter how many games Tressel wins, he will always be a sleazebag. And no matter how much venom people spew on Joe...he will still be Joe.

And forgive me for using Tressel as an example. I live in Ohio, so I'm surrounded by it. And even more, I live in Cincinnati, where people still think Pete Rose should be canonized as a saint. But you could take Tressel out of the above paragraph, fill in the blanks with any other big name from a sports scandal...or any other public figure with or without a scandal attached to their name. I still look up to Joe. I never cared much for the idea of 'heroes'...but Joe was, and still is, the closest thing there is for me.

So.

Did Joe's stellar and noble career earn him the right to finish the season? Should he still have been allowed to leave on his own terms? Did he deserve to coach one last game at home? No. If the allegations are true, then a lot of people have gone through a lot of unspeakable hurt and suffering because of his mistake. As I said at the beginning of this rant, I don't excuse that. It was a mistake much bigger than football.

But in my humble (and currently unpopular) opinion, his illustrious career
did earn him something. And that is the right to be left alone and to walk away in dignity. And I am disgusted that people can not see past the anger of the moment to view the picture in its larger context. It's easy to hear about something as tragic as victimized children and immediately cry foul of everything and everyone within a 5-mile radius. It's a lot harder to see the humanity, even in a mistake.

So to anyone out there enjoying the Joe-bashing fest, just be aware, you look ridiculous. It would be like me listening to the New York Philharmonic in concert, and when the principal trumpet missed a note, shouting out "See, he's not that good!" It would be like me, seeing that George Clooney had grown an unfortunate zit on his nose, jumping up and down shouting "He's ugly now! He's ugly now!"

Joe's mistake was terrible, and the consequences grave - not just for him but for the people who suffered as a result. His mistake saddens me. But it did not change who he was. And no matter how much scorn you attempt to heap on him, he is still Joe, and a better man than most of us will ever hope to be.

Peter Buck once said in an interview that he tries not to judge people by the stupidest thing they've ever done. How many of us would want to be judged in that way? How many of us want to be defined by our greatest mistake? So to all you people bashing Joe right now, try to keep that in mind. In the meantime, I will try to keep it in my mind while I watch you embarass yourselves. You're welcome.

Get off Joe's back.