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Read Everything That Dunks Must Converge

Read Everything That Dunks Must Converge
by Bryan Harvey

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Truth & lies in Pixar's 'The Good Dinosaur'
by Bryan Harvey

A world of child soldiers & cowboys

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To their own devices: Pablo Larrain's 'The Club'

To their own devices: Pablo Larrain's 'The Club'
by Bryan Harvey

Dark Clouds in Happy Valley

November 8, 2011


Capitalism, the middle class, social security, Joe Paterno, it seems that everything good about the American century is being shoved off some giant cliff into a sea of nothing, and while everyone's first concerns and prayers should go out to the victims, is there anything more disorienting than finding out that the center of everything, to steal a line from Yeats, cannot hold?

And that's exactly what Joe Paterno was: the center of everything in college football. He is the all-time wins leader, having bested the wide-brimmed corruption of Bobby Bowden. He coached for a state in the middle of America, and his very nickname, Joe Pa, places him at the head of everyone's table come Thanksgiving; so to be pointing fingers at him, now, appears to sever the very tired and true aphorism that a father knows best

I wanted to write something about the speculative revelations of the last few days, but then I read this piece by Michael Weinreb, at Grantland, that tries to answer the question above, and I realized why bother when it's already been done. And while Weinreb moves from shock to callous understanding, from a search for answers that will surely feel like tugging at a scar in a magician's sleeve, that's the next emotion to arise: why bother believing in heroes. 

This story is disgustingly sad in so many ways: The crimes here violate much more than the NCAA bylaws that fret over such things as preserving amateur status and the reputations of academic institutions but the very fabric of what makes a person good and decent. Read the Attorney General's report, and, if true, it becomes hard to consider Paterno much of either right now.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Paterno, Curley, Spanier and the rest of the PSU higher-ups listed in this report need to go down. It's sickening to think any organization, especially an educational institution, would sweep something so heinous and serious under the rug to save the reputation of their football team.

November 8, 2011 at 11:54 PM
Unknown said...

As a person working in the field of education, I can't imagine seeing what some of them saw and having the conversations they had and then acting in the manner that they did.

November 9, 2011 at 9:59 PM
Russ said...

I can't believe everybody from Mike McQueary to Graham Spanier not only swept everything under the rug to protect a brand but still allowed Sandusky on Penn State's campus for YEARS with children knowing what everybody knew. Tragic on every level.

November 9, 2011 at 11:56 PM

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