EPTI'm a big sports fan. I don't have a particularly strong feeling about what qualifies as a sport, I suppose that some people play checkers competitively and consider it a sport. Some people might create a sport where they box one round and play chess the next. There are even some people, on the internet, I hear, who watch people play video games, and they consider this a sport. We like sports for a variety of reasons: physical prowess, strategy, competitive purity and all these other things that we like to attach to it.
Actually, it's probably those other things that make sports most compelling. Sports are played by people, coached by people and that's why we're attracted to them. Joe Paterno is(was as of yesterday,) the long time coach of the Penn State University football program, over 40 years! I never like him. I'm in my early twenties and all Joe Paterno made me think of was old white people reminiscing about the good ol' days when Notre Dame mattered and Armv vs. Navy was, somehow, an event. He came off as sanctimonious and old fashioned and in a world of John Calipari and Reggie Bush, he either didn't belong or he was disingenuous. He always talked of honor and conviction. Still, he was a great coach, with two championships. including the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, which seemed to affirm his morality, by beating evil Miami. Joe Paterno is the winningest coach in College Football history, he has donated millions to the university, he has mentored hundreds of athletes. Before what happened, he was largely considered moral compass of college football. I don't know if he wanted that title, that consideration, but he never turned it down.
My favorite sports writer is Joe Posnanski. He is affectionately called Poz or JoePoz. If anyone follows American sports writing, they should know that Posnanski is basically the current Saint of Sports Writing. He has a gentle pen, he is eager to praise his subject, to bestow onto them a kindness and dignity that makes the reader like this person, and in turn, like Posnanski. For those of you who don't read sports writing, here is a link to a piece he did on his blog: If you read it, you may see what I mean. But despite Posnanksi's gentle prose, he rarely falls into nostalgia or sentiment, he's self-aware of it and you can often read him trying to fight it off. I would say, unquestionably, that Posnanski is one the the three? best sports writers alive, hanging there with Charlie Pierce and Tommy Craggs.
Joe Paterno was fired yesterday because he failed to act. His former defensive coordinater, Jerry Sandusky, is an alleged child molester and, allegedly, raped a 10 year old boy in 2002 on Penn State's campus. I don't really care for the details, I've read the grand jury report and it's as bad as it sounds. Suffice it to say, Paterno was informed and he passed the information up to his immediate supervisor. He did not do anything else. And, of course, in early 2011, Joe Posnanski decided that he would move to University Park, Pennsylvania and write a book on Joe Paterno. This is either Greek Tragedy or high comedy, no?
After writing all of this, I don't think I gave a single opinion on the event itself. Jerry Sandusky is a bad man. He did a really bad thing more than once and, for that, he needs to be punished harshly. I'm certain nobody disagrees with me. That's not even really an opinion in modern society. But what about Joe Paterno? What about Joe Paterno and his sanctimony? What about Joe Paterno and his hypocrisy? I don't know. I can understand why he was fired but I, mostly, wish that he wasn't. His crime was his silence and we all are guilty of that. He could have done more, of this, I have no doubt, but he fulfilled his legal obligation. "This is not enough!" someone might say. And someone would be right - it's not enough in a world of decent people and of strong moral convictions - but we aren't ruled by our decency or our convictions, we're ruled by our laws. I don't think Paterno broke any laws. Joe Paterno decided to stay silent, to hide a grave crime from people who might have done something, and for his silence, he lost his job, the respect of thousands upon thousands and possibly his storied legacy. And this makes me sad. Even if I was dubious of him, Paterno represented something: something that people like me scoff at, raise an eyebrow at but something that could be good and impressive and better. Because I like pictures like this one + Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Q7uft.jpg)
I like to think that sports are compelling because people are, generally, compelling and not awful. I like Joe Posnanski. And I want to read his book on Joe Paterno.
