Paterno: Months Later

This week’s Penn State blog is about the politics after the passing of Joe Paterno.

My goal was to wait a while to write this post because although I love to write with emotion, and at the time there was a lot of it, I also wanted to wait and see what developed in the ensuing months.

True, a little has developed. Just a few weeks ago the Board of Trustees released yet another statement on why they fired Paterno. Even some people who aren’t huge lovers of the former coach started to realize the “shadiness” of some of the BOT’s actions. Their statement was answered with a furious reply from the family themselves – and I was glad to see it come.

Besides these small dealings of indirectly going back and forth, there hasn’t been much development since the end of January. In a way, I guess that’s a good thing, after the way everything went down, I’m glad to see his name isn’t crushed in the papers anymore. But in another sense, I was hoping that he would gain a little of his credibility back just in that short time frame. Though I suppose that that was naïve of me to wish for.

retweeted by @OnwardState

Next, I would like to comment on the few positives after everything happened. I’ll skip the vigil – we’ve had enough of those this year. But I thought that the viewing was beautifully done by the family and everyone involved. The lines outside the Pasquerilla Center were amazing and showed the dedication and pride that thousands of people had in Paterno. Also, I thought the procession was touching as well. True, the helicopters, news vans, and cameras took a little away from the magic of it, but it was incredible to see the streets lined to capacity under a few impressive hours of sunshine. 

Finally, I would like to say for anyone that was lucky enough to get to the memorial, I hope you forever remember it. I thought it was amazing and breathtaking. And I’ll never forget when Phil Knight showed that he didn’t give two shits about politics and stuck it to the University and every other nay-sayer out there.

All in all, everything that happened just further added to our crazy freshman year in Happy Valley. Looking back, nothing is more resolved now than it was then. Time passes, but I’m glad we don’t forget.