… why should we be impressed by a person somewhat higher than it?
When USC, Ohio State, Miami and North Carolina are caught cheating in one way or another, most people roll their eyes and say, ‘Here we go again.’ When public records from a lawsuit allege that an agent was bankrolling a basketball player and his mother starting when the kid was 14, the reaction is more eye-rolling. The university presidents publicly wring their hands, declare they’re shocked cheating is going on and go back to counting their money.
But Joe Paterno is Joe Paterno…
November 10th, 2011 at 9:12AM
You know, Joe Paterno is an incredibly complex lens on this whole spectacle. Joe Posnanski moved to State College last year to write a book on him, and I think it will end up being an incredibly fascinating work. Paterno’s Ivy League educated, and better read than a host of liberal arts professors I know. He’s done some really great things, and, as we all now know, some incredibly awful things. I’d encourage everyone to really look at him and the situation at Penn State in all its details, because it ranges from some of the best to some of the worst of what we expect, not simply from universities, but from human beings.