No-Pa

When the news of Jerry Sandusky first broke, I was one of those people who thought, "Joe-Pa couldn't have possibly had any wrong-doing in this. I'm sure he did everything he could." Nope.

Unfortunately I was wrong. The Freeh report on the late Jo Paterno and Penn State University illuminated some of the things going on there and how they were covered up to protect an image. Not a great image now, is it?

I wish this would've happened to someone else. I respect Joe-Pa for everything he did on the football field. I am usually pretty good at seperating out the sport from the person, too. I'm really rooting for Tiger to not only break but shatter all golf records. Some may still hold ill feelings towards him, but I don't. First of all, do you know how many PGA golfers are out there having affairs?! A golf insider estimated about 2/3 of pro golfers have had affairs while on the tour. Tiger isn't the only one who did this; he's just a big name who got caught. Jordan was having affairs at the height of his success, yet no one cared to report about it. Kennedy was well-known for his affairs. Nobody knew about them, though, so they didn't get the backlash that Tiger has gotten.

I'm a fan of Michael Vick. What he did was horrible, and he served time for it. He also had his bank account pretty much emptied for it. He paid the price. But it's been paid; can't we move on? Unless your dog was one of the ones he killed, you should be willing to forgive him. Everyone deserves a second chance.

So despite not agreeing with their personal decisions, I support these men as athletes. I don't want my kids to think of them as role models; just sports examples. Play like Jordan. Golf like Tiger. Idolize someone else. Hopefully I'll be the one my kids idolize...that's the goal, right?

However, I can't seperate what Joe-Pa did because it was covering up on and off the field. He did a lot of good for kids, people, the university, and that small town. But he did an even bigger disservice in ruining the lives of many individuals when it could have been prevented several times. This goes well beyond sports.

So in light of that, there is an ongoing discussion as to whether the statue of Joe-Pa in front of the stadium should be taken down. Should it be taken down? Yes. Would it be okay to be placed in another part of the campus, preferrably less frequented? Absolutely. You can't erase the last 60 years of good-doing with 15 years of wrong-doing. Keep the statue, just move it somewhere it won't be seen as often. You're not erasing the memory; just shifting it to a place where it's not such a prevalent one.

With that, I hope Penn State and their community can move on. I do enjoy my Buckeyes beating the snot out of them, but it will feel better when they're not grieving like this.