POOR JUDGMENT CLOUDED THE ‘RIGHT WAY’ JOE PA LEGACY
Joe Paterno once famously said he couldn’t retire and leave college football in the hands of the “Jackie Sherrills and Barry Switzers.”
Paterno’s remark rubbed Sooner fans raw. But the remark, for which Paterno would later apologize (at least to Switzer), captured how Paterno viewed himself and Penn State: They were different from the rest of college football, the exceptions to the rule.
Certainly different from Switzer’s Oklahoma and Sherrill’s Texas A&M football programs, in Paterno’s mind anyway.
Unlike other major programs, Paterno’s teams won “The Right Way.” There were no reports of unscrupulous boosters and pay-to-play schemes out of Happy Valley. No off-the-field incidents involving sexual assault in the athletic dorm or a starting QB peddling cocaine.
Penn State was in many respects the shining example of “institutional control,” a program that prioritized integrity and academics over winning.
Before Jerry Sandusky, this was Joe Paterno’s legacy, and it takes no great stretch of the imagination to think he was trying to preserve that legacy when he and several high-ranking Penn State officials willfully covered up Sandusky’s unconscionable crimes.
After Paterno was fired from his head coaching position last November, Switzer was asked how a tragedy of this magnitude could occur. He referenced the “American sports phenomenon,” in which we elevate coaches and athletes to near-mythical status, often at the expense of reason and sound judgment.
Anyone who’s grown up with Sooner football has experienced this phenomenon first-hand. As a boy during the 90s (aka the Dark Ages), I remember my dad and grandpa talking about “The King” as they recounted the glory days. Despite the scandal that precipitated Switzer’s departure, he retained a larger-than-life aura.
For everyone at Penn State, Paterno was a living legend, and one must wonder whether he succumbed to his legendary status when confronted with evidence of Sandusky’s crimes. Or was he thinking about being compared to the Jackie Sherrils and Barry Switzers? Whatever was going through his head at the time, Paterno and others chose to remain silent.
Despite all the talk of running a different kind of program and being a cut above, when faced with his single greatest test, Paterno faltered. That’s why his statue was unceremoniously removed this week shortly before the NCAA slammed Penn State with sanctions.
Switzer was no saint. He lost control of his players, and like many of his colleagues at top-ranked programs, he engaged in squirrely recruiting practices.
Yet, if you gaze out onto the lawn of the athletic dorms at OU, you’ll see Barry’s statue — still standing.
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