Hypocrisy at Penn State

Hypocrisy: "A pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess."

In reflecting upon the sordid and sad child molestation case at Penn State University, "hypocrisy" is the word that I keep coming back to.   There are some other words that also come to mind, especially my feelings about the primary villain, former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, but they are not suitable for a web site such as this. 

While Sandusky, recently convicted on 45 criminal counts for abusing 10 boys awaits his sentence in a Pennsylvania jail, his former boss, head coach Joe Paterno is no longer around to face the music, having died at the age of 85 in January.   Paterno passed away just a few months after the Sandusky scandal became front page news across the world in November of 2011. 

In Paterno's final months, he defended himself vigorously against suggestions that he knew about Sandusky's sexual crimes and did nothing to stop them.  Although near the end of his life, he did say "I could have done more." This is a virtual admission that Paterno knew about Sandusky's actions but did nothing to stop them or punish his loyal defensive coordinator.  Never mind that many innocent kids were scarred for life as a result.  After all, the reputation of Penn State football was at risk here, and that was clearly his priority. 

Up until the Sandusky scandal, Paterno was held up as an example of what was good about college sports.  He had more victories than any other major college coach in history.  Over his 46 seasons at Penn State, his players graduated at a very high rate and many were succesful both on and off the field.  He was a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, he had more honors than can be listed, and there is even a statue of him in front of Beaver Stadium, where crowds of more than 100,000 watch every home game his Nittany Lions play.  The image and actions of the saintly "Joe Pa" were beyond reproach.  So how could such a man allow the most heinous of crimes to be committed by one of his employees, some of which occured in the very football facility that Paterno oversaw? 

There are many opinions on this topic.  Mine is that Paterno was a hypocrite.  I felt that way about him long before the scandal broke.  Back in the late 1980s he used his powerful program's leverage to scuttle some very traditional eastern football rivalries because there was more money to be made by playing other teams.  And when he did accept the big money to join the Big Ten Conference in 1993, he complained bitterly that his 1994 undefeated team was robbed of a national championship, even though Penn State won the Rose Bowl convincingly.  The problem with his argument was that by agreeing to join the Big Ten, he was obligated as the conference champion to play in the Rose Bowl, even though there was no guarantee that it would be the national championship game in college football's odd system for determining a champion.  Nebraska was awarded the championship after going 13-0 and defeating the University of Miami in the Orange Bowl.  Had Paterno not opted for the Big Ten's big bucks, his Penn State team would have been eligible to play in the Orange Bowl and might well have beaten the Cornhuskers and won the title.  But he took the money and Nebraska took the hardware.  For more than 20 years, these two incidents were the lens through which I viewed Paterno.

The report on the scandal released by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, which came at the end of an eight month investigation said that Paterno and others, including the President of the university covered up child sex abuse allegations against Sandusky for "more than a decade."  Paterno and others who were considered among the most powerful men in the state "failed to take any steps to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."    Many of Paterno's supporters will defend him by saying he helped turn high school kids into men because he demanded they adhere to the very highest standards, principles, and virtues.  What a shame that he didn't require the same from himself. 

That is my definition of "hypocrisy."