What eluded Paterno, and what is crystal-clear from the Freeh report, is that the quasi-religious reverence with which the football program was held within the culture of the university, and in particular the secular godlike authority granted to Paterno, made this horrifying scandal possible. When the perceived good of the institution is taken as the absolute end to which everything must direct itself, this is what you get.
Louis Freeh’s official investigation into the abuse scandal at Penn State is out today [July 12], and it is devastating.
The full Freeh report found “total and consistent disregard by the most senior leaders at Penn State for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims.” It goes on to detail how Paterno’s football program was considered sacrosanct, and untouchable — a fact that led to this culture of cover-up. The report details a top-to-bottom culture of cover-up at Penn State, all focused around treating Paterno and the football program as untouchable, as sacred.
Before he died, Joe Paterno wrote this unpublished op-ed about the scandal. It just surfaced the other day. Excerpt:
This is not a football scandal and should not be treated as one. It is not an academic scandal and does not in any way tarnish the hard earned and well-deserved academic reputation of Penn State. That Penn State officials would suggest otherwise is a disservice to every one of the over 500,000 living alumni.
Forget my career in terms of my accomplishments and look at the last 40 years as I do: as the aggregate achievements of hundreds of young men working to become better people as they got an education and became better football players. Look at those men and what they have done in the world since they left Penn State and assess their contributions as an aggregate – is this a collection of jocks who did nothing but skate by at a football factory, or are these men who earned an education and built a reputation second to none as a place where academic integrity and gridiron success could thrive together?….
In other words, the mess has nothing whatsoever to do with the football program, which is the Spotless Bride of JoePa.
Except the football program is at the center of this whole thing. True, football players who found greatness on the field should not have their achievements devalued by what Paterno and his Penn State collaborators did, any more than the good works done by many Catholic priests are somehow compromised by the abuse perpetrated by a few. That much is obvious. What eluded Paterno, and what is crystal-clear from the Freeh report, is that the quasi-religious reverence with which the football program was held within the culture of the university, and in particular the secular godlike authority granted to Paterno, made this horrifying scandal possible. When the perceived good of the institution (Penn State football) is taken as the absolute end to which everything must direct itself, this is what you get.