A Grain of Saul: Joe Pa’s legacy now in question

Joe Paterno is gone. But now what?

The legendary college football coach passed away in the… Joe Paterno is gone. But now what?

The legendary college football coach passed away in the midst of one of the biggest scandals in sports history, and now his unbelievable career as a coach and a contributor to Penn State University is clashing with what many consider a serious violation of moral conduct.

Here is what we know: Paterno won 409 games, two national championships, took Penn State to 37 bowl games and has coached more than 250 players who went on to the NFL.

Here is what we think: Paterno made a catastrophic error at some point in the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal. He was allegedly presented with a story that Sandusky had been seen molesting a boy, and he didn’t do enough to spark a serious investigation.

Now the community of college sports, and even the wider group of Americans who simply enjoy passing judgments, are left to ponder: What kind of man was Joe Paterno?

To me, it seems like there are only two options: either A) Joe Pa was an incredible, life-changing coach who acted selflessly for 46 years and had one serious lapse in judgment we all know about, or B) he fooled us all this entire time, and the Sandusky case opened a can of worms about Paterno we might have never seen otherwise.

I think it’d be pretty unreasonable to choose the latter. The facts about the Sandusky case are still emerging, and the story behind Paterno and what he saw and heard might never be known.

But Paterno left behind a legacy, and anyone who has tuned into ESPN over the last couple days has seen the effect he had: the people crying around his statue, the players, fans and coaches telling personal tales about how he changed their lives, and the general outpouring of love from anyone who has ever met him.

In 46 years, Paterno never had a single major NCAA violation. He urged the PSU board of trustees to increase entrance requirements for the university. His wife helped tutor his players; he cared more about what they did in the classroom than on the field, and he once famously said, “It’s the name on the front of the jersey that matters the most, not the name on the back.”

With all this, it’s tough not to respect or even admire the guy. He never cheated, and he won’t have an asterisk next to his name in the record books. But will people put the asterisk there themselves? What will you tell your kids about Paterno?

When I think about what he did for Penn State (even though the Nittany Lions are a natural rival), what he did for the community and the example he set for college athletics,I can’t help but feel positively about him.

While I don’t think Paterno’s involvement in the Sandusky case should ever be forgotten or dismissed, I do believe he should never be defined by it. ESPN.com mentioned the sex scandal in the first paragraph of its front-page article on his death. Pop-culture writer Tucker Max has been tweeting about Joe Pa’s involvement in the sex scandal since the day he died. But the associations between the legend-status coach and Sandusky don’t tell the story of Joe Paterno.

The real story is not just about the kids he left behind. It’s not just about his two national championships or the countless men who say he saved their life. It’s about the people who sat around his statue and cried, and it’s about why they cried.