Intelligent people can look at the same set of facts and disagree. This happens all the time and often leads to passionate discussions and arguments. But one must completely shut off his or her brain in order to look at all of the facts and come to the conclusion that Joe Paterno was totally in the dark about Jerry Sandusky's well-documented sex crimes against boys.
It's impossible to convince me that Paterno had absolutely no idea what was going on, that he hadn't heard rumors from others on his coaching staff about what Sandusky was up to. That's precisely why it's an absolutely horrible idea for Penn State to honor Paterno before the Temple game Sept. 17, doing so under the guise of commemorating the 50th anniversary of his first game as the Nittany Lions' coach.
To honor Paterno while he is still toxic and polarizing shows the Penn State administration is tone deaf and arrogant _ precisely the kind of closed culture that led to this mess in the first place.
The administration and athletic department already knows this a bad idea. That much is evident in the way they "announced" it by burying it in a news release about the football promotions for 2016. Generally when athletic departments announce something they know will cause criticism or will be unpopular, they do it in one of these ways:
1. The always-useful 6 p.m. Friday news release, where the email is sent as everyone is leaving the offices, so there is nobody available to comment until Monday.
2. The "bury the lede" news release _ which is what Penn State did _ where something that normally would be shouted from the mountaintops and given prominent treatment is buried in the middle of a release in hopes that most people skim right over it.
3. The "wait until some other huge event begins to send it" news release. This one always works, too, because nobody is really paying attention to the release until it's too late to get anyone on the phone.
If Penn State didn't know that honoring Paterno and his first win is a horrible idea at this point, it wouldn't have chosen this approach to announcing it. Whether you believe every element of the Freeh report or you are a Kool-Aid drinker who refuses to believe Paterno had even the slightest idea what went on, there is one thing you cannot deny: Paterno is a very polarizing subject and, at this point, a man whose legend and legacy have been severely tarnished.
I've avoided this subject since it broke because I think both sides are far too passionate and irrational. I fall somewhere in the middle on Paterno's role in this mess. But where you stand, where I stand, what you believe, what I believe _ none of that is relevant. What is relevant is that this was the worst college sports scandal in history, and Paterno, right or wrong, is one of the key and central figures in it. Merely bringing up his name evokes emotions among a lot of people, and the overwhelming sentiment among the majority of people, especially those who don't bleed blue and white, is negative.
Time heals all wounds, even the deepest and darkest ones, and there will be a time that perhaps a celebration of Paterno will be more appropriate. But right now is not that time. It's too soon, there are still too many questions lingering, still too many victims whose wounds are fresh and still too many people focused on the wrong things _ like the football lettermen pushing for the statue to return.
Penn State should want to put this ugly chapter in the rearview mirror. The community should demand it. The process had seemingly begun, but putting Paterno out there to be honored is absolutely a step in the wrong direction.
