Like most coaches around the country, Tommy Tuberville and the rest of the coaches in the Big 12 released statements about the passing of Former Penn State Coach Joe Paterno. Almost everything his fellow coaches have had to say about his is positive. Coach Tuberville, like the rest of the football world got it wrong. Joe Paterno is not someone the country should be praising, not even in death.
It seems that everyone wants to talk about all the great things he did and how one little slip up or lapse in judgment should not ruin the good things that Coach Paterno did. Yes it should. It was not some minor slip up and it was not a lapse in judgment. A lapse in judgment would have been for Joe Paterno to not have done anything about an alleged child rapist and then to correct the error within a reasonable amount of time.
At some point, he had to realize that he had a responsibility to stop a predator like Jerry Sandusky is alleged to be. Joe Paterno had the power to do so. He was the man at Penn State. If he insisted on something being done, it would have been.
What Joe Paterno did was horrific. He allowed a man he had reason to believe was a child rapist to roam the community without doing anything meaningful to protect potential victims. The prisons are full of people that did horrific things and probably did a few good things along the way too. No one talks about how good these people are. Perhaps if they had won a few football games then society would be expected to overlook their “lapses in judgment” as well.
Joe Paterno did some good things working with young adults at Penn State. That does not excuse his betrayal of the children in that community. So for Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville to come out and praise a man like Paterno, shows he does not get it. Perhaps saying that Paterno was a good man is the politically correct thing to do. The message is simple from the football world. What matters is what Paterno did on the football field.
No, what matters is being the kind of person that does the right thing. Joe Paterno knew of an alleged child rapist. He refused to do the right thing and was only contrite after he was found out. Was he sorry he did not turn in a fellow coach or just sorry he got caught? Joe Paterno is not an example of how people should act. He is an example of how people should not act. Adults are supposed to protect children. Joe Paterno did not do that. That defines him. That is who Joe Paterno was.
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