It's time to drop this idea that football coaches are moral authorities.

[yardwork]

I grew up in the Midwest, steeped in Big Ten football. Joe Paterno has been famous for as long as I can remember, and I'm not young. My kids played football. I was raised to admire people serving in the military and people involved in big-time college men's football.

At first I was shocked that Joe Paterno could have done this - ignored the rape of a little boy in his famously tightly-controlled sports facility at Penn State. This was not simply a "sin of omission" as some columnists are calling it. This was the deliberate choice to fail to follow up on multiple eyewitness rapes of little children by Paterno's employee over a period of decades.

I found myself feeling shocked that Joe Paterno could do this and I suddenly realized what I was doing. Why should I expect more from Joe Paterno than I do of a stranger on the street? Just because he's a famous football coach I expect more?

It's an old authoritarian way of thinking that is left over from my upbringing. It's the same deep-seated belief system that keeps people going along with other authority figures just because. Go along with the police when they abuse protesters. Go along with Wall Street because somehow the stock market is integral to American Freedom (TM). Go along with the government when they bail out banks but leave the rest of us paying more and more of the share of taxes and getting less and less - because somehow the government must know more than I do.

[HopeHoops]

1. It's kind of weird anyway when what they're telling the kids to do is go smash their heads together.

:hi:

[yardwork]

2. All my life I've struggled to rationalize that, too.

Thanks for responding to my thread.

[HopeHoops]

4. "NOW GET OUT THERE AND GET A CONCUSSION - GO! GO! GO!"

[Marrah_G]

6. Not all coaches and athletes are bad- much depends on the community they live in

Sports can be a great addition to an education but not at the expense OF the education.

[HopeHoops]

8. It's more a comment on the nature of the sport. Head injuries are a MAJOR concern.

[Marrah_G]

10. I agree- and the better helmets have actually had the opposite effect

better helmets have led to a mistaken idea that this means they can hit harder, resulting in more injuries. My guy, even after coaching for decades, had to take some new courses on concussions and head injuries this year. He pulls anyone he thinks might have taken to hard a hit.

[HopeHoops]

13. Good for him. There's been a lot of controversy over that recently - sending in incoherent kids.

We had a boy die (central PA) recently because he wasn't kept out of the game after a head injury. Too sad.

[Marrah_G]

15. That is so sad.

[HopeHoops]

17. Not all is lost. It did spark a revision (long overdue) in the protocol in PA, public and private.

Coaches have better guidance now and rules that will back them up when they call a player to the bench. Unfortunately, most of the problems, including the one where the kid died, were due to the parents putting pressure on the coach to send the kid back onto the field. Now they can just cite the code and tell the parents to fuck off.

[yardwork]

9. I've known many coaches who were genuinely great people and wonderful role models.

My point is that I've recognized that I tend to assume that ALL football coaches are moral authorities, even when I have clear evidence that this is not true. My OP is about examining my own assumptions and looking closely at the fact that I am disappointed in Joe Paterno when I had no real reason to expect anything of him.

[Marrah_G]

11. I agree with you completely

We often look at people in authority as if they can do no wrong. It's why priests got away with it for so long. It's so hard to change ideas like that, when you have grown up with them.

When I look more deeply at the guy I see alot of things that I dislike, but the thing is before this I never would have even looked.

[Marrah_G]

3. Yardwork, I agree and the love of my life is a football coach

In fact he is a defensive coordinator also. He is furious that they allowed this to happen. His son is a grad student in much the same position as the one who witnessed the rape and let me tell you, he wouldn't have just reported it, first he would have stopped the rape and kicked the hell out of the guy. Not only did the head coach NOT inform the authorities right away he also did nothing after seeing that nothing was done in the case. All this time he said nothing. He knew the guy was working with vulnerable kids, He saw the guy around campus regularly, the guy was even invited to the school a week before the charges came. A whole lot of people, way more then we know, knew about this and chose not to make waves or risk embarrassing "the program". Every single one of them should be ashamed. Every single one of them should go to jail.

I also find it strange that a defensive coordinator of the year, retired at age 55 and no college offered him a head coaching position. Really? I am willing to bet there were a hell of a lot of schools interested that were told " oh you don't want to hire him" when they called looking for references.

Penn State should be incredibly ashamed at the action of their students last night. They treated the coach like a victim and gave no thought to the child rape victims that became victims due to his lack of ethics, morals and character. Penn State should maybe focus more on teaching the students to be compassionate, responsible members of a society then on football.

[yardwork]

5. Yes, this has rocked some old, old assumptions in me.

I don't pay much attention to students rioting. That's the least of it to me.

Very good point about Sandusky never getting another job. Implies that Penn State was warning people away. I'm sure that the entire region knew all about Sandusky and everybody allowed him to continue to have contact with little kids. Makes me want to throw up.

[Marrah_G]

7. the whole thing is revolting

[MineralMan]

12. I expect everyone to act ethically.

I'm very frequently disappointed. It all goes back to my father, who taught his children that doing the right thing was always preferable to any other course of action. Basically, he taught us that you might not be criticized for failing to do the right thing in every situation, but that you'd know that you had failed.

I haven't always been able to live up to that expectation of my father's, but I have tried. I understand when people fail to do what is right, but I don't excuse it. In the case of Joe Paterno, his failure probably led to other boys being sexually abused who might not have been had he done the right thing. I'd hate to be in his shoes. He knows. I guarantee that he knows.

So, Paterno failed. We all fail. But, in this particular case, the consequences of his failure have probably been very traumatic for some young boys. For that, I cannot forgive this man, or anyone else who was complicit in this cover-up.

[pampango]

14. Teachers, coaches, mentors, tutors - anyone who works with youth - are going to be viewed

as moral authorities by children whether they want to be or not.

I can view my boss ass someone who may be a good boss/bad person, bad boss/good person, bad/bad, or good/good. It's is harder for children to do that.

Maybe kids shouldn't look at the adults who work with them as being wiser and more responsible, as protectors, but they do. Parents, relatives and friends should monitor teachers, coaches, mentors, tutors, etc. (and provide our children with general advice about potential abuse) but we can't expect children to be mature about judging the motives and actions of other adults.

[seabeyond]

16. wrong. i think he is no more than the person on the street. and i expect that adult to speak up

and out for the child being raped. i expect an adult to not allow rape of the children. i expect at the very least, that from a man with power and authority. the very minimal in being an human being.

[fishwax]

18. well, I don't think it was just because Paterno was a famous football coach

I think it was because a huge part of his fame was, specifically, "success with honor" and the reputation that he had for running his program the "right" way. That's been the press line on Paterno for as long as I can remember. (And he had a strong moral center, as evidenced by his opposition to things like long hair, facial hair, and wearing hats indoors at the football facility. :eyes:)

Sometime in the late 80s or the 90s, Paterno was asked why he was still coaching, and he said he didn't want to leave college football to the Barry Switzers and Jackie Sherrills of the world. They had reputations for recruiting practices that Paterno didn't approve of. Neither, as far as we know, ever turned their back on evidence of child rape.

[Bluenorthwest]

20. A guy who opposed sartorial looks in his players seems to me

to be a guy who was concerned with the looks of his players. No facial hair? Cute 'boy's haircuts' only? Sounds creepy to me.

[Bluenorthwest]

19. I was raised without the sport culture stuff, and to me, the whole

sporting world seems about the same. I'd never heard of Patero untill this scandal, and hearing him defended is amazing indeed.