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Paterno Fired; today
Topic Started: Nov 10 2011, 12:12 PM (1,455 Views)
Pat
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Banandangees
Nov 10 2011, 11:47 PM
Pat
Nov 10 2011, 10:47 PM
Considering the rest of your points, it appears that at Penn State University, a culture was developed and nurtured that intimidated all, from the president on down, into following the company line. Morality be damned. I think the Board of Trustees recognized this and therefore has cleaned house. Maybe the trustees were in fact part of this culture as well, and are merely reacting to the fact that the rest of America is so utterly dumbfast that such a culture existed, they have been forced to take these measures. Especially given that congress is now apparently looking into the education system itself in Pennsylvania as a result of this event.
That is one of the down sides of college football when winning is so emphasized and/or so demanded. It brought Woody Hayes down..... he said it himself, "I detest losing" and did so to the point where he "attacked" an opposing player for intercepting a pass. John Cooper who was 111-43-4 (70-30 Big 10) at Ohio State was replaced for not beating Michigan enough..... not winning all the time.

When such football programs grow to the success of a Bear Bryant, a Woody Hayes or a Joe Paterno, universities grow, programs grow, sports programs are expanded, stadiums are built and coaches come under great criticism if the great traditions grown under their watch has a bad year..... criticism from sports writers and commentators, many who may never have known what effort and sacrifice it takes to play the sport, criticism from fans who want top 10 performances from their winning programs, administrations who like the money and exposure it brings..... it comes from all levels of society that puts very little effort or sacrifice into it's development. The pressures come from all levels and then when those pressures build success, icons are made and themselves become tips of the pyramid.... something that they probably didn't' set out to do but was created by demands that winning success brings.

We create our own monsters and then expect them to act as gods. Maybe what this disaster does bring to realization, it's that there are no gods, that dynasties topple under their own weight, that good and great programs actually become too big to prevent being corrupted .... by a pebble.... that there is only one "untoppleable" God and that we don't create him, he creates us.


Now, on the TV sports channels, they are constantly reviewing Joe Paterno's life... his successes, his tradition ...... much of it the good things about Paterno. Yesterday it was "crucify him." Why the change in attitude? Are they without some guilt as well?

I think we are all guilty.
Your points were reaffirmed last night on the PBS Newshour. One journalist who is on the scene says that the student riots and such are a result of the psychological reaction fans of the school and the public are experiencing due to the utter collapse before their eyes of what has become considered the central cathedral of worship for the state's citizens. they worship the football program and the former coach. The messiah has been shown to be a Charlton and the citizens have lost their identity. She went on to say that in interviewing those at the protests, the students were not protesting the firing of Joe but rather protesting in agony over the loss of the schools importance and identity. This sounds like the Jim Jones affect. Joe was bigger than the state and so was the football program. It sounds like a cult he had going there.
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Thumper
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Citizens have lost their identity. Poor Miller.
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