When Loyalty Should No Longer Matter

Too often, we let loyalty and emotion get the better of us when it comes to defending the teams we root for and the players and coaches we love.  One of my friends went to Ohio State and we fight about sports all the time, so much so that we won’t speak for weeks after because we think the other is being too irrational.  I stood on my soap box and gloated when the tattoo scandal took Jim Tressel and the program down.  He called me delusional when I tried to defend the Miami administration in regards to the Nevin Shapiro scandal (so what if they knew the players were doing lines of coke off hookers – your point??).

In situations like those, it’s normal to have blinders on.  That’s what we, as fans, do.  We associate ourselves, our pride, our best experiences with the schools and teams that we support.  We cry after their losses.  We cry (for a different reason) after their huge wins.  We hurt with them, we celebrate with them, we connect with them, and we live in this bubble where they can do no wrong, because they represent us and we represent them.

What this past week has shown me, shown us all (I hope) is that there is more to life than sports or glory or reputation or perceived greatness.

It wasn’t just Joe Paterno who failed the victims of Jerry Sandusky.  It was Joe Pa and the entire administration who valued winning and reputation and maintaining the Penn State bubble over the now ruined lives of as many as 20 boys.  It was Paterno knowing what his friend, Sandusky, did in that locker room and turning around and doing the bare minimum, reporting it to his superior.  While that, unfortunately, does not make him criminally negligent, it does make him as responsible as Sandusky for what happened, and what continued to happen, because no one stopped this monster.

The Paterno supporters (and yes, sadly, there are thousands) are saying because he did the bare minimum of what was legally required, he is not at fault.  These are the same people who likely consider him a God, surely the most powerful person at Penn State, in Happy Valley, maybe in Central Pennsylvania.  And given his position in the community and administration, he's the person who could and should have stepped forward and stopped it. But he didn’t, and not only did he not stop it, he let a predator back on campus WITH his victims – so that’s 60+ years of a stellar reputation, down the drain.  All because he wanted to be loyal to his friend.

To me, it doesn’t matter how fervent a Penn State fan you are – loyalty should not apply here.  What happened to the victims is disgusting and heartbreaking and anyone who is still in their bubble defending Joe Pa and defending Penn State quite frankly terrifies me.

Yesterday a friend asked me – what would I do if one of my best friends was involved in a hit and run and someone told me they saw it happen?  Would I turn my friend in?  I said that yes, I absolutely would if the eyewitness didn’t.  When it comes to things like murder and child abuse, there is no grey area to most people.  Most people, but not all, an unfortunate distinction that was brought to light in the midst of this Penn State debacle.

The Board of Trustees finally did their job, days later, by telling Paterno he would not finish out the season.  It's a legacy ruined and I don't feel a shred of sympathy for him. 

What I feel is sorrow for the children that were abused because winning was more important to Penn State than anything else.