Looking at Joe Paterno

I prefer to think that I was ahead of the curve on Joe Paterno.
Not that I am a visionary that saw all of the issues involved at Penn State coming, not even the most fervent Paterno/Nittany Lion basher could say that with any degree of honesty.
I also make no claims to know how much or how little of a coverup Paterno was involved in.
Time will tell on that topic and until I know innuendo for a fact, I'll choose to not throw any stones at Paterno at this time.
However, I always had the feeling that the Paterno image was somewhat of a fraud.
The integrity that so many claimed that Paterno possessed always came up a bit short for me.

Never to the degree of the scandal that has rocked the country and I am not going to touch that horror other than to say that my suspicions of Joe Paterno were correct-He was going to do whatever it took to make Penn State and therefore himself a national power.
If that meant making decisions along the way that were not beneficial to anyone not named Paterno, such was life.
The name of the game is to build yourself and your program to be as large as possible and he certainly did that to great effectiveness.
Penn State and Paterno did manage to avoid the type of recruiting violations that so many others have been hit with, although I would bet you money that almost every BCS level school has boosters slipping players money to some degree and that includes Ohio State for those of you that may claim bias on my part.
I would much rather have a booster give a guy 100 bucks for a great game than pay a Cam Newton 100,000 to come to their school, to begin with...

Paterno has a history of crying to get his own way, so I have a little problem believing that he bullied school officials into covering this affair up.
This is a person that ran their football program as his own personal kingdom even to the detriment of the school's athletic department in the long run.
Penn State was invited to join the original Big East in 1979, but Paterno managed to decline the invite, wanting the advantages of making their own schedule decisions and staying independent.
That was beneficial then although it certainly would not be one today.
The decision cost Penn State in all other sports as their indy status there was not enough to pay the freight and their attempt to join the Big East three years later was denied.
Had Penn State joined the Big East, the conference landscape would be far different.
Penn State would have kept their rivalries with long-time foes Syracuse, West Virginia and most notably Pittsburgh intact and would have likely continued their "Beast of the East" status even through today.
All three of those schools are on the move to new leagues soon, but I doubt any of those moves would have happened at the cost of leaving Penn State.

Paterno wanted the Big Ten for credibility and got it, even though the Nittany Lions had to throw all their past under the bus to do so and even started wrestling style trophy angles with both Michigan State and Minnesota, neither was which was successful for any party involved.
Paterno also was not willing to pay any dues in the conference for his program, whining from day one about the lack of a 12th team in the league, ignoring the fact that a 12th team would not be needed,had his 11th team stayed in their Eastern backyard and the whining and tantrums about officiating in the league (always a strong point in a league not known for terrific officials).

Paterno also threw his weight around in ending and not revisiting the long-time rivalry with Pittsburgh.
People of my age remember Pitt football in the '70s and '80s where the Panthers were on an equal level to the Lions and Paterno wanted no part of those days returning, so the two would not play although everyone in the state wanted to see the rivalry return.
Paterno made statements along the lines of Pittsburgh being a Western Pa school and PSU did not want to limit themselves to one part of the state, although he had no problems playing Temple every year in the eastern portion of the commonwealth.
The rivalry will return in 2016, only because most involved figured scheduling the return so far down the road would get the date past the aging legends eventual departure.

This just scratches the surface of the selfishness of Paterno, who stubbornly refused to retire to the detriment of the program to outlast Bobby Bowden for the most career wins of any coach in history.
I may be wrong,but I would wager a ducat that Paterno's wish to coach the Nebraska game tomorrow boiled down to two reasons-one, a chance to be a conquering hero at Beaver Stadium one final time and more importantly, to break the current tie for most game coaching all time, which he holds with Amos Alonzo Stagg.

The Big Ten could do one small thing and quietly drop Paterno's name from its first championship trophy (the Stagg-Paterno).
Paterno needs no glorifying from anyone at this time, deserves no honors and trust me, no one more than the conference can be rooting harder for a Penn State collapse and elimination from the first league title game as what should be a showcase will become nothing more than a carnival sideshow should Penn State be one of the teams in the title matchup.

Selfishness.
That has always been what Joe Paterno was all about underneath and even though I suspected that I certainly wish that I had never had it confirmed under these circumstances.
The Penn State way had always been proclaimed to be about honor and integrity first and so many bought into that code.
Ironic, isn't it that Joe Paterno bought into it less than those that he preached that very thing to...

Photo Credit-David Banks-AP