Why do we invest so much in these people? Why do we allow them to become so bigger than life in so many instances?
Perhaps I have fed the beast myself with my recent posts showing skepticism about U of M Gophers football. Maybe I have laid too much at the doorstep of the head coach.
The pertinent question to ask is: Why can't college football be more of a basic test of the athleticism of the two teams? Why do we depend so much on celebrity head coaches who make chessboard moves, live like workaholics and seem to carry the whole emotional banner of their region?
Why have we allowed "coach centrism" to progress so far, an 84-year-old man like Paterno felt last week like he could browbeat the board of trustees of his school into his desired decision? Is there anyone among us who didn't think that was totally pathetic?
Paterno had his veneer of power stripped off. He looks most human and most vulnerable now.
Was he clinging to power as a way of perpetuating a cover-up? Was he afraid that if new people swept into the Penn State football office, they might discover some very uncomfortable truths?
I have always heard that bank employees are required to take vacations, not because it's good for their welfare but because if they're gone for a while, any 'funny stuff" they might be doing with money might come to light.
The Penn State football establishment may have been trying to suppress the scandal of a pedophile in the ranks because the disclosure would have done too much damage. That's actually the more charitable assessment.
We all understand PR aims. The darker and more cynical assessment has to do with "code of omerta." I have seen this on the (very) micro level. I would say that in the late 1980s, we saw it in Morris.
Coaches and staff always close around their own. It's a little like the mafia. Thank goodness we're micro.
Penn State University has been dragged into a cesspool that makes other colleges breathe a sigh of relief they can stay distant. All of a sudden here in Minnesota, our Gophers look pretty admirable, never mind that many of us boomers will go to our grave only imagining what those maroon uniforms would look like in Pasadena come January 1.
Thank God we can stay distant from the horrible circumstances surrounding Penn State football. Not only is it sordid, it has all the ingredients that make it become a mega story in the media. I mean, we're into Terri Schiavo/Chandra Levy territory as I write this, at 5 a.m. Saturday morning, Nov. 12.
Penn State is supposed to play Nebraska today in Happy Valley - what an ironic name. So fluid is this story, I'm not even certain the game will happen. Paterno's firing happened at a late night news conference.
The people running the cable TV news networks realize they have to stay fixated on the story. They arrange for panels and experts to assess, never mind these people don't know all the facts in what is unfolding as a complicated legal matter.
News consumers will "click around" to find the most current (or salacious) discussion of all this stuff happening.
As I write this, "Fox and Friends" is coming on the screen (Fox News Network) and sure enough, the Penn State fiasco is topic No. 1. There are no real fresh bulletins. They're recycling the stuff about Mike McQueary, that poor young man who will never escape his association with this. He reported an incident but apparently didn't do enough.
How many of us can honestly say we would have done more in his position? Don't you think human instincts would take over? Wouldn't we fear being tossed aside as "knowing too much" and losing out to the awesome power continuing a cover-up from the top?
My instincts tell me McQueary is a fundamentally good person. He isn't a household name like Paterno. He feared the wrath of God "getting involved."
It took the trustees to finally cut Paterno down to size. Even that seemed kind of excruciating. Reportedly the governor had to get involved.
The governor had to tell the trustees "do the right thing." Such an ethos can be foreign to a mafia-like institution and its code of omerta, I guess. An educational institution shouldn't have to be dragged kicking and screaming, but keep in mind there's lots of money involved.
Big-time college athletics is all about money. Is this the kind of environment where a whistleblower like McQueary, a lower-echelon pawn, can feel comfortable asserting himself?
In hindsight the answer might be "yes." But we're learning that an excruciatingly long cover-up may have been perpetuated. Paterno has hired a criminal defense attorney. Isn't it interesting how human and small he seems now?
The trustees found the sun would rise in the east the next morning. The birds would sing, at least to the extent birds this time of year sing.
I find myself thinking about the majority of the 40,000 students - and I thought St. Cloud State was big - at Penn State just living their normal routine as students, focusing on their next exam etc.
I was curious about what exactly "Happy Valley" denotes. Because, Penn State is located in State College, PA. You don't suppose that's a company town, do you?
I learn that Happy Valley is a "colloquialism for the State College area."
I have heard about State College all my life and assumed it was a suburb of a metropolis like Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. Finally I got out a map and learned no, State College is dead at the center of Pennsylvania, a fair distance from any other big population center.
While we're researching background, let's look into "Nittany Lions," the nickname. "Nittany" comes from a Native American term meaning "single mountain."
Governor Tom Corbett appears to be a hero thus far. He called the rioting Paterno supporters "knuckleheads."
All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't save some very big bigshots at Penn State. President Graham Spanier became ex-president, removed by the board.
"Off with their heads" was also proclaimed in regard to Tim Curley, athletic director; and Gary Schultz, who had a long administrative-sounding title. Curley and Schultz are charged with perjury.
The trustees called the bluff of Paterno in a move that seemed really gutsy when it happened, but in a short time seemed like no big deal.
Strip a man of his power and he looks most mortal in short order. Paterno can't move the chess pieces around anymore. He's checkmated.
But even that is too generous. His fall may continue to where he's just another desperate criminal defendant, making chess moves with his attorney just to protect his own rear end.
There is quite the shrine to big-time college athletics at Penn State: a stadium that can hold 100,000-plus fans. You think money doesn't rule with something like this?
You think McQueary wouldn't be scared to death asserting himself in such a manner that either he'd be "rubbed out" - remember the code of omerta is associated with the mafia - or put the wheels in motion for an enormous scandal?
McQueary was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, or so it seemed. "Coach centrism" means coaches assume almost godlike proportions. Pundit George Will doesn't like that.
Coaches want large rosters so they can apply the most esoteric strategies, using just the right players at the right time. This model must have developed because it's what the fans want and like.
The stadium actually holds 106,000 fans, I'm reading here, and it's called Beaver Stadium for reasons that don't jump out at me. It's like "Happy Valley" and "Nittany Lions," terms that you have to look up.
Penn State plays Nebraska at home today, providing there's no sudden cancellation. Then they go on the road to Ohio State and Wisconsin - thank goodness not here to Minnesota.
We much prefer our problem of losing to NDSU over the cesspool of scandal at Penn State.
The villain is of course Jerry Sandusky. A commentator last night said Sandusky probably has a "brain disease." But he's out on bail. A book by him was still for sale at the Penn State bookstore as of last night. What a person to mount a massive coverup for.
Remember the Jim Tressel (Ohio State) tattoo scandal? How quaint.
Sandusky is the mother of all scandals, to revive the words of the late Saddam Hussein, or (most likely) his creative translator.
It's sickening for three reasons: 1) It stains an otherwise virtuous institution, 2) It reinforces the deficiencies of "coach centrism," and. . . Oh, I've forgotten the third reason. (OK, this is topical humor related to Rick Perry, the sometimes brain-dead Texas governor. I'd better explain this for people who might read this years from now.)
Perhaps I have fed the beast myself with my recent posts showing skepticism about U of M Gophers football. Maybe I have laid too much at the doorstep of the head coach.
The pertinent question to ask is: Why can't college football be more of a basic test of the athleticism of the two teams? Why do we depend so much on celebrity head coaches who make chessboard moves, live like workaholics and seem to carry the whole emotional banner of their region?
Why have we allowed "coach centrism" to progress so far, an 84-year-old man like Paterno felt last week like he could browbeat the board of trustees of his school into his desired decision? Is there anyone among us who didn't think that was totally pathetic?
Paterno had his veneer of power stripped off. He looks most human and most vulnerable now.
Was he clinging to power as a way of perpetuating a cover-up? Was he afraid that if new people swept into the Penn State football office, they might discover some very uncomfortable truths?
I have always heard that bank employees are required to take vacations, not because it's good for their welfare but because if they're gone for a while, any 'funny stuff" they might be doing with money might come to light.
The Penn State football establishment may have been trying to suppress the scandal of a pedophile in the ranks because the disclosure would have done too much damage. That's actually the more charitable assessment.
We all understand PR aims. The darker and more cynical assessment has to do with "code of omerta." I have seen this on the (very) micro level. I would say that in the late 1980s, we saw it in Morris.
Coaches and staff always close around their own. It's a little like the mafia. Thank goodness we're micro.
Penn State University has been dragged into a cesspool that makes other colleges breathe a sigh of relief they can stay distant. All of a sudden here in Minnesota, our Gophers look pretty admirable, never mind that many of us boomers will go to our grave only imagining what those maroon uniforms would look like in Pasadena come January 1.
Thank God we can stay distant from the horrible circumstances surrounding Penn State football. Not only is it sordid, it has all the ingredients that make it become a mega story in the media. I mean, we're into Terri Schiavo/Chandra Levy territory as I write this, at 5 a.m. Saturday morning, Nov. 12.
Penn State is supposed to play Nebraska today in Happy Valley - what an ironic name. So fluid is this story, I'm not even certain the game will happen. Paterno's firing happened at a late night news conference.
The people running the cable TV news networks realize they have to stay fixated on the story. They arrange for panels and experts to assess, never mind these people don't know all the facts in what is unfolding as a complicated legal matter.
News consumers will "click around" to find the most current (or salacious) discussion of all this stuff happening.
As I write this, "Fox and Friends" is coming on the screen (Fox News Network) and sure enough, the Penn State fiasco is topic No. 1. There are no real fresh bulletins. They're recycling the stuff about Mike McQueary, that poor young man who will never escape his association with this. He reported an incident but apparently didn't do enough.
How many of us can honestly say we would have done more in his position? Don't you think human instincts would take over? Wouldn't we fear being tossed aside as "knowing too much" and losing out to the awesome power continuing a cover-up from the top?
My instincts tell me McQueary is a fundamentally good person. He isn't a household name like Paterno. He feared the wrath of God "getting involved."
It took the trustees to finally cut Paterno down to size. Even that seemed kind of excruciating. Reportedly the governor had to get involved.
The governor had to tell the trustees "do the right thing." Such an ethos can be foreign to a mafia-like institution and its code of omerta, I guess. An educational institution shouldn't have to be dragged kicking and screaming, but keep in mind there's lots of money involved.
Big-time college athletics is all about money. Is this the kind of environment where a whistleblower like McQueary, a lower-echelon pawn, can feel comfortable asserting himself?
In hindsight the answer might be "yes." But we're learning that an excruciatingly long cover-up may have been perpetuated. Paterno has hired a criminal defense attorney. Isn't it interesting how human and small he seems now?
The trustees found the sun would rise in the east the next morning. The birds would sing, at least to the extent birds this time of year sing.
I find myself thinking about the majority of the 40,000 students - and I thought St. Cloud State was big - at Penn State just living their normal routine as students, focusing on their next exam etc.
I was curious about what exactly "Happy Valley" denotes. Because, Penn State is located in State College, PA. You don't suppose that's a company town, do you?
I learn that Happy Valley is a "colloquialism for the State College area."
I have heard about State College all my life and assumed it was a suburb of a metropolis like Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. Finally I got out a map and learned no, State College is dead at the center of Pennsylvania, a fair distance from any other big population center.
While we're researching background, let's look into "Nittany Lions," the nickname. "Nittany" comes from a Native American term meaning "single mountain."
Governor Tom Corbett appears to be a hero thus far. He called the rioting Paterno supporters "knuckleheads."
All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't save some very big bigshots at Penn State. President Graham Spanier became ex-president, removed by the board.
"Off with their heads" was also proclaimed in regard to Tim Curley, athletic director; and Gary Schultz, who had a long administrative-sounding title. Curley and Schultz are charged with perjury.
The trustees called the bluff of Paterno in a move that seemed really gutsy when it happened, but in a short time seemed like no big deal.
Strip a man of his power and he looks most mortal in short order. Paterno can't move the chess pieces around anymore. He's checkmated.
But even that is too generous. His fall may continue to where he's just another desperate criminal defendant, making chess moves with his attorney just to protect his own rear end.
There is quite the shrine to big-time college athletics at Penn State: a stadium that can hold 100,000-plus fans. You think money doesn't rule with something like this?
You think McQueary wouldn't be scared to death asserting himself in such a manner that either he'd be "rubbed out" - remember the code of omerta is associated with the mafia - or put the wheels in motion for an enormous scandal?
McQueary was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, or so it seemed. "Coach centrism" means coaches assume almost godlike proportions. Pundit George Will doesn't like that.
Coaches want large rosters so they can apply the most esoteric strategies, using just the right players at the right time. This model must have developed because it's what the fans want and like.
The stadium actually holds 106,000 fans, I'm reading here, and it's called Beaver Stadium for reasons that don't jump out at me. It's like "Happy Valley" and "Nittany Lions," terms that you have to look up.
Penn State plays Nebraska at home today, providing there's no sudden cancellation. Then they go on the road to Ohio State and Wisconsin - thank goodness not here to Minnesota.
We much prefer our problem of losing to NDSU over the cesspool of scandal at Penn State.
The villain is of course Jerry Sandusky. A commentator last night said Sandusky probably has a "brain disease." But he's out on bail. A book by him was still for sale at the Penn State bookstore as of last night. What a person to mount a massive coverup for.
Remember the Jim Tressel (Ohio State) tattoo scandal? How quaint.
Sandusky is the mother of all scandals, to revive the words of the late Saddam Hussein, or (most likely) his creative translator.
It's sickening for three reasons: 1) It stains an otherwise virtuous institution, 2) It reinforces the deficiencies of "coach centrism," and. . . Oh, I've forgotten the third reason. (OK, this is topical humor related to Rick Perry, the sometimes brain-dead Texas governor. I'd better explain this for people who might read this years from now.)
- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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