Penn State Plans on Honoring Joe Paterno This Month

Penn State announced Thursday, buried in a press release, that it will officially honor former coach Joe Paterno before its football game against Temple on September 17th. It's the 50th anniversary of Paterno's first game as head coach.

Paterno, who died in 2012, was fired in November 2011 after the Penn State Board of Trustees found that he did not do enough to report the actions of then defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky after being told by another coach in 1998 that Sandusky had molested a young boy in the showers of the football facility. A report by former FBI director Louis Freeh found that Paterno "concealed facts" about the case.

Penn State initially took a hard-line approach regarding Paterno and anyone else who had ties to Sandusky and his crimes. The university was given a four-year bowl ban and forced by the NCAA to vacate 111 of Paterno's wins (he was previously the winningest coach in FBS history). It also took down a statue of Paterno on campus.

Since then, however, the bowl ban and and the vacated-wins punishment have been lifted, due in part to Penn State's (apparently disingenuous) cooperation. In the past year, the university has appeared to provide more support for Paterno while attempting to discredit Sandusky's victims. Among the incidents:

• 200 lettermen signed a letter to bring the Paterno statue back
• Documents released in June 2016 showed that one man testified that when in 1976 he was molested as a boy by Sandusky, he told Paterno, who quickly rebuffed him. Those claims were never alleged in court but rather came from a deposition. Penn State did pay out a settlement on them, however, and all those who received money provided supporting documentation. When it came time to comment, the school seemingly took Paterno's side, saying he "is not here to defend himself."
• The family of Paterno has been ruthless in its victim-blaming.
• Now Paterno is apparently going to be honored.

This is an extremely troubling pattern for a school that claimed it was going to change its culture—a culture that put football before the safety of children—as a way to avoid the "death penalty" from the NCAA. But with the NCAA sanctions a thing of the past, Penn State is back to defending a coach who has been tied to the Sandusky scandal by numerous different victims and investigators.

Sure, Penn State, maybe Paterno didn't know anything; maybe it's all a lie. But given all the evidence to the contrary, the university is spitting in the face of victims everywhere by choosing to honor him.

Even after the NCAA's punishment (and subsequent retraction), it's clear that football still controls Penn State. The school knew the public relations damage a Paterno tribute would entail, but it didn't care, because it knows that nobody will ever put Penn State football out of business, now matter how reckless and morally abhorrent it is.

Nobody—not the NCAA, not its own fans, and not its sponsors—is going to make Penn State change its football culture, one that nets the athletic department over $71 million in hard dollars each year, and even more in exposure. If you are a decent person, you won't like that, but Penn State knows it doesn't have to give a shit about what you think.

[Onward State]