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200 former Penn State players file petition to return Paterno statue
- Thread starter ElectricBlanketFire
- Start date
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HarryDemeanor
Member
I'd put the statue back up in exchange for the termination of the Penn State football program.
SDCowboy
Member
This I don't agree with. The sane players and fans shouldn't be punished.
onadesertedisland
Member
Put the statue back but with engravings detailing his crimes.
Already Torn
Banned
I don't want them to be punished either, but the executives and people making the most from the program are those responsible for keeping this nonsense going.
onadesertedisland
Member
The culture and businesses that profit from college football ignores any wrong doing and focuses solely on the financial loss caused, not by due punishment, but because they backed an athletics program that was rotten to the core.
SirClinksAlot
Member
Haha wow. The whole football program should have been burned down. What a cult.
They seriously did not learn their lesson when they just should have been thankful that the NCAA decided to be cowards.
Now emboldened they deserve to lose it entirely.
I mean, that ship has sailed. At this point if you're a player, you're either just ok with the history of the football program or you're a cultist. I feel sorry for whatever long-time fans are left that aren't nuts, but like... whatever? I also feel sorry for fans of Kevin Durant who don't like the Warriors but so it goes.
This would seem like the most fair, considered, and measured response.
BadAss2961
Member
I don't agree, but I understand why this is happening.
This guy coached like 6 decades worth of football. Was a key part in the advancement of hundreds of lives and careers, and was probably a father figure to many of them. It's different when you know the person like this, so they'll defend him to the grave.
This guy coached like 6 decades worth of football. Was a key part in the advancement of hundreds of lives and careers, and was probably a father figure to many of them. It's different when you know the person like this, so they'll defend him to the grave.
Lol if you ever want to see what a modern cult looks like just visit Penn State . I'm actually surprised the signatures are that few because I'm positive the sentiment is much more prevalent given the people I know through social media and in real life who attended that university
RedAssedApe
Banned
brain washed
oh gawd, i'm laughing because this is genius.
Orbis Tabula
Member
I wonder what they titled the filing. I would call it the Pater-File.
Didn't the cover up allow Penn state to successfully keep skeletons in the closet while it was attempting to join the Big 10?
The devil would wear a Michigan sweater.
yeah the narrative of alumni supporting him for the good he did is gross.
the good he did was only possible because he was covering up so much abuse. the school these people treasure so much was built on the lives of broken children, they should be appalled instead of defensive.
I don't see how that goes against anything I said. Everything I said was a known fact, so to these people it's a known fact that Joe Paterno was a good person. Everything that comes afterwards doesn't easily fit into that belief and since they have held that belief for decades in many examples, it just gets ignored.
My post was just that he is idolized because of things other than winning football games. It's still a problem that he's idolized, but people looking at this situation as only a result of a successful football coach being exposed are missing the entire picture. Football is what he's known for and how he got his foot in the door, but without decades of doing public good for the school he wouldn't have nearly as many people who want to just ignore the facts of what he did and what he allowed to go on.
HalfBakedProphet
Member
None of that would have been possible if not for the wins that occurred on the football field. Full Stop. Paterno built an empire on a lie. Sandusky, the man who spearheaded his championship caliber defenses, was a child rapist. Sandusky played an integral, significant part in building the empire that brought in all that money for fancy libraries and new construction projects. Paterno protected and enabled Sandusky to continue coaching...and raping children, possibly going as far back as the 1970s.
Joe Pa's entire reign is tainted both for enabling a molester AND employing that same man as a significant member of his staff that became so intertwined with his legacy.
No reason to add a "but" to that sentence.
A better understanding of the situation is always helpful. None of what I said was meant to defend him (or his defenders), it was to explain why people are acting so irrationally about him.
peteykirch
Member
faceless007
Member
HalfBakedProphet
Member
I disagree with your "more than just winning football games" premise. Winning football games was what built the foundation.
Those outside of football things, as you described them, were absolutely dependant upon football. None of it would have been possible if Joe Pa's teams were going 3-9 or 4-8 year after year in the 70s and 80s. The money he brought in was undeniably intertwined with the quality of the product on the football field. A product Sandusky helped create.
jchap
Member
Texas A&M is also cult status
Football was the reason he had any opportunity to do those things and he could have just as easily focused on nothing other than football. All I'm saying is that people who are saying "fuck football" don't understand what the hell they're dealing with. Joe Paterno was treated better than an actual saint on the campus and it wasn't only because he won two championships before any students on campus in the past decade were born.
PS3GamerKyle
Member
For all of GAF who live outside of PA, let me tell you, that the fanbase of PSU is ridiculous. It is a cult following and I have nothing but deep scorn for those who praise PSU. I don't need to be reminded 1000 times that your grandparents, parents, you, and soon, your children, all have/will be going to Penn State.
The wall is essentially part of the statue.
(And fuck, the wall looks worse than the statue alone would)
LMFAO get the fuck out of here with this bullshit. Yeah, he was known more for football games... because he was known as a sanctimonious piece of shit who claimed his life was a "Grand experiment" to "do things the right way" while he thumbed his nose at programs that "broke the rules."
No, PSU fans, you don't get to say "Joe Pa was more than football" anymore, because all that he was besides football was a holier-than-thou prick who thought he was literally better than everyone else while he ignored the pleas of molested children.
Your example of Joe Pa's holiness is a $10 million library? PSU was, for many years, the second richest football program in the nation. You're bragging about a $10 million library when his football program made billions?
Stick your head in the sand and oversimplify the problem if you want, but nobody is helped by ignoring the reality of why people look at him the way they do. They're in the wrong but nothing is gained if we don't actually inspect what happened there.
yes
DontBeThatGuy
Member
Ignorant as fuck. Seriously, if you aren't a scumbag, why are you fighting for this? Fuck your sports.
I'm sticking my head in the sand? You're the one claiming people like him because he was more than football, when objectively absolutely everything he ever did was for his own image and for football.
And to think you claimed to be a reasonable PSU fan, LOL.
And, for the record, nothing is helped by understanding why a bunch of dumbfuck old men love a pedophile defender, especially when that reason is pure old fashioned hero worship. Not every perspective is worth exploring.
It was because he won 2 championships before any students on campus in the past decade were born, and made a shitload of money while doing it.
People only know what they see. In his public facing life he appeared to be not only a model football coach and teacher, but a model human being. The campus was filled with Joe Paterno propaganda, even while he was coaching he was an icon on the campus. Hero worship only starts to describe how he was treated. And being a mediocre to bad football coach like he was for the last 20 years or so of his career doesn't get you that kind of treatment.
The former players who signed the petition have been 100% certain that Joe Paterno is a good person for a very long time. Their ability to distort facts and ignore what doesn't fit into their belief system is worth studying more, and is certainly worth more than "lol football"
IdreamofHIME
Member
The wall and statue were paid for by his friends and family.
Let them stick in their yard or front room, just keep it away from the school.
Let them stick in their yard or front room, just keep it away from the school.
The reason those people distort facts and ignore what they like is precisely "lol football."
You keep acting like I'm unfamiliar with PSU. I am not.
And Joe Pa's last 20 years weren't mediocre. Fuck, his teams appeared in 3 BCS bowl games in the last 20 years, winning 2.
Anyone we like? Or just a bunch of car salesmen and substitute teachers?
I don't know how this got into a discussion of his coaching merits, but he had more losing seasons in the same time period than he had BCS bowls. Elite college coaches don't get a chance to have multiple losing seasons without the fanbase erupting unless they are beloved for reasons outside of football. UT is just as crazy about their football team and Mack Brown won a title this millennium, he was still practically thrown out by angry fans because the team had four losses. Paterno was a decent coach with one good class that led to one good run shortly before he retired. Art Briles made Baylor relevant in the national football discussion and got fired and won't be having campus protests for years to come with students who want him back.
Brawly Likes to Brawl
Member
Sometimes in life, you find out that your personal hero actually wasn't that great of a person. Just let it go. The statue isn't a hill a that's worth standing on if it means being insensitive to people who could've had their lives spared from being raped as children. Take solace in the fact that the entire program wasn't nuked from orbit, because it honestly deserved to be.
perfectchaos007
Member
I assume some of them ended up with decent jobs. Their employer probably wouldn't like hearing they support a child rape enabler, unless their employers are also PSU alum.
We do?
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