Joe Paterno, the winningest coach in Division I football history, has been fired from a position he has held for 46 years. It was not a matter of he wasn't getting the job done. It wasn't a question of his coaching ability or his ability to relate to and recruit student athletes. Technically speaking, it is not even because he broke the law. It is because he didn't do more than he was technically required to do. A Graduate assistant in the football program informed Paterno he had witnessed defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky raping a young boy. After informing his athletic director of this information, the coach was content to let the status quo remain, even after nothing besides Sandusky resigning changed.
Surprisingly to me there are really two sides to this whole situation as far as public opinion is concerned. These can be easily seen by the thousands upon thousands of twitter posts, facebook posts and even blog posts about this situation. Without these mediums, many people would not have as much or any information on this topic. The problem is that many people who are using these sites are posting false information or misleading ideas. While much of the information being shared on these sites, if you stumbled upon something untrue, it may change your opinion on the matter even though the information is false.
On the one hand you have many students, fans and boosters of the program who are still very supportive him. I can certainly understand the sentiment behind these people. He has been a member of that institution for as long as many people can remember and they love their coach. Many of them see that he didn't make the right decision in not taking it to the higher authorities, but point to the fact that he fulfilled his legal obligations.
The other side of the debate speaks mainly about the once legendary coaches moral obligations. If this had been immediatly brought to the authorities there would not have been backlash against Joe Paterno, but while he didn't break the law, he broke the trust of the thousands of parents that sent their kids through the doors of Penn State. Many people are asking whether many of these kids would not have been put through this if Paterno had brought this to the police sooner.
However there is really one theme that stands out most to me, and it is based almost entirely on the media. Many mothers have been posting, and I agree with them, what about the kids. My blog post was constructed to bring attention to this idea. No one is talking about the real problem. ESPN and other media outlets are focusing almost entirely on Joe Paterno. What about Sandusky? What about the kids that he abused? The media isn't talking about this at all. They are only focused on Joe Paterno, Legendary Coach losing his job. Lets be honest with ourselves. This man being fired is peanuts beside the real issue, the fact that these kids were abused and taken advantage of. The media really needs to get its act together stop pushing what is really important to the side.
No comments:
Post a Comment