When Sports Love Goes Bad

Unless you were under a rock for almost a week now, you'd know that Penn State ran into a major scandal when a former defensive coordinator on the football team was accused of molesting children.  This led to the dismissal of the university president, athletic coordinator, and the twist getting all the press legendary coach Joe Paterno.

Immediately after Paterno's firing, Penn State students took to the streets, rioting and overturning a van among other things.

Unlike other people who read this blog, I know why people love their sports teams.  When you watch a team on TV or in person or listen to them on the radio for year after year, it becomes like a part of your family.  It's also a way for fathers and sons, (and mothers and daughters and so on) to connect through a common interest.  It may seem silly but one of the last times my dad and I really talked without our usual awkwardness was in 2007 when Tigers ace pitcher Justin Verlander threw his first no hitter.  We were both really excited because no Tigers pitcher had done that since 1983, so we witnessed something rare and special.  Conversely when Verlander threw another no hitter this year my dad was no longer living and I didn't even watch the game because I forgot it was on at 4:30 for whatever reason that day.

And those are just the good reasons, not the ones involving gambling and drinking.  The point is, I know why people love their teams.  The thing is, when something like the Paterno case comes along, some people choose to put on their blinders.  People say, "Well he told the athletic director, what else should he have done?"  Um, made sure the athletic director did something besides say, "Don't bring kids to Penn State to molest?"  Instead Paterno did like all those bishops, cardinals, and the Pope by looking the other way as this was going on.  In his defense, Paterno was about 75 back in 2002, so maybe he wasn't all that aware of anything by that point.

The people rioting over Paterno getting fired are obviously morons.  There has to be a line drawn in the sand when you say your love for team is not as great as your love for morality and basic human decency.  But it's not hard when it's someone like Paterno who's been around for 46 years as the coach, so that generations of families have seen him ambling along the sidelines in his glasses.  When someone's been a part of your collected memories for that long, it's hard to turn against them no matter how terrible their crime.

Of course a part of it is how hard it is to see that our idols have feet of clay.  When given the chance to be a stand-up guy and do the right thing, Paterno shrank, passing the buck to someone else, who in turn did nothing.  It's really something a lot of us would do in the same position.  Case in point, last week I was at Arby's and this old guy (probably about the same age as Paterno) spills his soda on the floor under his table.  Instead of telling anyone about the mess, he just wipes the top of the table, pushes in his chair, and leaves.  And did I say anything?  No.  So we both shirked our obligation to do the right thing.  The Penn State case is like that magnified to a much, much bigger scale.

As much as I want to condemn the fans, I do have to think about what I'd do in the same situation.  If word broke that a coach on my beloved Tigers was showering with little kids and no one in the organization really did anything except say, "Don't do that here" would I still root for my team?  Could I really put aside all those memories, all that bonding?  It's hard to say.  I think after everyone responsible had been fired I would eventually go back to rooting for my team because the team is more than a few bad individuals.  Another case in point, my slightly less beloved Red Wings signed Todd Bertuzzi, who about 7 years ago crippled another player on the ice.  It was a loathsome act committed when he was on Vancouver.  Does that mean I don't root for the Red Wings?  No.  I just don't root for Bertuzzi.  Just because he's there doesn't make all the other players (many who were around long before he was signed) instantly evil.  But maybe like a lot of people my morality is a bit too flexible.

And for those who bellyache about Paterno getting canned, he could have "gone out on his own terms" last year or the year before or any other year before now.  But he selfishly wanted to collect a few more wins despite that he hasn't actually "coached" the team in years.  In the last few years some games he wasn't even on the field!  He was up in the press box with a broken hip or something.  Yet his selfish desire to keep accumulating wins kept him going and now, again, he reaps what he sows.  If he had really loved his school and all that he would have stepped aside years ago to let someone young and capable take over.  But sometimes we just can't let things go.