The most common response from Penn Staters to any criticism or indifference towards Joe Paterno this past week is: YOU’RE JUST JEALOUS OF US. Yes, Penn State is known for being a top party school, and yes Penn State has a good football program, but one could use the same description for Ohio State, and Wisconsin.
Are non-Penn Staters jealous of those schools too? Paterno did a world of good for Penn State, and he deserves all the praise he gets at Penn State, but the majority of what Paterno did benefited Penn State, so why should people not affiliated with the university care?
Penn Staters fail to realize the rest of the world is disgusted with Penn State University. Prior to Paterno’s death the public was sick of hearing about Joe Pa’s connection to the Sandusky scandal, people were disgusted with the student riots over Paterno’s firing, most of all people were disgusted and grossed out from hearing the name Jerry Sandusky.
Just a few weeks after the Penn State scandal talk dies down Paterno dies and for people not connected to the school, it’s awkward. The initial reaction of course is condolences for the family, but that is the extent of it. To Penn State, Joe Pa was like their grandfather, but to the rest of America he was like the nice old man that lived down the street.
Non-Penn Staters are not jealous; they just don’t care and are sick of hearing about all things Penn State. Just because he made a HUGE mistake, does not mean he shouldn’t be honored at the university. He made a positive impact on many people’s lives at State College and if those people want to honor him for it, they have every right to.
However, because of the big mistake Joe Pa made, he deserves to be forever linked to the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal. He deserves to have that stain on his memory as head football coach at Penn State, and if people want to ridicule him for it, they have every right to do it.
It is not jealousy to question Paterno, it is logic. Should he have retired many years ago? Did he hold the football program hostage? Did he do enough when he heard of Jerry Sandusky’s sex acts? They are all fair topics to question when discussing the legacy of Joe Paterno at Penn State. Joe Paterno was and still is Penn State.
He did a lot of great things for the school, but Paterno came up small when he had a chance to control the outcome of the biggest black eye in the history of college football, and as sad as that may be he will be remembered for it.
Too many Penn Staters have lived in the “Happy-Valley Bubble” for way too long in my opinion and had and still ahve a distorted view about their Football Program and it’s long-time Leader in Joe Paterno as far as it’s relevance in Big-time COllege Football… I have been very critical of their Football Program in recent years where the arrogance and stubborness of Paterno and others have led this Program down to medicority… My points were well before any of the Scandal came out ,which to me just proves how out of touch Paterno really was.. It started with Paterno for refusing to play in-State Rival Pitt, the move to the Big 10, etc,etc… Paterno ruined over the last 10 Years what he built up over the previous 40 years in my opinion and it was shame to see it happen and that was well before this recent Scandal..
Excellent post paulman
Penn Staters don’t think outsiders are jealous, and just like the rest of the world Penn Staters are disgusted with Sandusky.
“It started with Paterno for refusing to play in-State Rival Pitt…” HAHA You act like Pitt has a good football team or something. Be happy your back on the schedule….. always in need of cupcakes to open the season
paulman I have to disagree with you on the “refusing to play in-State Rival Pitt, the move to the Big 10”. I’ll admit that I wasn’t a fan of PSU moving to the Big Ten when it, but in the long run it was a smart business move on Penn State’s part. The move to the Big Ten was not purely up to Joe Paterno, since it was not purely for football reasons, though I am sure it was a large factor. Penn State is one of the largest research schools in the nation and their membership into the Big Ten also gave them a membership to Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which shares a $5.6 billion research fund.
In regards, to the post itself. I am a Penn State alum and have taken my fair share of heat in defending Paterno, since I think he was made out to be the scapegoat in all this. He turned it over to someone who was the overseer for the Penn State police, after he heard something secondhand, so it is like he was certain it was true. I don’t think people are jealous about Penn State or Penn Staters. I agree that Wisconsin and Ohio State are comparable, but what the author fails to realize is those school are not in the Pa, and many of the people criticizing PSU probably didn’t apply to those schools. I know at least some of my friends who have taken shots at PSU are those that applied and didn’t get into the school. And I believe some of the shots at PSU are from pent up resentment from being denied. Others I am sure just sick of hearing about Penn State. Either way I don’t really think anyone is jealous,I just think the argument is the best, nor do I think this a black eye on college football as it didn’t have anything to do with the sport itself.
Paul was very generous in labeling it a “distorted view”…
I am going to vent a bit here. People aren’t jealous that’s just delusional cult-ish “Happy Valley” thinking. I have to be honest…it makes me sick to my stomach when I’m out and about now and see Penn State merchandise for sale in places that typically don’t carry it. I really didn’t know much about Penn State until after I was almost halfway through my undergrad. degree and I figured it was a “Western Pa. thing” when I did find out about it. From all of the conversations I had I definitely observed that something seemed “off” about Penn State the people’s opinion of the school, the culture and general concept, as it was described to me, was extremely disturbing. It didn’t surprise me at all when the news came out and it was made clear that even this kind of heinous crime was covered up essentially to avoid tarnishing the “Great Reputation” of the University or the football program.
As I see it it is a black eye for the football program because the culture hasn’t changed. This means pretty much anything and everything that isn’t becoming of “Happy Valley” can and will be buried at any expense. This also means players are basically fodder if that’s what’s needed.
While I don’t like to say bad things about people that are recently deceased I take umbrage to the idea that Joe Paterno was a “Stand Up Guy.” That’s the way a lot of Penn Staters like to describe him. When it really counted did he stand up for the right thing? Did he attempt to? How is that an admirable quality to pass on to impressionable young football players or students/fans? Apparently there were widespread rumors floating around the campus for quite a number of years, so I don’t buy the “He really didn’t know” excuse either.
I’ve been to three Universities, have two degrees and at all three schools there was one male professor/director that I had pretty close contact with that was indicted and dismissed or removed for sexual harassment. While I can say that those people treated me with respect I could not, in clear conscious, say that those people were respectable people at the time of the incidents and that’s the thing that’s most disturbing to me about Penn State…the fact that many alumni want to act like the incident was a a small blip on the radar and that Joe Paterno was somehow completely blameless even though he said himself he wished he had done more…only after everything blew up in his face.
I love it when the PSU arrogant, apologist, cultists, come out & make @$$es of themselves, with their comments. One idiot calling Pitt a cupcake, & another nitwit calling Paterno a scapegoat. Priceless. You 2 continue to prove still, how out of touch with reality, delusional, ignorant, arrogant, brainless, heartless, you bunch of enablers all you PSU Alums are. Get your priorities in order folks.
BTW, WTF, exactly has PSU won in the last 2 decades, that gives you the right to have such arrogance & delusions of greatness!?!? Your football program has underachieved forever now, & Paterno should have been fired or retired a decade ago. But the higher ups had no balls to do it, & Paternos arrogance made him think he was afforded a job for life. I don’t care how much he donated to PSU, nobody deserves to keep a job forever. Get out of your non-reality, insulated bubble, & get out in the real world people!
In response to the article, I am a current Penn State student, and I have yet to hear/see the response of “You’re just jealous of us” to non-Penn Staters in regards to what has happened this past week. Why would we want people to be jealous of us in this situation when we ourselves don’t want to be in it? This isn’t about parties, or football, and we get that (even though the media and other people keep telling us we don’t).
We do realize the world is disgusted with Penn State and Sandusky. Just like mrd5139 said, we feel the same way, if not more disgusted. An alumni burned his diploma in front of Old Main because he was that angry with all of this. Some alumni are angry because the University Faculty Senate rejected to vote on no confidence in the Board of Trustees (the Senate is still debating on this issue even with the rejection).
The riot is something we are not proud of, but please remember that was only about 5,000 students out of almost 40,000 that go to the University Park campus. 5,000 is not the majority.
We are also sick of being in the news, but blame that on the media, not us.
Just an observation. I haven’t seen anything but intelligent, thought out, and very well written comments here DCar. Regardless of angle, stance, or opinion. They’ve all at least been smart, worth reading, and worth taking into perspective. I thank all posters prior to you.
hahahhaaa…..Morningweg’s kid just committed to Florida…. .he got pissed at PSU when they signed a 2 star QB named Steve Bench and bailed.
I thought he would go to Stanford or Cal if Coach Marty got the Raiders job..
I believe this will be Coach MM final season with the Eagles regardless of Coach AR Status or howe the Team is doing…
Andy”Cultist”Victory, I don’t need your thanks, angle or stance on my comments. Although my comments are intensely aggressive, I speak the truth that is on my mind, & countless others, as a matter of fact. Like I said before, if you can’t handle the truth & reality, that differs from your delusional, skewed, biased, outlook on things, you need to get your priorities straight & say some prayers, because you need to. The world doesn’t revolve around PSU & Paterno, & if this entire travesty, didn’t sober any of you up, & bring you back down to reality, then you all are lost causes. End of story!
How am I out of touch for calling Paterno a scapegoat? I think when Paterno is taking more heat from activists groups and the general public than the guy who actually committed those heinous crimes. I don’t think Paterno didn’t deserve and blame and I said in my previous post he should have probably done more. But he didn’t commit the actual crime and obviously did enough to have have charges pressed against him, yet I see more criticism out there for Paterno than for Spanier, Curley Shutlz (who had the oversight of the PSU police), or Sanduskey (who actually committed the sick crimes.