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Why Penn State’s cultural authority matters

In an earlier post, I contrasted the (potential) loss of cultural and moral authority for Penn State football in the Sandusky scandal to the loss of cultural and moral authority for the Church, or other institutions in our democracy. I wrote that it doesn’t really matter if people quit believing in Penn State football (versus […]

In an earlier post, I contrasted the (potential) loss of cultural and moral authority for Penn State football in the Sandusky scandal to the loss of cultural and moral authority for the Church, or other institutions in our democracy. I wrote that it doesn’t really matter if people quit believing in Penn State football (versus the other institutions). Sam M., who lives in Western Pennsylvania, speaks up for the other side:

I don’t want to overstate this… but I disagree. As mentioned, “Penn State football” is not about Xs and Os and pig leather. It stood in for something larger, a sense of place and morality. Maybe that’s too much for football to bear. I get that. But it’s what we had.

Losing this is like Pittsburgh losing it’s “working class” reputation. A reputation that is probably false and getting more false everyday.

In a certain sense, Penn State football was a form of literature, a stand-in for something actually important, a way for this place to signal what it cared about. It was a cultural touchstone. Saying it doesn’t matter is like saying it wouldn’t matter if French people just up and declared they didn’t really care about cheese. Cheese is a statement of purpose, of what you care about, of how you live and work. Without it, what else is there?

I see Sam’s point, and retract my earlier statement. As a Louisiana native, I get sick and tired of how important LSU football is to everyone in my tribe — this, even though I enthusiastically participate in the mania. (See NYT sports columnist and LSU grad Jere’ Longman’s essay decrying the state’s sacralization of LSU football, and indifference to LSU’s academic decline.) Yet there’s no denying that when the Tigers are doing well, as they certainly are this year, there is so much joy and pride in the air — this, in a state that often doesn’t have a lot to be joyful about and prideful in. I’ve written before about the New Orleans journalist who said he was moving away because he didn’t want to raise his kids in a place that valued parades more than libraries. I understand where he’s coming from, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate the value of parades. They can tell us who we are and what we love. In Sam M’s sense, the “parade” of college football, like the actual Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans, are a stand-in for something actually important. Maybe it’s because I’m living in Pennsylvania now, but I’m reading everything I can about this Penn State scandal, not because I care about Penn State football (I don’t), but because the more I read, the more fascinated I am by Penn State football, and Joe Paterno, as symbols of moral integrity to the people here. I first thought this was just a scandal about an institution. I’m beginning to see things as Sam does: that this is about far more than what it appears to outsiders to be.

It’s probably the case that to put so much faith in college football is, as Sam says, too much for college football to bear. But people did. And that’s on the line now. If the people of Louisiana had to face a similar scandal having to do with LSU football, it would be devastating. And note well, LSU football does not have, and never has had, the air of moral greatness that Joe Paterno’s Penn State does. Does any college football program? Maybe Bear Bryant’s Alabama. Lord have mercy, if Coach Bryant had been implicated in something like this, I can only imagine … that Alabama fans would be about as confused, angry, and as broken as Penn State fans are today. If you can’t trust Bear Bryant, who can you trust…

I’m starting to get it.

UPDATE: Penn State canceled Paterno’s scheduled news conference today. And the Harrisburg newspaper published a front-page editorial today calling on the university president and Paterno to both hit the road. Excerpt:

So how did a college football legend, known nationally for the integrity of his program, respond to a report of “something of a sexual nature” occurring between his longtime colleague and a little boy?

And how did a university president responsible for the welfare of thousands of young people respond to the very idea that an older man was showering with a boy and engaging in “inappropriate conduct” on campus?

They banned Jerry Sandusky from bringing children on campus.

That was all.

Here is what they did not do:

Neither Joe Paterno nor Graham Spanier called the police.

Neither Joe Paterno nor Graham Spanier seem to have demonstrated any concern for the victim. They never tried to find him. They never tried to get him the emotional help he might need.

When Paterno heard that the milquetoast response was to ban Sandusky from bringing kids on campus — a ban that Curley himself called unenforceable — there is no indication Joe ever went to Spanier to warn him that this could be far more serious.

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