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Originally Posted by ThetaDancer
From the New York Times:
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“I think the point people are trying to make is the media is responsible for JoePa going down,” said a freshman, Mike Clark, 18...
Demonstrators tore down two lamp posts, one falling into a crowd. They also threw rocks and fireworks at the police, who responded with pepper spray. The crowd undulated like an accordion, with the students crowding the police and the officers pushing them back.
“We got rowdy, and we got maced,” Jeff Heim, 19, said rubbing his red, teary eyes. “But make no mistake, the board started this riot by firing our coach. They tarnished a legend.”
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I don't understand the riots in support of him, or blaming the media and the board. At all. |
I do sort of get it -- the blaming the media and the support, at least, not the riots. It's a fairly common human response, I think, when something like this comes out to react based on loyalty -- loyalty to family members, loyalty to the Church, loyalty to an institution like a college or an institutional icon like a coach. More than one Penn Stater here has described him as being like a grandfather to Penn Staters. It doesn't seem that odd to me for the initial response for these college students -- still kids in some ways -- to be to defend him. The rioting on the other hand . . . .
From everything I have seen, I think Paterno failed here. He may not have the legal culpability that the AD or the GA have, but he failed, and that failure threatens the integrity of the school. I do see sadness in what has been a pretty brilliant career coming to an end like this, but I don't think the Board of Trustees had any choice but to fire him and fire the president.