Leave JoePa Alone!
Right before my email fight with D prompted yesterday's post, I was going to write about a totally different subject. Today I will revisit that particular rant.

The national president of NOW, whose name is not worth remembering or mentioning, wants Joe Paterno's resignation from his position as head football coach at Penn State over a couple of comments he made at a press conference on the eve of his team's appearance at the Orange Bowl in response to a question about the sexual assault charges brought against one of the players on the team he would be facing the next evening. I won't go into what JoePa said, but it has created a totally unnecessary shitstorm that's tainting what has to be one of the greatest coaching comebacks in the history of NCAA football.

What really bruised my neck meat was coming across a sports blog on foxsports.com by a chick with a penis named Michael Rosenberg. I mean, what has this world come to when sportswriters jump on the feminist bandwagon? Basically, the point of Ms. Rosenberg's blog post was to contribute to the outcry against JoePa -- and other old-school, big-time coaches in the NCAA -- by insisting that the football loving public and media stop giving these old-timers a free pass for making comments and handling their teams in ways that piss the feminista off.

However, I've gotta say that using JoePa's comments to make that point and perpetuate what is little more than a tempest in a teapot is completely wrong-headed and displays an overt bias against a man whose record shouldn't be tarnished by what was really an honest answer to a loaded question.

I have several problems with the whole context surrounding this non-controversy:

First, what was the point of asking JoePa about the problems involving a player not on his team? Sure, the player, linebacker AJ Nicholson, was a starter for the opposing Florida State team and had been suspended as a result of the incident, and his absence from the game could certainly have been perceived as an advantage for Penn State. But Nicholson's exclusion from the game was a decision made by the opposing coach, Bobby Bowden, for unspecified rules infractions. Bowden wisely chose not to say any more than that on the subject, but the media needed more than that, so they turned to JoePa.

Second, the media completely ignored the fact that JoePa did all that he could to avoid impugning Nicholson's character or Bowden's program, and did all he could to empathize with the difficult situations that big-time college athletes face. Without any kind of reference to Nicholson's history of trouble with the law, including an incident this summer at an off-campus apartment complex under construction where Nicholson was Tasered by police for refusing to comply with their orders, after already having been ejected from a night-club for disorderly conduct and drinking violations. JoePa tried to take the high road, without fully comprehending the inevitable witch hunt that would result for his failure to fall all over himself decrying the sexual objectification and victimization of women that men's athletics naturally stands for.

Third, why is it that the world cannot accept a realistic assessment that successful college and professional athletes are targets for women whose own lack of self-respect has nothing to do with the nature and popularity of sports in this country? Does anyone in their right mind think that a fair number of these accusers of athletes are nothing more than gold-digging, opportunistic, and vengeful sluts? I'm not saying that the case shouldn't be fully investigated, and neither was JoePa. But the fact is, that the media at large -- and sadly, an increasing segment of the sports media -- is all too willing to ignore the realistic assessment that hooking up with a big-time athlete is all too often seen as the quick road to the good life for many of these female hangers-on, and that any kind of thwarting of this objective by said athlete is more than enough motive to screw him over big time with a false rape accusation. Instead, they are all too willing to jump on the feminist bandwagon and crucify the accused well before the full set of facts ever come fully to light.

Finally, it's a disgrace that the media so used an honorable man like JoePa to generate a controversy. At a time when he should be basking in his fantastic successes of this past football season, he has been made a symbol of all that is wrong with competitive athletics. That is so wrong. Take a long look at the list of men of honor and character produced by the Penn State football program over the decades Joe Paterno has been their head coach. Compare it to the same list produced by Bobby Bowden's FSU reign, and you will see a huge difference. Names like Franco Harris, Jack Ham, John Cappeletti, Todd Blackledge, and others have demonstrated the success of Coach Paterno's commitment to turning out quality, educated men of character who also happened to be great football players, many of them at the professional level. Now, long after hanging up the cleats, these men are civic leaders, successful businessmen and impeccable public figures. Can the same be said about Bobby Bowden? Deion Sanders, Peter Warrick, Lavernius Coles, and now, AJ Nicholson are about the best that can be expected from a program that's more about winning than character.

At least that's my perception.
- posted by The Drake @ 10:58 AM