As Penn State faced public outcry, NCAA investigation and federal government probes in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, it made a symbolic move to attempt to heal the wounds of all that took place.
That move was to take down the bronze statue of legendary former head coach Joe Paterno.
From that day forward, there has always been a group longing for the return of JoePa with his finger in the air signaling victory. On Tuesday, some 200 former Penn State football players submitted a petition to the university asking for them to return the statue to its place outside Beaver Stadium.
With the Sandusky trial and conviction, Paterno’s firing and the NCAA hammer coming down nearly four years in the past, those players believe it is time to let the past go and recognize Paterno for his greatness in the area of coaching once again.
“We have been told during the last four-plus year that the board and administration are waiting for the appropriate time to repair the damage they created,” said Brian Masella, former tight end and punter for the Nittany Lions and a 1975 alumnus, who spoke on behalf of the lettermen. “Now is the appropriate time. Enough is enough!”
However, it may not be as simple as Masella and the other players believe it to be. That’s especially the case considering new allegations of Paterno’s knowledge of Sandusky’s behavior with children went much further back than ever before.
In May, a judge’s opinion in a case between Penn State and its insurer indicated that Paterno may have been told by a child as far back as 1976 that Sandusky had assaulted them.
Given those allegations and the feeling of plenty of others in and around the program and university, is now really the right time to be taking this issue up?
For the players who signed the petition, it wasn’t all about Paterno though — it was also about their personal legacies within the Nittany Lions program. They also want an apology to Sue Paterno and the restoration of the Players Wall.
The latter was removed from the area surrounding the Paterno statue, and the players believe their legacies should still be honored.
“We feel that the board, or at least the ones that are in control, really haven’t made any headway in restoring our legacy, the players’ legacy, who absolutely did nothing wrong in the Sandusky scandal,” said Masella, of Columbus, N.J. “They ripped down the plaques of all the players.… They just seemed to have tossed us aside.”
Masella was part of the 1973 team which went undefeated and saw its star player John Cappelletti win the Heisman Trophy.
None of those players had anything to do with the transgressions of Sandusky or Paterno of the day or thereafter, so they may have a point about their own plaques.
Interestingly enough, of the 200 players who signed the petition, the vast majority were from decades other than the 1990s and 2000s, who were likely the most directly affected from this incident overall.
But, the big question is this: will Penn State’s administration really be so insensitive as to re-open a wound that has barely healed for the victims of Sandusky’s actions?
With the news coming down in May, it certainly would be a callous move towards the real victims in all of this.
