Bobby Bowden says remove Joe Paterno statue

By Mark Wogenrich, The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) –

Bobby Bowden knew Joe Paterno for more than 40 years and said he still loves the late Penn State football coach. But Bowden also believes that the statue honoring Paterno outside Beaver Stadium should be removed.

“Every time they show that statue on TV, people won’t remember the good years,” the former Florida State football coach said Thursday. “They’re only going to remember the things with (Jerry) Sandusky. I still love Joe, and I still love his family, but Joe made a mistake, like all of us do. But this was a big one. I’m so sorry it happened.”

Like Bowden, many on Thursday began not only digesting special investigator Louis Freeh’s report but also continued the complex debate regarding Paterno’s legacy. It’s one that includes an on-campus library named for the coach, donations of more than $4 million to the university, consistently high graduation rates for his players and no major NCAA violations over a 46-year head coaching career.

That career now is also bookended by the findings of an eight-month investigation, conducted by the former FBI director, that said Paterno, former President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz concealed reports of child abuse against Sandusky, Penn State’s former defensive coordinator who was convicted on 45 counts.

“Our reaction is that clarity came out of the report, which showed 61 years of excellent service (Paterno) gave to the university is now marred,” said Karen Peetz, chairwoman of Penn State’s board of trustees. “We have to step back and say, ‘What does that mean?’ “

Freeh specifically said he wasn’t singling out Paterno in the 267-page report. However, Paterno is the only one of the four with a statue dedicated to him on campus. Former players, university officials and those who knew Paterno all said Thursday that the coach’s legacy, though blemished, needs to be viewed in full.

“To me, this shows that he was fallible,” analyst Matt Millen said on ESPN. “He made a mistake. … Is (his legacy) spoiled? Yes, absolutely it’s spoiled. But there’s still a lot of good there.”

Trustee Kenneth Frazier cited the “inexcusable failures on the part of Joe Paterno and others to protect children” but added that Paterno “did a lot of tremendous things in his life.”

“There’s a lot about his life that’s worth emulating,” Frazier said. “… I don’t think any one of us wants to be judged by the worst things we’ve done. You have to take some time, measure and distance to think about how we will measure Joe Paterno’s entire life and entire work.”

The report, which Penn State hired Freeh to produce at a cost of $6.5 million, said the four men concealed information regarding a 2001 incident at Penn State’s Lasch Football Building, did not report the incident to police and did not try to learn the identity of the victim.

Further, the investigation turned up information that Paterno knew about a 1998 investigation involving Sandusky and another boy, though the former head coach had said he was unaware of it. At a news conference, Freeh said Paterno has a “great legacy” and “brought huge value” to Penn State. He added that the late coach also “made perhaps the worst mistake of his life.”

“The reasonable conclusion from that evidence is that (Paterno) was an integral part of this active decision to conceal,” Freeh said. “I regret that, based on the damage it does obviously to his legacy, because he is no longer here.”

On Thursday, Nike announced it would rename the Joe Paterno Child Development Center, a facility at the company’s Oregon headquarters. Nike co-founder Phil Knight, who vigorously defended Paterno at a memorial service in January, said Thursday he was “extremely saddened.”

“According to the investigation, it appears Joe made missteps that led to heartbreaking consequences,” Knight said in a statement. “I missed that Joe missed it, and I am extremely saddened on this day. My love for Joe and his family remains.”

Bowden, who had a long friendship with Paterno and his wife Sue, said he was “shocked” at the Freeh Report’s findings.

“I viewed him as a man who spent 60 years of his life doing everything the right way and, because of one lousy error — a big one, a big one — things are different,” Bowden said. “Allowing kids to be abused when it could have been cut off is a big mistake, as I look at it. I judge him like any other man. We all make mistakes, but that was a biggie.”

In a statement, the Paterno family said that Joe Paterno “wasn’t perfect” and regretted mistakes he made. The family also said that “it can be argued that Joe Paterno should have gone further” and pressed officials to “see that they were doing their jobs.”

“To think, however, that Paterno would have protected Jerry Sandusky to avoid bad publicity is simply not realistic,” the family said. “If Joe Paterno had understood what Sandusky was, a fear of bad publicity would not have factored into his actions.”

Several former players concurred. On ESPN, Millen said that Paterno “faced things straight up” and would not have allowed potential negative publicity to affect his decision-making. On his Washington, D.C., radio show, former linebacker LaVar Arrington said Paterno had a selfless nature.

“He was always being the fearless leader, always trying to look out for everybody’s best interests and well-being,” Arrington said on 106.7 The Fan. “… Joe probably was trying to find an answer that could answer every single question that was coming his way. That wasn’t right for him to have to do it, but if he put himself in that position, he had to make the right decision. Unfortunately, and it pains me to say it, he failed in doing so.”

Regarding Paterno’s legacy, players sought perspective. Former running back Mike Guman, who played for Paterno in the 1970s, said the report “tears a little away from your heart and soul.”

“Is Joe’s legacy tarnished? Of course it is, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” Guman said. “But it certainly doesn’t take away from all the good that he did.”

Added Arrington on his radio show, “Joe was not perfect. He was a person and he messed up, with a lack of moving things in the right direction when he had a chance to. On the other hand, you look at everything Joe has done and all the lives he impacted and all the things that went into building Penn State. That remains as well. How do you separate the two, how do you put them together, how do you view his legacy? I don’t have the answer to that one.”