Tate: Put yourself in their shoes ...
When the bandwagon rolls by and everybody jumps on, does anyone know where it's headed?
Pack mentality leads to strange places. A by-product of the Penn State case is the tendency for critics to be smug in their certainty that, confronted with the same information, they would have handled it "in the right way."
Why do I have doubts? There are myriad examples where people at all levels avoid that which is uncomfortable. What percentage would intervene if an unavoidable impropriety occurs? In the bigger picture, have we forgotten the multiple failings of the Catholic Church? How many would have had the courage to disrupt the terrorist overtake of Flight 93 before it crashed over Pennsylvania on 9/11?
To hear my morally perfect colleagues, they would. To whom I forward the words of The New York Times' David Brooks. He begins a column with:
"First came the atrocity, then came the vanity.
"The atrocity is what Jerry Sandusky has been accused of doing at Penn State. The vanity is the outraged reaction of a zillion commentators over the past week, whose indignation is based on the assumption that if they had been in Joe Paterno's shoes, or Mike McQueary's shoes, they would have behaved better.
"Commentators ruthlessly vilify all involved from the island of their own innocence. Everyone gets to proudly ask: 'How could they have let this happen?' "
Brooks cites a host of examples of failed morality and ends with:
"The proper question is: How can we overcome our natural tendency to evade and self-deceive? That was the proper question after Abu Ghraib, Madoff, the Wall Street follies and a thousand other scandals. But it's a question this society has a hard time asking because the most seductive evasion is the one that leads us to deny the underside of our own nature."
Simply offensive
From one controversy to another ... with increasing heat on coach Ron Zook, more than a little is filtering toward UI offensive coordinator Paul Petrino after four inept performances.
"To be honest, I don't even know what people are saying," was Petrino's response.
Criticism of this nature is new to Petrino. As coordinator at Louisville (2003-06), his team averaged 41 points. As coordinator at Arkansas (2008-09), the Razorbacks set passing records and averaged 37 points in 2009. Last year Petrino's unit set the UI record for points with 423.
Asked if he had ever hit such a wall — no points in the first 41 minutes of the last four games — Petrino replied:
"No, sir, not really. Most of my life we've been able to go up and down the field.
"In watching tape, a lot of times you don't see much difference between being real good and real bad. On our initial third down Saturday we had two receivers wide open and didn't protect. The next third down we had a guy go the wrong way. On the third one we faced a front that we check to 17 on, a play we used to gash people last year, and we didn't execute it."
After faltering twice more in the third quarter — the second with Reilly O'Toole at QB — the Illini rallied from a 17-0 deficit with Nathan Scheelhaase hitting key passes on two scoring drives. But Michigan matched them from short yardage, first capitalizing on an interception return and late after recovering the UI's onside kickoff.
Not to badger, but ...
The question rearing its ugly head this week is whether the players are affected by the rumors surrounding Zook and the early-morning shooting injury to starting linebacker Trulon Henry. Seniors Jeff Allen, Whitney Mercilus and Tavon Wilson met the press and seemed more concerned about the talent representing Wisconsin.
"Nobody out there understands what's going on in the locker room," Mercilus said. "We don't pay attention to the outside world. We're facing a steamroller team in Wisconsin. Their offensive line is bigger than the Green Bay Packers."
Said Allen: "What happened to Trulon makes us want to play harder. When we look at it, we're making a lot of small mistakes. The offensive line is all about cohesion."
Some lineup changes are being hinted, to which Petrino replied:
"I don't think we have players worried about their jobs. They play every game for Coach Zook; they play for each other. They play for the university and the fans. Anyone who doesn't believe that doesn't realize the hours and the work we put in. I don't have all the answers, but I believe our guys are playing their hearts out every game. They just have to execute better in key situations."
Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com.
Lauren,
I agree with the notion that not everybody who says they would have behaved correctly would have done so. In fact, many people do not. This is why sexual predators can get away with it for years on end.
I thank you for pointing out that we too often allow self-deceit to control our actions when we "know better." I'd suggest that one way we, as a society, attempt to overcome this human tendency is to hold those accountable who have failed. We can acknowledge that we have this tendency, but learn from the mistakes of others.
Thus, I am still hoping you make it clear that Coach Paterno failed his moral obligations whether he was told by an eye witness of sodomy or if he was "only" told about fondling. Can you please acknowledge to your readers that having this information and then allowing the alleged fondler to work with young children for years without ever contacting the police was a mistake? (To my knowledge you have only come down on the it is unclear if he did anything wrong point of view)
Yes, we should put ourselves in Paterno's shoes (and the shoes of others). This way we would understand that it would take a lot of courage to speak up. We'd understand that it might make us look bad, and lead to some negative consequences to our institution (here PSU, earlier Catholic Church, etc.). But we'd also understand that it is worth it to go to the authorities with our suspicions Because we'd know (if the media made this fact clear) that sexual predators don't stop at one victim and that the harm to the innocent outweighs other harm.
Please use your position to point out that fondling is sexual abuse. Please clarify your article that said it was unclear if Paterno did anything wrong. Sure, its unclear just how wrong he was, but it is perfectly clear that he was wrong to turn a blind eye and that he deserved to lose his multimillion dollar job for such a mistake.
I'll bite on the change of the subject to Zook. I hope he is fired at the end of the season - assuming we don't win out, at which point I'd reassess his ability to inspire a team and to beat teams with equal/superior talent (Wisconsin and likely the Bowl opponent if the Illinois finish 8-4). That said, it is very unlikely we will win out. Others are correct when they point out his numerous tactical mistakes. It is also worthy of consideration that he doesn't call the offense or the defensive plays, but is in charge of our remarkably bad special teams units. As a kicker, he does not present himself as one of the faces of the University well at all.
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