We Want Joe!, We want Joe! Icon worship, football, and moral games in America
I am stunned tonight. I am stunned, not by news that Joe Paterno was just fired. In my opinion, a mournful one, it is what should have happened, he should have been fired. I am stunned tonight as I hear the chants, read some of the commentary, and hear some of the Joe supporters, who chant, “We want Joe! We want Joe!” Really?
Like so many, as a sport fan, as a follower of college football, and as a long term fan of “JoePa”, I am deeply saddened by the developments of the last few days. However, and this is what is so profoundly disturbing, it seems that many are more distressed over Joe’s departure than they are over the gruesome crimes which took place, and the lack of leadership and failure from the man Joe Paterno. Kids were molested! He knew of at least one incident. He did not go to police. Why? I don’t want to try to venture into Joe’s mind, but did he think he or his program were “too big to fail”? Did he feel his “reputation” or that of his legend would be marred? Did he fear the impact upon recruiting? Did he fear the impact upon the school? Whatever combination of these or other realities were in play, a massive failure took place. And people are more concerned with football at this time? God, help us.
When we see things like this take place in our nation we cannot just watch the clips, view the opinions, and hear the sqwuak-boxes and move on. This type of crime and this type of massive neglect should shake us to our souls. Who are we if we cannot be moved by these heinous acts involving children, as a result of our all consuming lust for a game? Its a game for goodness sakes! A game. Lives are now altered forever, and someone in leadership, perhaps the one person in leadership who could have stopped it, did not. A predator’s actions were hidden, and hearts were broken, forever. I cannot help but wonder if those screaming for Joe right now have anything really worth living for. Can anyone be so callous as to allow football to overwhelm the human call for compassion and concern? As they often say on ESPN, “C’mon, Man!” Really?
There are two realities we should, perhaps, literally weep over at this moment. Joe is not one of them. The realities we should be rocked by are our cultural addiction to pleasure, icon worship, and games, and of course, the heart-breaking nature of these crimes. What is taking place at Penn State right now, as the news is reporting, as kids, students, supposedly future citizens and leaders, are chanting for Joe to remain, is grief inducing. Students are chanting in the streets calling for a man to be kept in place, a man, mind you, who at a minimum did little to end massive criminal behavior, and who, perhaps, the facts may show, is culpable of much more. All across our country young people have lost the ability to think clearly. We have lead our young people to embrace the cultural, political, and academic falsity that suggests no absolute truth exists, individual rights trump everything, morals are up for grabs, games are life-defining, and pleasure trumps all.
Sport can offer us so much that is good. As a college athlete myself, as a coach, and as a true fan, I love what sport offers us. In so many ways, and I have written on this, sport is a metaphor for life. Yet, we must realize, people are far more important than sport. Truth is certainly bigger than sport and its icons. Icons are merely what we perceive them to be from afar. Legends are largely constructed. We should be reminded, also, we are all capable of being less than we ourselves truly desire to be. But for the grace of God, we all are moral failures. We should not be pointing fingers at Joe. We should hold him to the call of leadership, for sure. He should be gone. Yet, we must also maintain a sober awareness which pulls us toward compassion for him as well. More than anything, however, our hearts, prayers, and compassion should be directed to those young people subjected to such pain.
My prayer, as we watch these kinds of events, and so many others in our culture, is that we might wake up to the reality of truth, the call to live our lives in keeping with God’s call and standard of love and grace, and that as individuals and a nation, we might be more like people created in the image of God, for relationship with Him.
This is so much bigger than football. This is so more important than how we will spend three hours on Saturday. This is about the heart and soul of our culture more than we apparently realize. Students are turning over vans, pulling down light posts, starting riots, because a football coach is no longer employed after more than four decades? They are chanting for more Joe while the families of kids exposed to a pedophile are screaming “Why?”, “How?”.
If we, as a culture, continue to make a game of morality, we will continue to see a decline in our national experience, a further marring of our political structure, and a continuing demise of our cultural soul. Our universities, our grade schools, our public square, amidst the reduction of all things to the least common denominator, have weakened in frightening ways. Our entertainment, our dialogue, our media, our societal cravings, have run away from anything resembling what God has for us.
May God help us to see through the veneer of “legend”, long for more than the sport of pleasure, and move toward a deeper sense of biblical orthodoxy. Right thinking, Godly living, is what we have greatest need of. We don’t need another coach, we need Godly leaders. We don’t need another legend, we need the ledger of our failures to be set right by a God of grace and truth.
Joe, JoePa, an impressive coaching resume for sure, and yes, a compelling sport media figure for some time. Yet, there is more to all of us than our resume and our personality. There is more than media fanfare which defines us. There is more than human recognition that tells our story, our full story. And there is much more to the human story of which we are a small part than our small part. Life is bigger than us. It does not all begin and end with us. Our part is to ensure the goodness of those around us and others in our world.
The real story, we should all be reminded here, is that a number of boys have had their lives altered forever. Only grace, truth, forgiveness, and God’s love will heal them and all involved. Can we cover that story, please?
Bruce Lee Smith
www.bruceleesmith.co