Rick Reilly: I participated in Paterno hagiography

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8162972/joe-paterno-true-legacy

Whether you agree with the sentiment Reilly is expressing here, I admire the fact that he's willing to acknowledge people like him played a role in giving Paterno so much power. I think there is a lot of credibility in a columnist revisiting his own poor judgement instead of pretending you didn't write something completely counter to the eventual truth.

Also, writing-wise, the last line is pretty powerful. I'm sure some people may feel like the column is more of the same that we've already read from Wetzel, Doyel and Jenkins, but journalistically I thought Reilly's own disgust with himself was worthy of discussion.

 

Just read it. Great column.

 

Thought this was powerful, too:

"This throws a can of black paint on anything anybody tells me about Paterno from here on in. "No NCAA violations in all those years." I believe it. He was great at hiding stuff. "He gave $4 million to the library." In exchange for what? "He cared about kids away from the football field." No, he didn't. Not all of them. Not when it really mattered."

 

Good to see Reilly can still bring it. That was very good.

 

Such absolute power, so little doubt.

He was a great man. An influence. A builder of character and lives. Then he was a destroyer. Now that's all.

That's what I think will rise up and affect most of the people who dealt with Paterno over the years. It sucks, but by God it's true.

 

That was fantastic. All of these columns will be more of the same in some way. His connected better than any other I've read so far.

 

This is what I used to love about Reily, he used to connect on a regular basis when he was with SI. Wasn't able to say that in his last couple of years at SI and since he made the jump to ESPN. Well done, wish he brought it more often. I like that he brought himself into it, that he shared his own self loathing instead of just the same loathing of JoPa everyone else will write about. He also kept it short and sweet. He didn't drone on and on. He said what needed to be said and didn't get too cute about it. His best column in years.

 

I know we just had the bashing Rick Reilky thread, but this piece showed why Rick Reilly is Rick Reilly. Great piece.

 

Damn, good for him.

 

Agreed. Jack McCallum has an article where he expressed the same kind of remorse for a fawning article he wrote about Sandusky's decision to leave Penn State when it happened.
It's nice to see writers do what Paterno could never do, admit a mistake. And oddly, we think better of them for doing so.
A good lesson.

 

Hagiography sounds so Canadian. I prefer the term "going full-throated Brown Bunny."

 

Damn good column.