Ron Smith’s Wounded Lions, and the Happy Valley and 365: A Year in Happy Valley documentaries all tell the story that devastated and changed the campus’ atmosphere forever. The mindset of Happy Valley returning to the state it was in all it’s football glory before the scandal surfaced, is naive. Although not a student during the time pedophile Jerry Sandusky tarnished Penn State’s football reputation, after viewing the documentaries and reading the excerpt from the novel, it is quite blatant that although there is still hope for Penn State climbing its way back up the totem pole, those who were Nittany Lions pre-tragedy, can’t reminisce on their years here without the thought creeping its way from the place it was left to be forgotten.

Image result for joe paternoEven though all three tell the same story, each brings to light certain details and characters that the directors or authors think had a larger impact in the uncovering of Sandusky’s crimes. A common denominator as anyone who is in the slightest knowledgable of this event may have guessed is coach Joe Paterno. Talk to any Penn Stater about JoePa’s role in the scandal, and you might be surprised to hear their take and reactions on what he did or what more he could have done to fix the problem that fell into his hands.

 

 

First, the documentary Happy Valley points out crucial people in Sandusky’s life or leaders of Penn State’s football program that could have stopped the rapist in his tracks if they did or said something sooner. For example, this is the only source of information that shed light on Sandusky’s adopted son, Matt. Frequently throughout the course of the film, he is interviewed Image result for jerry sanduskyabout his thoughts of everything that was being portrayed in the media about the man who rescued him from his biological parents’ home with no running water and provided him with gifts and a life any kid would love to have. These gifts consisted of tickets to the football games where he could proudly stand next to the man who took on a father role in his life. For the first time in his life, Matt could tell people were envious of him and there was nothing that could change his mind about being in this new family. It wasn’t until he heard another victim’s story almost identical to his that he came clean. In return for all the gifts Sandusky gave his new son, in return he expected Matt to do as he said, even when that meant bing sexually abused by the man he regarded as a savior from his past decrepit life. After the internal battle of deciding whether to betray his adopted family after testifying that he was never done wrong by the family or whether to stay silent and wait out the trial, Matt decided to do the right thing and tell the truth. This seemed to be a driving force in indicting Sandusky. For one of his family members that he raised to give testimony against the man being charged with 40 other counts, it just strengthened the force to prove him guilty.

Secondly, in Wounded Lions written by Penn State University professor Ronald Smith, frequently focuses in on the transition from football at Penn State being tied to academics to a separate entity of its own. This piece of literature in particular spoke of the mentors of Penn State’s football and college and their job in relation to the scandal.

Image result for matt sandusky jerry sanduskyDean Robert Scannell shared his view on the athletics and academic controversy years after Paterno’s promotion to athletic director with, “Look at what’s happened since. Athletics is now strictly a business operation. Coaches are no longer faculty… I felt we had it right. Our program was a national example. It was more than just Paterno. Our women’s programs were big and successful. Tying athletics ad academics together was the key. Breaking athletics loose wasn’t the way to go” (Smith, 54). The relationship between these two magnificent facets of Penn State college was described as “symbiotic”. The debate was fueled by the large sums of profit football alone brought in. Whether that money was used to benefit the entire college or to build up the football program alone was an ongoing battle between those involved in making these decisions.

It is a question to wonder if Joe Paterno would have felt more responsibility  to tell someone about what was told to him by one of his staff if football remained connected with academics, rather than fearing what that information would do to soil Penn State’s football pristine image. Rather than informing authorities about what was told to him by Mike McQueary, he only told his athletic director (as he was advised to do as his job). This being an ethical dilemma Joe Paterno had to weed out within himself, he decided to do strictly what he is supposed to do. When the scandal surfaced to the rest of the world, this ethical dilemma became the decision that lead to his removal of the pedestal he held at PSU and the sole point of criticism for the rest of the world looking in.

Lastly, in the 365 Days: A Year in Happy Valley film, takes into account how the Jerry Sandusky scandal affected all of those in the State College community. It is a scandal like this that proves how close-knit and how much heart Penn Staters current and former have for their school and everything connected to it. Regardless of the level of admiration a fan has for football, a crisis like this pulled together the Penn State community far and wide in order to begin rebuilding. Image result for joe paterno statue taken down

In addition to all of these works including Joe Paterno as any Penn State football informational piece must in order for anything to make sense, they all include the media’s huge impact on the portrayal of events. Without the media drawing attention to certain parts of the scandal that may have shed a spotlight in places that otherwise would have been left in the shadows, the result may have been drastically different. For example, in the Happy Valley documentary a crowd of students gathers outside JoePa’s house after the wake of his firing was announced, and it is heard from multiple JoePa supporters, “You guys have no decency at all”, “You know, you guys are fucking assholes”, “I hope you media are happy!”, and more. These people are not the only ones who realize that without the media, Joe Paterno may not have ended up where he did. Maybe he could have ended his illustrious coaching career on a better note than the one he did, and all the repercussions including his 111 wins and commemorative statue may not have been taken from under him. Whether inadvertently or not, the media and what is shown to the public has irrefusable influence on the people watching.Image result for joe paterno statue taken down