STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — If tears can cleanse a university, then Penn State is clean today.
If sweat can cleanse a football program, then the Nittany Lions are clean today.
But tears and sweat are not OxyCleaners for the soul. Not when a few men did nothing while evil ruined the innocence of at least eight boys.
It’s fitting that Penn State wore its navy uniforms yesterday instead of its bright whites for its 17-14 loss to Nebraska in Beaver Stadium because few here are clean.
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We are sure that former Coach Joe Paterno, who watched the final home game of his last season as the head coach from his house and not the coach’s box, was enduring one of the great sorrows of his life.
But if you want real sorrow, if you want real heartache, if you want real mental and physical anguish, then you have to think about the eight victims who may never again trust, love or live pain-free.
You must think about their parents, who carry the unbearable migraine that they might not have done everything to protect their sons.
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It was a beautiful fall college-football Saturday, not a cloud in the sky. You wonder if the victims and their families can appreciate such days. You wonder, “How does God paint a perfect palette for a football game in a place where innocence has been raped away?”
Not until just before kickoff, exactly one week since the Pennsylvania AG announced the charges of 40 sex crimes committed over a 15-year period against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky did we get the sense that those here have finally realized the only victims here are the child victims — not Paterno, who along with university President Graham Spanier was fired Wednesday for failing to contact law enforcement.
After a moment of silence to recognize the victims, the team captains came to midfield for the pregame coin toss. They were joined by all of their teammates. The crowd fell quiet.
Emotionally charged opponents are kept apart, not brought together prior to kickoff. This was like watching opposing boxers share a prefight laugh.
The players shook hands. Ron Brown, Nebraska’s respected running backs coach and a state leader of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, led them in prayer.
The silence in the stadium felt like a warm bath.
Then the football team went out and played with heart, but came up short on a 4th-and-1 — just like their administration.