Ever since I was a kid...

There were certain coaches I liked...

And certain coaches I didn’t like...

My first major dislike was...

At the risk of being yelled at...

By one of my former fellow blogettes...

Woody Hayes...

Never liked the guy...

Crotchety old man...

Terrific coach...

But he came across as the eternal grump...

You see...

I grew up in the Midwest...

Got my fill of him there...

Then moved to the West Coast...

And got my fill of him during Rose Bowl week...

Back then...

The Big Ten had a dumb no repeat rule...

You could only “Rose Bowl” it every other year...

Thank goodness for that...

So...

Woody would come traipsing to our neck of the woods...

Pretty much every other year...

And as the story goes...

I had a girlfriend from Ohio who loved the Buckeyes...

Darlyne...

She was obnoxious...

We argued all the time...

On New Year’s Day 1971...

We went to her aunt’s house...

Ohio State was playing Stanford that year...

The Stanford “Indians” back then...

Jim Plunkett was the Stanford quarterback...

She told me everybody there would be rooting for OSU...

I told her...

"Everybody except me..."

However...

Out of respect to the family...

I told her I would keep quiet...

Unless of course she opened her yap...

And I was pretty sure she’d do just that...

Well...

The first three quarters went well for the Buckeyes...

A 17-13 lead...

Then she started to get a bit cocky...

She always called me Douglas...

But it wasn’t just "Doug-las"...

It was that obnoxiously whiny accent of hers...

“Dawwwwg-laaaaasssss...”

So...

She decided to blow my cover...

“Dawwwwg-laaaaasssss...”

She bellowed...

“He’s rooooooting for Stannnnfurrrrrrd...”

“Yes, I am,” I exclaimed... And I told you I would keep quiet...”

“Unless you let the cat out of the bag... Which is what you just did...”

And ironically...

Right about then...

The momentum changed...

Stanford took the lead in the fourth quarter...

And never relinquished it...

And while the comeback was underway...

Someone asked about those thingies on the OSU helmets...

I quickly responded...

“Brownie Buttons...”

“When somebody makes a good play...”

“He gets a Brownie Button on the helmet...”

And much to her dismay...

The team with the Brownie Buttons succumbed...

And I couldn’t be happier...

Needless to say...

Dar-leeeeeeeen wasn’t thrilled with my boasting...

And our thing didn’t last much longer than that...

Back to Woody...

I cheered emphatically when he got canned....

Cue the video...

Good riddance to crabby old Woody...

You see...

If you don’t like somebody...

It’s pretty easy to rejoice when they mess up...

But when you DO like somebody...

And they slip up...

You have more empathy...

What Woody did was a sin of “CO”mission...

The 1978 Gator Bowl...

Punching Clemson’s Charlie Bauman...

After his interception clinched the win for the Tigers...

And...

Within a day or two...

Woody was gone...

Yipppeeee...

Yet...

In that same era...

I had my eye on another coach...

There was something pretty cool about him...

I don’t know if it was the glasses...

I don’t know if it was the schnozzzz...

What a beak he had...

And...

Even though I’d never been to Pennsylvania...

I really liked the guy...

He never seemed to shame himself or his team...

As the years went by...

I felt he wore out his welcome...

He needed to step aside...

And let somebody else do the coaching...

That was my only complaint about Joe Pa...

And amazingly...

He still had a measure of success in his later years...

I liked him...

And those PSU uniforms were perfect for a coach like that...

Not flashy...

But they looked good...

Real good...

Then came the scandal...

Joe Pa didn’t commit a sin of “CO”mission...

It was a sin of “O”mission...

He could have done more...

He SHOULD have done more...

But he DIDN’T do more...

And he was gone...

And rightfully so...

The buck stopped with Joe Pa...

Then came the hate and anger...

And as he left us this past weekend...

I saw cheering from many...

But I wasn’t happy...

I was sad...

Sad it ended the way it did...

Joe Pa deserved better than that...

But he didn’t do enough...

And he paid for it...

He may deserve the blame...

But I can’t turn on him...

And here’s why...

When you like a person...

I mean...

When you REALLY like a person...

And that person falls into disfavor...

It’s pretty difficult to switch gears...

There’s something deep inside of me...

Something that wants to give him the benefit of the doubt...

Especially because I remember the times...

When I second guessed myself...

And realized I could have done more...

I’ve been in Joe’s shoes...

As a teacher in California...

I am a mandated reporter...

I am required to report abuse...

Not to my superior...

But to Child Protective Services...

And I have made that call a time or two...

We are only required to call...

Not to investigate...

But after that call was made...

There’s something deep inside that said...

“I hope everything’s okay...”

I wanted to do more...

And I have asked the student if things were better...

Not to pry...

Only out of concern...

I have no idea what went on in Joe Pa’s mind...

But I am pretty sure...

Just like a call on a running play that went awry...

He wishes he would have done things differently..

At least in my mind...

I’d like to hope so...

Joe was better than that...

dvt

http://sivers.org/images/sound-like-someone.gif

http://blog.cleveland.com/osu_impact/2009/02/woodyhayes.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEVJyf0ft3I

http://i.usatoday.net/Wires2Web/20120123/1352771414_Obit_Joe_Paterno_Footballx-large.jpg