Over the weekend, after Joe Paterno's resurrection, new Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour basically had this exchange with a Michigan grad after the Penn State men's hockey team donned "409" stickers in honor of the dead coach.
Michigan Grad: Why is your hockey team wearing 409 stickers? That is dumb and in bad taste.
Barbour: I agree. I will fix it.
And just like that, Barbour exhumed Joe Paterno's corpse and paraded it through the streets. Or so you would have thought judging by Penn State fans' reactions. (Joe Pa's statue can go back to slumbering at the bottom of the sea; its honor is defended.) Even some of their media seem befuddled by this completely reasonable take, which now of course Sandy Barbour apologized for.
Sandy's take was sensible for anybody who didn't grow up worshiping a man as a deity because he won a bunch of football games in the 1960s, which is why it would never be accepted in Happy Valley. Sadly, it does not look like the nation will get the refusal to apologize it deserves in this situation.
And I know NOT ALL PENN STATE fans are crazy loons hell-bent on whitewashing the history of a man won a lot of football games, but good lord.
