![]() In the week following the indictment, Paterno was summarily fired by the Board of Trustees-along with the university president, a vice president, and the athletic director-at a crucial point toward the end of the season. Sandusky was later convicted of abusing ten boys over a fourteen-year period and sentenced, effectively, to life in prison. Then, in the fall of 2011, after a grand jury indicted Sandusky with more than forty counts of sexual abuse committed at his Second Mile athletic camp for boys, which made free use of campus athletic facilities, the filmmakers depict Pilato painting over the disgraced coach’s image. Looming large on the original painting are images of Paterno and retired assistant coach Gerald “Jerry” Sandusky. This mural, which was painted by Michael Pilato, features various Penn state worthies. Most striking of all, Happy Valley returns again and again to a mural that adorns the exterior wall of a bookstore in downtown State College. Then, in a very controversial move, the university, in a fit of soul-searching catharsis, removes and hides the statue, though as we learned early this year, it may yet be restored to its old spot. Tensions escalate when various tourists and onlookers seek to have their pictures taken standing next to the statue. His handwritten sign calls out the revered coach as a hypocrite. In another scene, after the damning Freeh reports are released, a fan with a Penn State cap stands next to a statue of Paterno outside Beaver Stadium. In one scene, a student stirs an angry crowd gathered to protest the summary firing of Paterno by lifting up a picture of the beloved coach. Happy Valley, Amir Bar-Lev’s brilliant documentary about the Penn State scandal, does not shy away from framing the role of the football program at State College in religious terms it offers a rich resource for pondering the social psychology of religious iconography. I will briefly attempt to relate Stringfellow’s insights to the cult of the late Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, whose venerable image has seemingly survived one of the most notorious scandals in college football history. In particular, his naming of “images” among the principalities and powers may help us understand better how the fame of a revered sports figure can take on a life of its own, transcending the personal existence of its subject. One resource that can shed new light on these discussions, from a theological and biblical perspective, is the quirky yet brilliant work of lawyer and Episcopal lay theologian William Stringfellow. Nonetheless, a hapless confusion and a certain vagueness still stymie a realistic exploration of the ideological dimensions of college sports. ![]() “But then Jesus, you know, his son, the man that’s right there, would be Jerry.” 3 In many respects, this jarring quote illustrates how the charge of idolatry seems theologically apropos for the way in which we relate to the iconic figures of big-time college football. ![]() you could put Joe Paterno into that realm,” he says. “In this town, if you’re religious and you think of God as being the all mighty, the all encompassing. Matt Sandusky, the adopted son of the former Penn State coach, knows this phenomenon all too well and from a unique insider’s perspective. In the wake of the child sex abuse scandal that first erupted at Penn State in the fall of 2011-a scandal which most directly led to the conviction of former Penn State assistant coach Gerald “Jerry” Sandusky on forty-five charges related to child sex abuse-the withering independent investigation by former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s firm blamed the failure of university leaders to root out the abuse, in part, on a “culture of reverence for the football program that is ingrained at all levels of the campus community.” 2 ![]() 1 In the past several years such criticisms have homed in upon one of the most venerated-and envied-football programs of them all: the Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions. It has become almost banal to compare sports mania with religious cults, and indeed, the key features of worship, iconography, and religious cultural immersion are manifest in our commitment to our favorite teams, players, and coaches.
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