How Do You Measure The Life Of A Man...

How do you measure the life of a man?  Is it by what they do professionally?  Or maybe what they do on a personal level?  What about how they raise their families?  Is it what they didn’t do or could have done that will be their defining moment?  Or could it be the impact they leave on the world and how they are remembered after they are no longer here?   However you choose to view the collective life of a man, it is not just one chapter that should sum up their existence but their entire book.

It isn’t often that we see people turn down the opportunity for more money or a better job simply because they love what they are currently doing.  Rarely does anyone stay in a lesser position because they can do more good there rather than move on for more glory.  People are constantly putting their own personal growth and success first while helping others becomes a secondary priority often placed on the back burner or forgotten.  There really isn’t a better example of this out for number one mentality then in the world of sports.

When you’re young, coaches constantly tell you that it’s not about if you win or lose; it’s about how you play the game.  However, the further along you go up the sports ladder, the culture of the game becomes more about how much you get paid to play or even win at all costs.  Long gone are the days where people play purely for the love the game. 

Sports can teach us respect, dedication, and hard work.  They can show us how to treat others and how to live up to our full potential.  Overall, sports can be a vessel to teach children discipline and lessons that will inevitably shape their lives.  Every once in a while someone reminds you that sports and life are bigger than what you do on the field.  They are a shining example of how you play the game always being more important than what is going in the win/loss column.  Joe Paterno was that person. 

JoePa was many things but a winning football coach was just one of them.  He was a teacher, a leader, a father, a philanthropist, and an educator all wrapped up into one man masquerading as a coach.  In a time where college athletes are churned through the system and spit out after they have served their "purpose", Paterno sought to make these kids better than just workhorses and Penn State more than just a required stop on the way to the NFL.  He wanted his boys to be good people, not just good players. They were students first and athletes second.  He wasn’t coaching gods or individuals; he was coaching a team which was greater than any one person.  Beyond the field, he sought to teach all other students at Penn State those same lessons.  Through both time and money, he aimed to give all Penn Staters the support and supplies they needed to succeed and do it with honor.  He helped make Penn State not just a university but a family filled with pride.  Up until a few months ago, Joe Paterno’s Grand Experiment was revered and then came shocking news. 

No Penn Stater will ever forget last November and seeing everything we knew being shattered when the horrible allegations of a sex abuse scandal rocked the Nittany Lion community and tarnished the iconic work of Coach Paterno.  After a 61 year career of preaching that sports were second to humanity and living a life full of integrity and high moral fiber, Joseph Vincent Paterno was now being seen by most people as a man who put football and winning first.  They called him someone who didn’t do enough.  He was a man who was tried and convicted in the court of public opinion as a failure because of his inaction. 

Suddenly, the old man who stood for everything good and right in the world, was the the symbol of evil.  He was no longer the exception to the morally bankrupt sports culture but a monster who was the leader of the most dangerous of all cults.  In what seemed like an instant, all the amazing work he had done was gone and forgotten.  Today, Joe Paterno is gone and while some people might question how he will be remembered, I say that if you total up his life, he wasn't a saint and he wasn't perfect but he was a man who did too much for so many people, a success with honor, and someone who can never be forgotten.

Great people aren’t great because they are perfect.  They aren't extraordinary because they are flawless.  People are great and extraordinary simply by being themselves.  They have passion, courage of conviction, and a belief that the world will be a better place not because they were a part of it but because they believe in all that it can become.  While these people will always accredit their accomplishments and impact on the world to something bigger than they are, in the eyes of others it is hard to imagine anything could have had a larger impact than they did.    

Heroes don’t wear masks or capes and you don't find them in movies or comic books. Real heroes walk among us and we call them legends.  The stories of their lives are not just short stories or novels but true tall tales that will be passed on for generations to come.  There is no need to distort their stories to make them any greater because it is already too incredible to believe at times that anyone could have lived that amazing a life.  At the start of his career, his father told him that if he was going to become a coach that he should make an impact.  Joe Paterno left the world a greater place then when he entered it 85 years ago, so if you want to define this man and his life story then say, he made an impact. 

"They ask me what I'd like written about me when I'm gone. I hope they write I made Penn State a better place, not just that I was a good football coach."-Joe Paterno  

I say without a doubt that you did just that.  THANK YOU!!