Ed Rendell: On balance, Paterno was a fine man

I REACHED my seat Saturday night at the Palestra right at 7:30 to watch the St. Joe-Penn game. My son Jesse, and Steve Bilsky, Penn's terrific athletic director, wanted to talk to me. I figured Bilsky might want to tell me some recruiting news, but instead he told me that Joe Paterno was gravely ill - that he might pass away during the basketball game.

He wanted to know if that happened, whether the game should be interrupted for an announcement and a moment of silence. I told him yes, and I thought it would be a very classy thing for Penn to do. Steve told me that some others he had asked disagreed. Some said it was a Penn game at the Palestra and Paterno had no nexus with Penn. Some said Joe's role in the Jerry Sandusky scandal - though it's not clear exactly what that was - was such that a moment of silence wouldn't be appropriate.

Well, Joe lived through the night, making this argument moot, although I believe Bilsky would have gone ahead with it. And he should have.

If you read my column regularly, you know I already have written about Joe and the Sandusky case and you know I clearly have said that Joe made a mistake. He did report what he had heard about Sandusky to his athletic director about as soon as he heard it, but when he saw Sandusky on campus, for weeks and months afterward, he should have inquired about what happened and, at the very least, informed the campus police. This mistake and those made by many others at Penn State had tragic consequences, causing a number of children to allegedly be abused who wouldn't have been had the police been notified.

But I also wrote and still firmly believe that Joe's mistake does not negate all the good he did - for Penn State, for its football program, for college football, for so many charities like the Salvation Army, and most of all for the young men who played for him. Had he died during the Penn game, he should have been recognized there because he was a Pennsylvania icon who did so much for college sports.

Think about what Joe did, not just as an incredibly successful coach, but as a human being. Can you name any other college coach who gave back well over $4 million to his school to help build a library? Can you name another coach in any collegiate sport who had the relationship with his players Joe had? A caring relationship that lasted well after they had stopped playing for Joe and endured until he died Sunday? For me, the way Joe's former players rushed to his defense was the best testament to the type of man he was. The great Franco Harris was so passionate in his defense of Joe, you would have thought he was his son. And in some ways, Franco and others clearly looked to Joe as a father figure.

All of us will be judged at the end of our lives. Our balance sheets will be tallied. Remember, it's called a balance sheet because it contains pluses and minuses, assets and liabilities. I don't believe any of us would want to be judged by a single mistake. We all would want to be judged on the totality of how we lived our lives.

For me it's a clear call - Joe Paterno the coach, Joe Paterno the husband, Joe Paterno the father, Joe Paterno the mentor, the teacher and the person lived a terrific life. When his story is finally written, his mistake must be accounted for, but his balance sheet will say he was a truly fine human being.