Penn State AD: Paterno’s Legacy Will Be Restored

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

How long before Joe Paterno’s statue returns to Happy Valley?

With the sidelining of most NCAA sanctions following the Jerry Sandusky scandal and the restoration of Paterno’s wins record, the full restoration of JoePa’s legacy on campus has seemed only a matter of time. Sandy Barbour, Penn State’s new athletic director, basically confirmed that this week in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I have no doubt that at the right time, as some of the legal issues have been sorted through . . . Penn State will honor not only Joe Paterno’s legacy but the Paterno family’s legacy,” Barbour told the Inky’s editorial board. “We’ll know when it’s time.”

She said she had met with a number of Paterno’s former players. “They don’t talk about the football part. They don’t talk about the national championships. . . . They talk about him, his insistence on making them into good citizens and good men. That’s what they learned from him.”

And she disputed the idea that Penn State’s football-worshipping culture played a role in the Sandusky scandal. “I believe, based on what I’ve seen, that that’s a mischaracterization,” she told the Inquirer, “that there was a problem with Penn State’s culture. I don’t buy that.”