The Penn State board of trustees missed a golden opportunity to make a statement of its moral values last week. Chances like that don't come very often, and it's a bad sign that the trustees didn't realize they had it.
In firing Joe Paterno as head coach -- and the president of the university as well, almost as an afterthought -- the board could have stood up and said, we cannot accept the moral blindness involved in protecting the football program instead of innocent little boys. We are drawing a line. We have to get our vision back, and we starting now.
Instead the board vice chairman, John P. Surma, refused to give any specific reason for sacking Paterno and went vague.
"In our view, things had reached a point where we had to make a change for the best long-term interest of Penn State," he said. Yeah, no kidding. He added that the trustees felt it was "necessary to make a change in leadership and set a course in a new direction.”
Those answers, of course, could quite reasonably be interpreted to mean, this is going to kill our recruiting unless we get rid of Paterno. Controversy is poison in sports. To stay on top, we have to get rid of the troublemakers.
At least he remembered to make the ritual nod in the direction of the boys whose youth and innocence was stolen by Jerry Sandusky.
"The past several days have been absolutely terrible for the entire Penn State community. But the outrage that we feel is nothing compared to the physical and psychological suffering that allegedly took place," he added.
Gee, thanks. Big of you to say it. Next time, say something that shows you mean it.
The assembled media, many of them Penn State boosters, bombarded Surma with questions but could not get him off his message points.
There's nothing wrong with message points. I've written lots of them.
But there is no substitute for having the right message. Penn State's overseers have given little sign that they have figured it out.