College football is simply that — football. A sport that makes for wonderful entertainment but, is again, just that: entertainment.@@i thought it was football@@ I even find myself succumbing to the pageantry of it all at times. In my college career, I’ve witnessed the Ducks go from average (with an amazing quarterback known as Dennis Dixon) to Pac-12 conference powerhouse and perennial national title contenders.

Although Saturdays feel a little empty now that the season is over, we must remember that it is all just a game.

In Happy Valley, I feel this is lost on its students and residents as well as people all across the country, including Phil Knight. I’m not going to say that Joe Paterno didn’t do great things on the football field because you don’t become the winningest coach in college football by simply going through the motions.

Reading article after article on the memorial service for JoePa, you get a sense that this man was more than a coach: a teacher, mentor, father, friend. The mere notion that they had to limit the number of speakers to one representative per decade is beyond incredible. In his 40-plus years of coaching, it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that Joe Paterno was a great coach and leader for his players, staff and community.

Unfortunately, for all his great doings on the field, when the single most important item he was tasked with — alerting and following up on the allegations that Jerry Sandusky was sexually assaulting children and, in some instances, using the Penn State facilities to carry out these horrific crimes — he failed.

As it stands right now, Sandusky is charged with more than 50 counts of sexually abusing young children over a span of 15 years. A number so high is nigh unfathomable.

The nature of the alleged crimes is a heinous one. Next to murder, rape and sexual abuse/assault are the worst acts one human can inflict on another, and in some cases are far and away the worst things that a person can suffer through. In this world, there are some fates far worse than death.

Knowing this full well, I’m angry that some individuals like Phil Knight think it is okay to gloss over the fact that Joe Paterno failed. He failed his community, he failed those kids and most importantly, he failed himself.

Knight’s statement that it has been the media who has “excoriated” him ignores reality. It ignores the thousands of Penn State students who partook in vigils to denounce child abuse and the university’s handling of the investigation, including Joe Paterno’s role. It undermines the millions of people across the country that feel repulsion, anger and heartache upon hearing that a former coach was able to abuse so many children for so long — and feel that even more so knowing that those who could’ve acted did not.

Phil Knight is correct in placing blame on the investigation — after all, Paterno’s superiors do share blame in this fiasco. He is also right that Paterno did his legal obligation in alerting said superiors; but, aside from clearing him of any legal wrongdoing, was it enough?

By his own admission, Paterno contradicts Knight, stating, “In hindsight, I wish I had done more.”@@good@@ In his final interview before his death, he also said he “didn’t know which way to go.”

The man clearly expressed regret for his handling of the information. My biggest question is: Why try and brush aside this fact?

I understand that it may be difficult to come to terms with the fact that a person generally admired and celebrated by people within the college football community and society at large, was in the end fallible like you and me.

That when presented with a scenario that meant the well-being of innocent kids, JoePa stumbled and never recovered. No amount of whitewashing is going to change this. No amount of revisionist history will alter the reality that he didn’t do enough.

Joe Paterno in the end was nothing but a mere mortal. We all are. There is no need to hide from this reality any longer. We are all flawed, and to say otherwise is ridiculous.

The real villain in all of this are people like Phil Knight, who try to paint the perfect picture of a man who was anything but. That tarnishes his legacy — a legacy of a great football coach and person. But one that is forever plagued by this scandal.

There are no fairy tales or ideal persons. Just people, capable of good and bad, right and wrong, action and inaction. Nothing more, nothing less.