The disappointment lingers, but like many things in a coach’s life has to be ignored. Bill O’Brien simply doesn’t have time to think much about the biggest loss of his coaching career, because there are future losses to avoid and there is only one way to do that. You move on.
For O’Brien, that has been especially chaotic, leaving the Patriots [team stats]and the offense he coordinated there less than 48 hours after a crushing 21-17 defeat at the hands of the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI ended a year of triumph with a moment of empty disappointment. For O’Brien, that game was the culmination of one portion of his coaching life and the kickoff of another that began 48 hours later, when he arrived in State College, Pa., to formally replace a man who cannot be replaced, Penn State head coach Joe Paterno.
It would be difficult under any circumstances to replace a man who ran one of college football’s legendary programs so well for nearly 46 years that he left with a record 409 victories, two national championships, five undefeated teams, 37 bowl appearances and a staunch belief one could blend athletics with academics and ethical behavior without conflict. Yet O’Brien’s job is far more complex than Paterno’s record would normally make it because underlying the change is an ongoing sexual-abuse scandal involving former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, a stench that lingers as Sandusky faces 52 criminal counts for what prosecutors say was the sexual abuse of 10 boys during a 15-year period.
Although Sandusky was no longer a part of the program, the charges against him and the way reports of them were handled led to the stunning firing of Paterno on Nov. 8. Almost three months later, Paterno, 85, was dead and the 42-year-old O’Brien had been hired to do a job that seems impossible to many.
Barely 48 hours after watching the Patriots’ final drive end with a Hail Mary that was unanswered, Bill O’Brien was gone, his family left behind until the end of the school year in Medfield, the long shadow of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady [stats]having been replaced by a longer and certainly a darker one at Penn State.
“You can’t ignore it,” O’Brien said this week of the lingering effects of the Sandusky scandal. “You’ve got to be ready to answer questions that come up, especially in recruiting. I tell people we weren’t there at that time, but anyone should feel immensely proud of being a football player at Penn State, playing in that stadium in front of 108,000 fans. That doesn’t change. It’s a very prideful thing.”
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