For so much of his life — going all the way back to his all-state football days at St. Henry High School — Hartings made his name as the ultimate in protectors.
As an offensive lineman at Penn State, he twice won All-American honors — he was an Academic All-American, too — and then in his 11 years in the NFL with the Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers, he was an All-Pro and finally won a Super Bowl in 2006, after which he retired.
But the 39-year-old Hartings never was better at his job than he was Wednesday morning as he was driving into State College, Pa., from his home in Pittsburgh.
He may have been behind the wheel, but thanks to a hands-free phone and that old mitts-to-your-mug attitude, he was in perfect form protecting the reputation and legacy of his late coach while pancaking critics in the process.
Hartings was on his way to the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on campus to pay his respects to his old coach, who lay in a closed wooden casket topped by a spray of white roses and flanked by a rotating pair of former Nittany Lions football players, one from days past and one currently on the team that Paterno had coached up to two months ago.
Hartings would be joining the players before his coach would be taken away for a private burial service in the afternoon.
“I haven’t been able to talk about this until maybe yesterday because I just didn’t feel comfortable with my own feelings,” Hartings said quietly. “After praying about it — and maybe just because his death forced me to think about it — I have some things to share.”
The 85-year-old Paterno died Sunday from lung cancer. It was just 74 days after the legendary coach had been fired by the PSU Board of Trustees following a child-sex abuse scandal allegedly involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky that has rocked the program and the school.
A decade ago Paterno had been informed about a sexual incident in a PSU shower room involving Sandusky — and a young boy from the Second Mile charity for at-risk kids that Sandusky ran — by a then-grad assistant coach. Paterno had passed the information on to his supervisors as he was required, but he had not contacted law enforcement authorities and that supposedly is why the board unceremoniously ended his much-praised 46-year reign as head coach.
Sandusky was arrested and charged with more than 50 counts of sexual abuse against boys. The two PSU administrators — former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz — have both been charged for failing to report what they knew to authorities.
Paterno was not charged in the case, and there is debate whether he was treated fairly by the trustees.
For Hartings, the story has struck a deep chord, not just because it involves his beloved former coach, but because his life today centers so much around children.
He and his wife, Rebecca, originally from Coldwater, have seven children of their own, ages 14 to 3. He’s also deeply involved in Urban Impact-Pittsburgh, a Christian holistic ministry that helps at-risk kids and their families. He’s a volunteer, a coach, a fundraiser and started the group’s Play Ball for Kids program when he still was with the Steelers.
Many of the life lessons he learned from Paterno some two decades ago now come into play with his ministry work.
“But probably even more than what happened 20 years ago is the impact he’s had on my life in the past three months,” Hartings said. “People must realize there is nobody perfect this side of Jesus Christ. We all make mistakes. But the measure of a man is the one who can admit he made a mistake, and that’s just what Joe Paterno did.
“He said he wishes he had done more. At the time he did what he was required to do — and what in his heart he thought he should do — and I think because we live in a very hypocritical society, there are a lot of Monday morning quarterbacks saying, ‘Oh, he should have done this or that.’ In the heat of the moment, people make decisions and mistakes, but very rarely now are people willing to admit they should have done something differently.
“I think the media and in some ways the administration at Penn State overreacted and made a rush to judgment in his case. This is a good man who did good by others his entire career.
“His career is being tarnished by ignorant people, arrogant people, cowardly people. ... It’s very sad there are people who won’t step up and accept responsibility for what they have done here. And they all know Joe Paterno and could set the record straight, but instead they turn to their lawyers and say nothing. I’m talking about people like Jerry Sandusky and Tim Curley to the local police chief. They all left Joe out there to hang.”
While former Penn State and NFL star Matt Millen has said he believes Paterno died of a broken heart, Hartings believes otherwise:
“In my heart and soul I think Joe lived his last days the way he preached his whole life. He always said you’re never as good as other people say you are and you’re never as bad either. I’m more sad for Joe’s family than him because he never worried about what people who didn’t know him thought of him. He cared about those who did know him.
“And I can tell you, those of us who did, believe in him. I promise you every single letterman who’s here now — and there are (hundreds) — is going to express his gratitude and thankfulness and how blessed he feels to have been a Penn State Nittany Lion who played for Joe Paterno.
“It’s not really so much about football, but about the other lessons he instilled in us along the way. He did teach people to embrace success with honor. In my opinion he’s still the greatest coach who ever lived.”
And with that Hartings ended the conversation and headed in to pay his respects to his coach, a man whose reputation and legacy he was determined to protect.
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