Football is life itself

Margaret Wente: College football is America's true religion. This statement was prompted by the Penn State mess. Joe Paterno was fired. If you didn't notice, the school's president was also fired, but nobody rioted about that.

You can tell a lot about a civilization from its monuments. The Greeks built temples to the gods. The Romans constructed roads and aqueducts. The United States built railroads, skyscrapers, majestic post-office buildings and public libraries. Today, it builds temples of worship called football stadiums. This may not be the end of empire, but sometimes it feels that way.