We've all been shocked at the events at Penn State. It's been a horrific thing that has happened. There's no way around that.

I've been listening to sports radio. There is plenty of blame to go around. There is no telling when the dust will settle. The victims of this crime, I pray, will find some peace eventually.

A few days after the news broke, students from Penn State gathered around Joe Paterno's house. He is the head coach of Penn State. He has been the head coach of Penn State for 44 seasons and students had shown up in support. Sports analysts were critical of the event.

The board of trustees fired him and he and his wife came to the door to speak to the media.  His elderly wife was in a pink nightgown. He said a few words then went back inside.

A man who had coached longer than any other, then made a horrific, awful error. Gone.

His loyal fans will remember his legacy, but in the back of their minds, the stain of the scandal will remain. The world will always remember. It is an important reminder.

When we were growing up, we put posters up on our wall of our heroes. They may have been athletes, rock stars, actors or family members. To all of us, they were untouchable. We idolized them. We wanted to be like them. They were more than human. We placed them on our own personal pedestal. They were our heroes.

<a href="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/mj1.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2028" src="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/mj1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a>There's something about heroes, though. They're human. We find out as we grow. They're fallible. They're flesh and blood like us. In my era, most kids had a Michael Jordan poster. As he aged, he got weaker. He was accused of gambling problems. He was human like the rest of us.

Our heroes are great because we want them to be great. We need them to be great. We need something to aspire to. But we eventually learn that they are like us. They are flesh and blood. They hurt, they are weak, they are human, like us. We find out that we don't really know them like we thought we did - and we find disappointment.

We see men like Joe Paterno coming to the door with his wife in her pink nightgown without any real answers. The crowd cheers, trying to make up for his weakness.  They want him to be great at that moment, but he is weak. Like the rest of us.

Leadership is a difficult thing. Heroes are what we make them to be in our mind. They are no greater than the rest of us because they are human. Maybe the greatest attribute we can assign to our heroes is their humanness - and the ability to be just like we are. Our hope is that each of us is as great as our heroes, with something to offer the rest of the world.