![]() ![]() The problem is the fine line that football programs have walked - and Penn State no more so than any major program across the nation - as more powerful than anyone or anything at the institution. It was a sickening act by individuals - a predator in Sandusky and the cowards who protected him. It’s not hard to imagine them unfit to work with kids - and they’re still kids - at Penn State or at any school.Īs flawed as the college athletic landscape is, this wasn’t an infraction by a football program. So who is the NCAA punishing? A program? Anyone involved should face criminal charges, and if the NCAA wants a pound of flesh, ban anyone who covered it up or is found to have known of the crimes and looked the other way. Just as the criminal courts took down Sandusky, the criminal and civil courts should have their day with Paterno’s legacy - the head coach having passed away shortly after he was cut loose in the wake of the scandal - and judge those implicated in the Freeh report, too, such as former PSU president Graham Spanier, vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley.īut they’re all gone. Maybe the $60 million fine headed toward endowment for external programs addressing child sexual abuse or assisting victims will make a difference in a life. Jail for Sandusky and whatever penalty comes for the rest of those involved will be a slight step of justice for the children whose lives were altered. Even as the punishment was meted out, the Paterno family continued its mad grasps at salvaging the reputation of the deceased coach. They hid cowardly with their silence - protecting their reputations and jobs by keeping the ugly secrets swept under a rug. How else do you describe Paterno and any other member of the staff who knew of Sandusky’s crimes and allowed him to continue to walk free. And we have learned from the Freeh report, which detailed the flaws of leadership, that there were other monsters at Penn State. Jerry Sandusky was a monster, a serial rapist of children, and he’s already in jail, where he will die. That there were horrible problems at Penn State is inarguable. What the massive penalties exactly are for is not quite clear, other than allowing the NCAA to step forward and display a shiny sword as the arbiters of right and wrong. ![]() A day later, the NCAA took down the university, doing it as an expensive, crippling - but still symbolic - gesture.Īfter decades of the school’s inaction over real infractions and a history of punishing the slightest infractions by needy student-athletes with tone-deaf penalties, National Collegiate Athletic Association president Mark Emmert handed down devastating penalties on the football program. Penn State will pay $60 million in fines over the next five years, lose scholarships, be blocked from postseason bowls, and live with a five-year probation.Īnd it raises another question: Who asked the NCAA, anyway? Hidden behind hastily constructed panels and a tarp, Penn State University took down the statue of Joe Paterno in a symbolic gesture Sunday morning. Penn State had just one winning season in five years before Paterno revived the program in 2005 by winning the Big Ten and the Orange Bowl, 26-23 in a triple-overtime classic over Florida State and coaching contemporary Bobby Bowden.Īfter the scandal broke, the family hired a public relations specialist who at one point asked Penn State football communications and marketing assistant Guido D'Elia for the name of one person on the board to try to negotiate a gracious ending, according to the excerpt.This article was originally published on July 24, 2012. Joe Paterno's relationship with the trustees began to sour after the coach rebuffed suggestions to step down in 2004 from school president Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley. "Dad, you have to face the possibility that you will never coach another game," Scott Paterno was quoted as telling his father after reading the grand jury report. The NCAA last month vacated 111 of Paterno's victories as part of sanctions against Penn State for the Sandusky scandal. At the time, Joe Paterno was coming off his 409th career win, which then made him Division I's winningest coach. ![]()
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