Redwing77's Perspective on the Penn State Debacle

There's a lot going on and a lot have been discussed by Goon or by commentators on the posts and at large by any and all media members even on an international scale (BBC is covering it).  And the truth is, this situation has gone beyond simply a bad man doing bad things.  It's become a blemish on collegiate sports in general... even though bad stuff has been happening for a long time now.

Some say it is cultural

I had a discussion (still ongoing) over Twitter with a Ira Socol who wrote a very interesting and well researched blog post. He states that Penn State be allowed to play... but they should play the entire season with empty stands.

This is not an unprecedented thing.  In his article, he cites 3 soccer teams that had to play 5 games (2 teams played 1 game each and one other played the last 2 games) without fans in attendence.  However, he cites the reasoning behind this and all of the reasons stem from actions of the FANS with relation to the team.  One was racial abuse to a player.  Another was due to physical violence where a fan ran onto the field and attacked a visitng player.  All of this is caused by violence.

But what of Penn State's situation?  He argues that the culture that surrounds Penn State football is of such blind devotion that it basically produced an environment where this act would seem not permissable but certainly capable of being covered up.  He argues that without this societal and cultural smokescreen, Penn State would not have gotten away with such an act for as long as they had.

I believe he's partially correct.  Society did not cause Sandusky to molest those boys.  It didn't stop McQueary from stopping the abuse (which he did not) or prevent him from notifying Paterno.  It did not cause the wheels to stop turning.  The prestige and power that those in the know had was threated by the Sandusky thing and couple that with their corrupt need for such power, they did not act.

THAT is the prominant issue with this affair.  Society may act like an enabler but it takes corruption and bad ethics to become enabled. 

There is no excuse for what happened at Penn State.  And they should pay.  The problem is:  Why punish the fans?  They did not perform 45 acts of sexual abuse.  They did not smear the name of Penn State, really.  They did not commit any violent act or any racially motivated abuse of the caliber that those European soccer teams were punished for.

The truth is that we have to be careful with this line of thought.  It is perilously close to saying that Penn State was merely abiding by the tolerances of society rather than trying to save their own power and prestige by covering up a heinous atrocity.

So what is the Price to be paid?

Since I do not believe in punishing the fans, I think that I would do the following:

1.  SIGNIFICANT reduction of scholarships for more than 4 years.
2.  No bowl games for the same time period that there are reductions of scholarships
3.  Asterisks by all of Paterno's records
4.  Joe Paterno's name and likeness should be removed from all signs, visual aids, and media in and around Beaver Stadium and other PSU athletic facilities.
5.  For the entire season, box seats will be closed and all general admission seats will be issued at the discretion of the Penn Statue AD and Administration at the price of FREE.  The students will still get their section or sections.
6.  All institutional support for the team is suspended for 1 year.  No band.  No cheerleaders.  No halftime shows. No fundraisers that would raise money for athletics at Penn State.
7.  All money that would normally be gathered for the athletic department that comes through on-site merchandise sales, concessions, and any items sold at the Stadium be immediately forfeited to either go towards general scholarship funding, a University sanctioned event or organization not related to the Athletic department, or to a charity. 
8.  (This one isn't possible but I can dream)  A media blackout.  NO Penn State Home Games will be televised locally, regionally, or nationally for one year.  If you don't go to Beaver Stadium, you don't see or hear the game.  PERIOD.

All academic services provided to athletes, such as tutoring and the like, will continue as normal. 

The NCAA says there is no Death Penalty but I argue that there is.  If Penn State does not get the Death Penalty, which I believe they won't, I believe that the NCAA has doled out the last death penalty ever:  to the Death Penalty.  There is no situation, therefore, that would warrant it so the threat of a Death Penalty becomes null and void.  It no longer exists, folks.  No need to fear.

The true debate is:  Where do the NON football athletics and Penn State fit into this?

Time for the NCAA to throw the book at PSU football

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The results of the PSU sex abuse scandal were made public today – just like many of us expected – PSU officials to include former head football coach Joe Paterno covered up these heinous and disgusting vile acts for over 14 year period, there is no excuse for this felonious criminal behavior, none.

PSU officials have known since 1998 that Jerry Sandusky was a sexual predator and was abusing young boys on the grounds of Penn State University, yet they covered these crimes up. This is unacceptable! The Penn State officials that covered up these crimes are also culpable for the heinous acts that were committed against the victims of Jerry Sandusky.

There is no way of sugar coating this - this is a horrible disgusting scandal cannot go unpunished – the NCAA has to respond to this, if the NCAA fails to respond to this in an acceptable manner they have no credibility what-so-ever. The NCAA needs to come down hard on the PSU football team - the "death penalty" for the PSU football team would be a good start.

State College, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Penn State's most powerful leaders showed "total and consistent disregard" for victims of child sex abuse and failed to protect children, according to the findings of a long-awaited internal review over how the university handled a scandal involving its former defensive coordinator. In fact, the report says several former officials "empowered" Jerry Sandusky to continue his abuse, and investigators say legendary head football coach Joe Paterno could have stopped the attacks had he done more. Read the report here (PDF)

I read a good number of the Freeh report until I couldn’t stomach any more of it - I hope Jerry Sandusky rots in hell. There are a few items in this report that I found to be really egregious. The University knew about this as early as 1998.

Investigators found that even before May 1998, "several staff members and football coaches regularly observed Sandusky showering with young boys," but "none of the individuals interviewed notified their superiors of this behavior," according to the report.

It also found that university police "and the Department of Public Welfare responded promptly to the report by a young boy's mother of a possible sexual assault by Sandusky" in 1998, and top university officials were "kept informed of the investigation.

In what universe is an adult male showering with a young boy to be considered to be normal behavior – that should have been the last incident in this story not the beginning of a long line of abusive incidents. Again, there is not excuse to these incidents - none - the victims of Jerry Sandusky will suffer the effects of their abuse for the rest of their lives.

Another thing that I find disgusting is on Page 62 of the Free Report it states.

On Friday February 9, 2011, University graduate assistant Michael McQueary observed Sandusky involved in a sexual activity with a boy in the coach’s shower room in the University Lasch Building. McQueary met with and reported the incident to Paterno on Saturday, February 10, 2001. Paterno did not immediately report what McQueary told him, explaining that he didn’t not want to interfere with anyone’s weekend.

Wait, What? Didn’t want to interfere with anyone’s weekend, you’ve got to be kidding me. I had to read this twice because I couldn't believe that Paterno could be so callus, the health and safety of the children victimized are way more important than some university suit's weekend being interrupted because one of their assistant football coaches was a sexual predator and had perpetrated a felonious crime against a minor child. This is nothing but arrogance of an out of control football coach and staff.

Finally, They should take the statue that stands outside of Beaver Stadium and smash it into a thousand pieces melt it down and sell the rubble as scraps, because the actions of a few bad apples in  have tarnished the reputation for Penn State for a very long time.

The ball is in PSU’s court, the rest of the world is waiting for you to make the proper and right move.