While we don’t generally cover college football, the fictional sports blogger unions we belong to and our search engine optimization consultants insisted that we write a post with Razzball’s thoughts on the investigation of Penn State led by former FBI director Louis Freeh. Here it goes…
- So Penn State now joins the Catholic Church in hypocritical non-profit organizations whose leadership felt protecting their organization’s reputation is worth any sacrifice. I understand that part of being a leader is having to make tough, unethical decisions. I’m sure any ex-President can rattle off a handful of their most painful decisions that would make most of us queasy. I’m sure every CEO has made decisions for the betterment of stockholders that most of us wouldn’t (or wouldn’t want to) make. But child abuse? On the list of abhorrent acts to cover up, that has to be top 3, right? I say it is. These are my top three: 1) Murder of an innocent person, 2) Child Abuse, 3) Adult torture/sexual abuse. (I don’t condone murder but the murder of someone guilty of a crime is gray enough to fall out of medal contention). It’s a sad fact but large organizations are like any large organism – breeding grounds for bacteria unless habitually disinfected.
- I might be in the minority here but calls for the ‘death penalty’ to the Penn State program seems ill-advised. I think those should be reserved mainly for player misconduct which would include recruitment violations. This is an ethical lapse (a monstrous one) by their leadership. Is Arkansas going to face sanctions b/c their ex-coach cheated on his wife and lied to the police about it? What does a severe NCAA punishment accomplish? Are there going to be future programs that will look at this s***show and think covering up pedophilia is the right move but then change course because it could lead to a reduction in scholarships and bowl eligibility? The VAST VAST majority of players, alumni, and fans associated with Penn State football would have acted appropriately and are gutted by what happened. The damage that’s been done to Penn State’s reputation and is going to be done to Penn State football in terms of future recruitment (they may as well not even try recruiting outside of Pennsylvania for the next 5+ years) will be way worse than what the NCAA can impose. I don’t know if they have the power to impose this but i’d love to see it that a percentage of all Penn State football revenue goes to a fund that pays victims both at the hands of Sandusky and to child abuse victims in general. That much better than some arbitrary docking of scholarships. The only vindication in this whole sordid affair is for the Friday Night Lights producers who are now responsible for only the second worst plot twist in football history. (Admit it, Season 2 would’ve been even worse if they somehow involved Coach Taylor in something like this…)
- JoePa sought and negotiated a $3 million golden parachute in January 2011 while the investigation was taking place. Well, there goes the “Maybe JoePa wasn’t mentally there” defense. This money can’t be paid out to his family now, can it? Doesn’t it have to be either kept in Penn State’s coffers or donated somewhere? Part of this retirement package was a free luxury box at Beaver Stadium for the next 25 years. So when do you think is the first game that a Paterno actually uses the luxury box? If it’s soon, I’m not sure the luxury box is big enough to fit the mighty set of balls that action would take.
- The most absurd part of the ‘Should they or should they not take down the Joe Paterno statue?”: Next to the statue it says ‘Educator, Coach, Humanitarian“. HUMANITARIAN! While there’s no doubt he’s done work that could be described as ‘humanitarian’, is there any doubt that covering up (and enabling future) child abuse disqualifies someone as a humanitarian? If inhumanitarian was a word, it would be apt for JoePa’s role in this cover-up. Descriptors like ‘sane’, ‘athlete’, ‘beauty’, etc. are allowed to stay on someone’s obituary even if those qualities deteriorate with age. But humanitarian? There’s not a lot of leeway there – even if you’re old. Maybe you can cheat at bingo occasionally or steal someone’s tapioca but that’s the extent of it. Here is a compromise – the statue should stay but replace ‘Humanitarian’ with ‘Enabler of Child Abuse’.
- Does the fact that I picture inhumane retribution for the Penn State leadership involved in the cover-up (President Graham Spanier, Vice President of Finance and Business Gary Schultz and Athletic Director Tim Curley) disqualify me as a humanitarian? My retribution du jour: Go Clockwork Orange and make them watch NAMBLA-produced movies to a Michael Jackson soundtrack. (A different punishment would of course be required for Sandusky.)
- The Associated Press broke news that Penn State plans to renovate areas where boys abused. Nice thought, Penn State. But, really, haven’t their rectums been through enough? (How does that title get past the AP’s editors? Perhaps they should employ a comedian.)
