Today that bastion of hypocrisy, the NCAA, lowered the boom on Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Included in the package of goodies were was a $60 million fine to be paid by the university (which coincidentally is the estimated annual take of the Penn State football program), the loss of 10 scholarships for each of the next 4 years; post season game prohibition for 4 years; probation for 5 years; and forfeiture of all games from 1998 to 2011 thus robbing Joe Paterno of 111 victories and his place in history as college football’s winning-est coach.
Those who investigated the tragic circumstances know better than me how bad the cover up was. There is no excuse for what happened. In Ohio, if you are aware of child sexual abuse you are required to report it to the authorities. Apparently Joe Paterno did report what he had heard to his superiors, and then nothing happened. Sandusky left the employ of Penn State, but continually showed up at the university using football as the drawing card for his young victims…and everybody supposedly knew it.
But here’s the thing. Punishment should be meted out to those who did the crime. The perverse results of the NCAA investigation and punishment is that the people who will be paying for this despicable behavior will be those who didn’t do it, and more likely than not knew nothing about it. Current students, football players, innocent contributing alumni, football fans and the taxpayers of Pennsylvania will bear the brunt of the punishment for deeds committed by people who are no longer in the employ of Penn State.
The crimes committed at Penn State were not collective crimes. These were crimes of individuals and should be punished by immediate employment termination of any person who had the slightest inkling that this was going on and failed to report it to the police, including revocation of pensions and any other post retirement benefits of both current and past culpable employees. Appropriate criminal charges should be brought against those who failed to report it to police with appropriate jail time and criminal fines. There shoould be complete replacement of the university Board of Trustees, along with the President of the University and high ranking officials who failed to implement proper guidelines and procedures within the University to keep this from happening.
Sanctions against the university as a whole may assuage the guilt of a money hungry NCAA which fosters the type of environment that allows this to happen in the first place, but does nothing to those unsuspecting folks remaining at Penn State other than to piss them off and demoralize the alumni who will quit giving to the University. At the end of the day, it is the students and taxpayers who will end up paying the price for those who actually did the crime.
The only way to stop this type of behavior in the future is to hit the guilty individuals who allowed this to happen hard and in the pocket book. If state law does not allow for criminal sanctions against the enablers, then the law should be changed to throw these folks in jail. Anything other than that is window dressing, and will destroy an otherwise great institution.
A word about Joe Paterno. He is not the first person in history to live a glorious life only to meet his end under a cloud of shame. The removal of the statue was appropriate. His victories will always be his victories but the attempt to remove them from the record book is also appropriate. But the man also accomplished more good than most of us could ever hope to achieve. The fact that he failed to live up to his own ideals that he tried to instill in others is tragic and sad, but not as tragic to what was suffered by those children who trusted those around him. Time will determine his legacy, and perhaps bring closure to those who suffered the indignities of his assistant coach.
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