Contemptible conduct by Penn State coaches, administrators
Barb ShellyThe investigation into who knew what when about former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children has confirmed the worst fears of Penn State alumni, of which I am one.
Louis J. Freeh, the former federal judge and FBI director who conducted the investigation, summed up the disgusted conclusions this morning:
“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims.The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”
It now appears legendary football coach Joe Paterno was untruthful when he insisted after the scandal broke that he knew nothing about a mother’s allegations in 1988 that Sandusky had molested her son in the shower at a university athletic building. According to Freeh, Paterno knew about the allegation and followed it closely.
Worse, Paterno appears to have dissuaded university athletic director Tim Curley from going to state authorities with an assistant football coach’s account of witnessing Sandusky raping a young boy in the showers.
According to Freeh’s report, Paterno and Curley decided the “humane” approach would be to warn Sandusky not to bring children on campus any more.
These were people completely oblivious to their moral and legal obligations. As Freeh observed, they never tried to help Sandusky’s victims or find out who they were, much less comply with the law.
Paterno died of lung cancer in January at age 85. If he were alive, you can bet people would be calling for criminal charges against him. He had a duty to report those allegations.
Freeh’s report confirms what many Penn State grads, including me, have said: That Paterno and the football program had too much power. Paterno controlled the athletic director and the athletic director dictated to the university’s top administrators. The trustees failed to set the balance right. Nobody had the guts to stand up to Paterno, and the result was utter disaster.
Dennis Lawrence
10 months, 1 week agoNow, let’s see if the NCAA has the guts to put the death penalty on the Penn State program.
The worst case of lack of institutional control on record.
Phil Cardarella
10 months, 1 week agoBy all means, let us invoke the “death penalty” for Penn State — and punish the innocent kids who go to school there now for the sins of the formeradministratiors who probably should go to jail.
“Too much power” in athletic programs? Simple solution: No football or basketball coach gets paid more than 150% of the average department chair. No bowl eligibility, no post-season tournements if that is violated. Take the money saved and give a stipend to the players, so they don’t have to sell their jerseys to take a friend on a date.
Dennis Lawrence
10 months, 1 week agoPhil, you are correct it won’t be fair to the athletes, but this is the nature of any NCAA sanction. The kids suffer because of the ethical failings of those they put their trust in. Penn State will owe them a lot when the student athletes better than the victims of Sandusky they abandoned.
This is the worst scandal in American Collegiate sports history. It must be dealt with by the worst penalty available.
What may hold the NCAA back is the fear that if they strike down a giant like Penn State, the other majors may wonder if they need a NCAA and abandon it.
College athletes are trapped in sick system.
No one is serving the student athlete here, not Penn State, not the NCAA.
Regardless of what happens, they have already lost.
Kent Mueller
10 months, 1 week agoI don’t know if Penn State’s football program should get the so-called death penalty or not. But if that penalty is ever extracted, this would be the case. If, the NCAA doesn’t, they need to go back and sincerely apologize to everyone involved back at SMU when they got that penalty for infractions far less than for what Penn State did.
Phil….why does the left always want to set compensation by some senseless formula? That never works.
Phil Cardarella
10 months, 1 week agoKent, we are a capitalist society that demonstrates its priorities by the way it spends its money. That is neither a left- or right-wing fact.
I am a guy who never played in high school or college — but who learned to respect the dedication and discipline of the athletes who worked really hard — most of them holding no real fantasies of ever being a pro. I have also learned to respect the coaches who worked to safely mold boys into responsible men. Some of them were the best teachers I knew.
We long ago divorced CEO pay from good corporate performance — rewarding short-term profitable failure at the cost of long-term growth. Then we — Dems and GOPers — did the same with Wall Street, with catastrophic (but entirely predictable) results.
If you want to have pro minor league teams and pay a million-plus to a coach, I could care less. But, if you want to limit the improper influence on college athletics? You have to return to treating coaches like other faculty. And players like the student-workers that they are. If those were the rules for everyone, and the playing field were so leveled, I doubt the game would suffer.
If the coaches only made $150-200K a year, I would still root for Notre Dame and MU. And even for KU — although with a bit less enthusiasm, of course.