Some Measure of Justice

When we awoke last Friday morning to the news of the senseless massacre in Aurora, Colorado, we could be forgiven for at least temporarily losing hope of a just world. Where is the fairness in a six-year-old girl going to see a movie and losing her life? What kind of metaphysical sick joke is it for a woman who only weeks ago survived an attack from a crazed gunman in a Canadian mall, to come home and lose her life in a theater? But if we just wait a bit, if we have patience and faith in the give and take that is life, we see glimmers of justice shine through.

Such was the case Monday when the NCAA imposed death by a thousand cuts on the football program at Penn State University. The university, the silent incubator of a disgusting child abuse scandal, was fined $60 million by the NCAA. They have been forbidden to compete in post-season games for the next four years, making their ranking among other college teams completely irrelevant. They received severe scholarship cuts and their victories from 1998 to 2011 have been vacated.

Perhaps the most fitting punishment of all did not come from the NCAA and was symbolic in nature. The statue of the deceased head of the football program, Joe Paterno was taken down. In the wake of his passing, this hero to many was revealed to be a coward who knowingly covered up the crimes of his colleague Jerry Sandusky. Those who silently allow abuse to happen come in a close second to the actual perpetrators when it comes to depravity. Paterno prioritized the wealth and prestige of his program over the safety of innocent children.

His family has protested the NCAA ruling and the removal of his statue. Their lack of contrition and humility only underscores how unfair it is that Paterno did not live to see his program demolished and his reputation destroyed. There is some consolation that he is receiving in death the dishonor he deserved in life. That is some measure of justice.

Respectfully,
Rutherford

Photo credit: Joe_Paterno_-_Penn_State_-_Outback_Bowl_pep_rally_123110.jpg: Frances Sonne derivative work: Connormah (talk | contribs) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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Sandusky’s Thoughts on Paterno’s Death: Really?

I was browsing the web site of the Los Angeles Times yesterday when I stumbled upon an article about former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky expressing condolences to the family of just deceased head coach Joe Paterno. Really? What responsible newspaper thinks anyone should give a flying fig what Jerry Sandusky thinks about anything? Jerry Sandusky is a serial child rapist (ahem, allegedly). He deserves a total media blackout until his ass is put in prison where it belongs.

As for the man he was mourning, Joe Paterno might be a worse “sinner” than Sandusky. At least in Sandusky’s case you can blame it on a mental illness, a sick compulsion. What do we blame for Paterno’s behavior? A man in full possession of his faculties, with enough power and influence to put an immediate stop to the sexual shenanigans that went on at Penn State and he did next to nothing. So, the Los Angeles Times thinks it’s a good idea to publish an article about a child rapist (ahem, allegedly) expressing sympathy for an appeaser of evil and essentially his partner in crime.

I am neither a religious man nor a gambler but I’d wager that Joe and Jerry will meet again someday and it won’t be in heaven.

Respectfully,
Rutherford

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Sports, College and Cash

Much has been made recently of getting the money out of Washington. Whether it’s the influence of lobbying firms, or the lust that seemingly all politicians have for campaign contributions to ensure their reelection, many folks are saying that cash is fueling a dysfunctional government. However, the negative influence of money is hardly limited to Washington as we were shockingly reminded this week. The football program at Pennsylvania State University received a jolt when former coach Jerry Sandusky was indicted on multiple counts of child molestation. Had this been run of the mill pedophile behavior taking place at Sandusky’s home (where some of the attacks did occur) the worst we could say about Penn State was some remote guilt by association. However Sandusky committed some of these crimes on university property. In fact he molested minor boys at facilities open to university staff where the risk of getting caught was quite high.

This is where the plot thickens and sickens. An assistant grad student, Mike McQueary, in 2002 witnessed a young boy around the age of ten being sodomized by Sandusky in the Penn State locker room shower. Rather than stop the assault, McQueary, then 28 years old,  reported the incident to his father, who advised him to report the incident to head coach Joe Paterno, a legend in college football. Paterno, in turn, reported the incident up the chain. The bottom line, police were never notified. The 23 page indictment of Sandusky makes clear that several child molestations preceded this one and at least one occurred subsequently, as late as 2008.

What has many puzzled and disgusted is how an institution could know that Sandusky was engaging in this behavior and not report the matter to the authorities. The bottom line is no one wanted to rock the boat in the lucrative world known as college football. The Penn State football culture was insular, a world that played by its own rules. Let’s make no mistake, millions of dollars are at stake in college football. Coaches at top sports colleges make considerably more than professors at those same schools.

After a full week of outrage, I’ve heard very little by way of solutions. I think the time has come to put college sports back in the space where it belongs. My measures might seem draconian but it would take the money out of college sports and set priorities straight.

1. All college sports at every school must be demoted to the same status as any other extracurricular activity. Being on the football team should be no different from being in the drama club.
2. All sponsorship activities from various businesses cease immediately. College sports programs get funded through the college, period, end of story.
3. College sports are no longer televised. Since when are the Whiffenpoofs’ concerts televised on a regular basis? No need to televise college sports either.
4. All athletic scholarships cease. Scholarships should be based on need and/or academic achievement. We don’t send our kids to school to play football. We send them there to learn.
5. The NCAA should be re-missioned to establish programs unaffiliated with colleges, which train aspiring athletes. Professional sports teams can then draft their picks from these training programs. This allows us to maintain a wall of separation between academics and sports. This change of mission would of course involve renaming the NCAA.

The corruption within college sports is nothing new. The shame is that it took such a disgusting instance of complicity within this organization to remind us. It’s equally a shame that some Penn State student’s priorities were so askew that they rioted when Paterno was deservedly fired. Sports has morphed from a game to high-priced entertainment to religion. And we all know from the Catholic Church what happens when grave transgressions occur within a religion. It’s time we got our perspective back folks.

Football is just a game. The love of no game is worth the sacrifice of any child’s innocence.

Respectfully,
Rutherford

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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