There are a lot of issues up for debate in the world today, and while sports are ‘the toy department’, there are a lot of debatable issues in sports as well – the BCS, the concept of amateur athletics, instant replay…the list is endless. Within the ranks of collegiate athletics, there are plenty of reasons to believe that the system is straining under the weight of corruption – the allegations that Cam Newton’s father tried to get $180,000 from Mississippi State, the scandals at USC and Ohio State in recent years, and pretty much the last 30 years of Miami football all point to a system that could not police itself – a system that rewards those teams that bend the rules the most.
Having said that, let’s keep a little perspective here – the rules being bent/broken in those instances were in almost every case about MONEY. Corrupt? Against the rules? Absolutely – but these were adults paying younger adults to play, with other adults turning something of a blind eye to the process. One thing that has NEVER been up for debate in this country on any level is the need to protect children, that to abuse children is completely wrong and intolerable, and that if such actions are discovered, EVERY STEP must be taken to prosecute the offender and protect the kids. No one I know would debate that sentence, and I would bet that if you asked every NCAA president to vote on that statement you’d get 100% support. This should be at least one area where we all agree, where there can be no corruption, no ‘blind eyes’, no hypocrisy. And yet…
If you are enough of a sports fan to read my columns, doubtless you know about the charges levied against former PSU coach Jerry Sandusky, Athletic Director Tim Curley, and Sr. Vice-President Gary Schultz. I’ve read through the entire 23-page Grand Jury report, and while I’m a BIG defender of the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ concept, the report does not leave much room for doubt about Sandusky’s guilt – too many different situations/victims, too many witnesses, too much of a pattern. But this isn’t strictly about Sandusky and what he’s done – it’s about Penn State’s reaction to his offenses, or lack thereof.
The report details a ‘Graduate Assistant’ who witnessed an incident and reported the incident to Joe Paterno. Several days later, the assistant was asked to repeat the allegations to Curley and Schultz. No one called the police, and the matter was essentially dropped – Sandusky was still allowed free reign around PSU’s athletic complex, but was told not to bring any more children on campus – a restriction even Curley admitted was ‘unenforceable’. We’re talking about abuse of a CHILD here, yet no major actions were taken – no external investigation, they didn’t even restrict Sandusky’s access! It seems clear that everyone was far more interested in protecting the university’s reputation than protecting innocent kids – that’s inexcusable.
In the years since that incident, Sandusky was barred from a Clinton County school district for similar allegations, and it’s been known that there’s been a Grand Jury investigation going on for at least a year – there were media reports about it in 2010, and investigators have been interviewing the parents of ALL Second Mile (Sandusky’s charity to help kids) attendees (my eldest son was a Second Mile participant in 2003, and I was interviewed this summer). There’s simply no way that Penn State’s leadership didn’t know of these facts – yet they did nothing, not even a temporary restriction of Sandusky’s campus privileges. One famous quote comes to mind to describe this inaction: ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burned’.
Of all the scandals to hit NCAA schools over the past 30 years, none were as serious as this – again, because the others were almost all about MONEY, while this was about PROTECTING YOUNG CHILDREN. In my opinion, Penn State’s refusal to take action over the past decade to reduce Sandusky’s access to the university, and refusal to call authorities when notified of a potential assault, exposes the institution as morally bankrupt and unworthy of my support. You may disagree, you may continue to attend games and donate money, but this alum (’97) will not contribute a dime in any fashion to Penn State until every single person connected to this situation has departed the university.
Penn State was once known as one of the NCAA’s crown jewels, a place where they ‘did it right’ and they proved you could win without breaking rules, while graduating players and while caring about the kids. It was the ‘Rome’ of college football; a place looked upon with envy by many other universities but also as a place to emulate. Well, everything ends…witness the fall of Rome.
Dave Glass can be reached at buggyracer@verizon.net.