Thoughts on Penn St. Football Program

[mk05]

What are your thoughts regarding the NCAA judgment on the Penn St scandal? Too much? Too little? Enough?

[UpInSmoak]

60 million dollar fine? Their football program brings that much in a single season. Not too mention the Penn State endowment is upwards of 1.5 billion.

The football program should of been suspended in its entirety for at least several seasons and possibly even more. I know you can't control the terrible actions of one man, but to cover them up and allow them to happen over and over again, are arguably just as bad.

[geneticdrifter]

Its hard to say. $60 million upfront is a pittance. They will lose much more over the 5 years but, this was systemic corruption. I think it could have been much worse.

[KB24]

First I'm going to make a prediction that this post will be removed within 2 days. Just putting it out there because of the anger and passion this subject brings about.

Personally, from what I read, what they handed out is meant to hurt them more than it would if they suspended the entire program. I'm not sure what PSU Football makes per year or how the dollar amount will effect them or not. What I'm very happy about is that they are allowing players to transfer immediately without losing a year of eligibility.

Regarding the situation as a whole, I think Paterno is just as guilty as Sandusky. It's like being an accomplice to a murder. He was there, he knew about it and he didn't do **** about it. I think any kid caught protesting in support of Paterno should be kicked out of school. If I found out my kid was one of those dumb ass students "guarding" the statue, I would have been down there so fast with a drop kick to the head.

Much respect to Sara Ganim. For those who don't know, she is the Reporter that had the courage to not only break this story, but to keep digging and not let it get swept under the rug. Nice work Sara!!

[mk05]

I would not be hurt if the "powers that be" decided to shut down the thread once its contents became malevolent. However, people are entitled to their opinions, and if expressed in proper conduct, I think we would be able to see a good measurement of perception among the FOH crew.

[Ken Gargett]

pretty much agree with most of the above - and congrats to the reporter indeed.

but to be honest, i'd have loved to see the penalties doubled. we have had reasonable coverage over here and with the internet, can easily follow it.

i like that they have taken away all those wins so paterno is left with nothing. shame he didn't live to see that. i like them out of bowl games - think that is right - as it will encourage talented kids to go elsewhere and further hurt the program. also that kids can transfer out. i hope many do. i just would have made it twenty years. and yes, any moron attempting to protect the statue (i thought i read it has been torn down - as it should be) or his reputation should be shown the streets .

i'm interested re the comment about this getting shut down soon. no doubt different opinions out there but if kept civil-ish, should not be an issue. from my side, the concept of arguing against what they copped is almost a sign of support for what happened - others may feel differently. for me, i think it is a great shame he is dead. i'd rather have seen him alive to see the results of his actions and the humiliation he has brought on himself, his family (which is the only unfair aspect probably) and his school. he should be in an unmarked grave in a garbage dump. and trust me, that is the civil-ish version of what i really think of the grub.

[Ken Gargett]

[Rushman]

I used to be a big fan of JoePa. USED TO BE.

I'm not sure there could have been any penalties issued by the NCAA that I thought would have been too high. They don't have the power to bring justice, just dock wins, stop post season play and issue fines.

Only time will tell, but I'm not sure Penn State's reputation will ever recover.

Unfortunately, like most attempts at "justice" lately, I can't help but remember a quote from the TV show The West Wing....... "...take the next sixty minutes and put together an American response scenario that doesn't make me think we're just docking somebody's damn allowance!"

In the end, that's all a NCAA sanction can do, dock their effing allowance.

Unfortunately, true justice will never be handed down.

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=20.631610,-87.070608

[Ken Gargett]

completely agree re justice never being done.

and to be honest, an unmarked grave far too good for people like that. dig him up and feed his corpse to the pigs. and the same goes for any piece of scum in any church of any denomination how has done exactly the same thing. (and anyone outside a church). i think it one of the most appalling crimes imaginable and that it is committed by people in respected positions of power, and they are protected by others in similar positions, is absolutely sickening.

and yes, this is still the civil version of what i really think.

[riazp]

The way i see it its a delayed death penalty...they will suffer for years to come, only have 10 schloarships instead of 25, no bowls for 4 years, anyone and everyone can transfer out right now if they want, recruiting will be damn near impossible due to the tarnished reputation of the program.

I see this as a death penalty dished out in small doses. But I do think that fine should be a lot more than 60 million thats for sure

[capnshazam]

Well time for me to take the other side of the issue here. I think the penalty was an overreaction. I'm in no way condoning what happened and have quibbles with the fine or tearing down the statue. What I think is wrong is the four year suspension from bowl games and losses of scholarships for students. What exactly did the students do? A four year suspension means that players will never have the chance to compete in a bowl game during their college career. Furthermore, I think it is goin to be really hard for a junior or senior to transfer out of penn state and walk onto another d1 football team. Their careers have been seriously jeopardized. (I understand the nfl is a slim to nil chance, but this effectively made it a nil chance). There are also 10 kids who can't receive football scholarships from penn state. That's ten kids who may not be able to go to school now because of the NCAA's decision.

That's just my opinion. The NCAA has punished the students for something paterno and the school did.

[Puros Y Vino]

Isn't the point of going to College to get an education?

[riazp]

Isn't the point of going to College to get an education?

NOt if your a top college football or basketball prospect, get your scholarship, choose the easiet program that you can, play ball, get drafted....Football guys have to be in school for 4 years i think before being draft eligeble...Basketball guys only need to play 1 year and can jump to the NBA...

[Ginseng]

First I'm going to make a prediction that this post will be removed within 2 days. Just putting it out there because of the anger and passion this subject brings about.

Is this qualification constructive? Does it promote a positive discussion? Is it any different from an "IBTL" post? Does this accomplish any more than to ?

If, as you reconsider your post, you answer "no" to any of these questions, I would suggest you edit your post.

May I recommend something of the following nature:

"Folks, I'd like to go out on a limb and open a discussion to share thoughts on the sanctions recently levied against the Penn State football program. It is my hope that we will try our darnedest to manage ourselves in this thread because of the anger and passion this subject brings about.

Wilkey

PS, I know what I wrote probably fits better for an opening post, but you get my point.

[Rushman]

Interesting blog post from a sportswriter friend of mine

I posted both the link and the text.

http://ripsports.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/whiny-penn-state-fans-dont-get-it/

24

JUL

Whiny Penn State fans don’t get it

Posted July 24, 2012 by deucesfull in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

This is the first entry in a new blog that will cover all things sports. With fewer weekly hours and a less intensive workload at my new job I figure I’ll have more time to write about things other than high school sports in Houston. Welcome to my new endeavor.

I have my own Joe Paterno story.

In 2005 I worked as a sports reporter for the Ann Arbor (Mich.) News. I did not cover the University of Michigan football team on a regular basis, but every now and then I covered a Michigan game. On Oct. 15 of that year I was asked to help with our coverage of the Michigan-Penn State game in Ann Arbor.

Penn State was ranked in the top three in the major polls and came to Michigan Stadium with a 6-0 record. The Nittany Lions had just won a big game against a really good Ohio State team the previous Saturday. For the Michigan game, it was my job to write about Penn State – win or lose.

Michigan won the game, 27-25, on the final play when Chad Henne connected with Mario Manningham for a 10-yard touchdown pass. Penn State, which won every other game that season, had high hopes of winning a national title but left Ann Arbor sure that those hopes had been dashed.

The post-game press conference was somber, which was odd because journalists are supposed to be objective. So what if the team you cover all season just suffered a defeat? You’re not supposed to care. I was the only “Michigan†reporter there. The others – I think 7 or 8 – were from Pennsylvania.

A Penn State media relations guy brought Paterno into the interview room. The coach slumped in a chair and looked distraught. Not surprisingly, he didn’t want to be there. The reporters didn’t either. They asked some softball questions and he mumbled a few answers.

Then I piped up with what I thought was the most important question of the night when you consider the context of the defeat. Penn State’s hopes of winning it all likely were gone, and it had happened excruciatingly on the last play. It’s tough to pick up the pieces after that.

“Coach, where does the team go from here?â€

To Paterno’s credit he showed some pep and wit with his initial response.

He looked up for the first time in 10 minutes: “To Illinois!†(Penn State played at Illinois the following week)

Everybody laughed. Even me.

Tension broken, Paterno continued. “I don’t know what you want me to say. What am I supposed to say?â€

This was a dig at me I guess because all of the other reporters laughed. It had the tone “How dare this guy ask such a question! We are here to support the old man!â€

Fast forward to 2011.

When the news of the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke and we found out about the cover up part of the discussion involved how heavy handed Paterno was with the program. You didn’t dare go against anything he did because he was the breadwinner. He was the reason the Nittany Lions were so great. Before that, the general opinion was that Penn State could not fire Paterno. It didn’t matter that his health was deteriorating. He was the man and nobody could tell him he needed to move on. Everyone waited for him to make the call.

Even the supposedly objective reporters in the above story kept Paterno above reproach. Paterno was perhaps the most powerful man in college football, which may have more powerful men than any non-political circle in the world.

Now fast forward to today.

The NCAA handed down unprecedented sanctions against Penn State due to the alleged cover up of Sandusky’s criminal actions. Most are sure it will take Penn State a decade or more to recover from this. One of the penalties the NCAA imposed was a four-year bowl ban.

Critics of the NCAA say it’s too harsh to penalize current players and coaches because they had nothing to do with Sandusky and the cover up.

Those people are missing the point. It doesn’t matter that they weren’t involved. The Penn State football program continued to flourish because of the cover up. If the people in charge had not allegedly brushed child rape under the rug there could have been penalties more than a decade ago.

They didn’t say a word because they didn’t want their pristine football program to be tarnished. These people worked for Penn State and escalated the reputation of the program by hiding details of one of society’s most grotesque crimes. You even can say Paterno and his friends enabled Sandusky’s actions.

That those people are no longer employed by the school doesn’t matter. The football program itself benefited from the cover up. The football program needed to be punished.

Now go back to that 2005 game at Michigan.

After the game Joe Paterno did not allow any of his players to be interviewed. He wanted to protect college kids in a big-time program with gigantic media exposure from having to answer questions about losing a game.

Yet when it came to protecting elementary-aged kids who could not protect themselves and likely were easily influenced by anyone from being sexually abused by a fellow coach, Paterno was silent. He even enabled it by allowing Sandusky to hang around the program and wow those children with access to Penn State football facilities.

Let that sink in for a moment. Paterno cared greatly about his football players but did not give a damn about young boys being sexually abused.

Penn State got what it deserved. It’s too bad Joe Paterno isn’t alive so he can see the carnage he and others created for an institution that praised him for nearly five decades.

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=20.631766,-87.070613

[Rushman]

Well time for me to take the other side of the issue here. I think the penalty was an overreaction. I'm in no way condoning what happened and have quibbles with the fine or tearing down the statue. What I think is wrong is the four year suspension from bowl games and losses of scholarships for students. What exactly did the students do? A four year suspension means that players will never have the chance to compete in a bowl game during their college career. Furthermore, I think it is goin to be really hard for a junior or senior to transfer out of penn state and walk onto another d1 football team. Their careers have been seriously jeopardized. (I understand the nfl is a slim to nil chance, but this effectively made it a nil chance). There are also 10 kids who can't receive football scholarships from penn state. That's ten kids who may not be able to go to school now because of the NCAA's decision.

That's just my opinion. The NCAA has punished the students for something paterno and the school did.

I dont disagree in that the students are also getting punished but the NCAA doesn't have tools in its bag to punish the school and program without also having a negative effect on the students. One way to look at it is that for 10 years the program excelled at the expense of a coverup.....paterno and others swept this under the rug to keep their rep untarnished.

Sure, it's easy to say "let's look out for the students, they are innocent". I want to know who the eff looked out for the little kids.........nobody.

Students are collateral damage, and I'm ok with that. Nobody got out of this Scott free except for paterno only cuz he died too soon.

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=20.631735,-87.070625

[perfectform]

The PSU football program is dead for at least a decade. They got it right. BTW, the 60 million is payable over 5 years.

[bassman]

A sex abuse story & now the students are getting screwed again.

[CanuckSARTech]

Yet another thread that I'll

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I like steak!!! Mmmmmm!

[geneticdrifter]

A sex abuse story & now the students are getting screwed again.

Think about this a different way. Students have benefited from the Penn state prowess for the last ten years or more. They did so unknowingly but they still did; money made by the football system etc. Now that theses devilish acts have been brought into the light they have also been tarnished. Every graduate or student of Penn state is now connected to these disgusting acts.

"Oh, you played college baseball. Where?"

"Penn State."

"Oh.... (insert reference to the scandal)"

This penalty is the only way for them to escape from that stigma to some degree. They can feel like the school payed its dues and they can move on. We can argue over the severity but a penalty is necessary.

[joeypots]

There must be civil suit still to come.I wonder if any victims will share any of the sixty million?

[ptrthgr8]

There must be civil suit still to come.I wonder if any victims will share any of the sixty million?

The $60MM is going to the NCAA, split into 5 annual payments of $12MM each - supposedly to "go toward outside programs devoted to preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims."

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/penn-state-punishment-jerry-sandusky-sex-abuse-scandal-072312?GT1=39002

The NCAA won't give any of the money to the victims. But I think you're correct about the civil suits that will almost certainly follow. The school will lose a lot more than $60MM I bet. That would only be $6MM per victim - you can get more than that for burning your tongue on a cup of hot coffee from McDonald's. Penn State isn't done writing checks by a long shot.

~ Greg ~

[Habanakane21]

Death Penalty

[capnshazam]

Back to what Rushman said. I would say that a bowl ban would be ok, but make it for 2 or 3 yrs, this way the students in school at least have a shot at being in a bowl game during their football career. I think that if a fine was higher and/or a more severe reduction in scholarships combined with a shorter bowl ban it would have been appropriate. I agree that noone looked out for the kids that were the victims of Sandusky and the resultant coverup. However, Sandusky is going to be in jail trying to avoid rape in the prison showers for the rest of his life. I would also advocate for the death penalty in his place. Furthermore, the millions upon millions the school is going to lose as a result of the ensuing civil suit's are going to be one heck of a penalty.

[AverageJoe83]

AFter reading the full list of damages, I think it unfair to take the wins from the entire program, the coaches - yes, the faculty - yes, the students - no. Obviously there needs to be steep penalties, and I think the fines should have been steeper, but to take away all that players in the past have worked so hard to accomplish is just plain unfair.