60 MILLION DOLLAR FINE.…NO POST SEASON PLAY FOR 4 YEARS….REDUCED SCHOLARSHIPS….ELIMINATION OF OVER 100 WINS DATING BACK TO 1998
It’s not enough! It’s worse than what happened at SMU! They should have given them the “Death Penalty” (elimination of the program for a period of time)! The fine is less than one year’s football revenue!
Ridiculous! It’s not fair! It’s way too severe! It punishes the wrong people! “Just because it involved a member of the football team’s coaching staff and his disgusting off-the-field exploits, some of which happened in the facilities of Beaver Stadium, does not mean that it was football business” says blogger Jamblinman.
It’s not football business!? Not University business!? I think you are missing the point Jamblinman. This is not about what Jerry Sandusky did. If it were there would not have been any sanctions by the NCAA. The sanctions are about the actions of the football coach (Paterno), the University President (Spanier), the Vice President (Schultz) and campus security (Curly) plus countless others who had to have known what Sandusky was doing. These men who were the CEO’s of the institution knowingly and deliberately protected a child rapist, for financial and image benefits. Over 14 years those benefits consisted of hundreds of millions of dollars contributing to their most generous salaries, and racked up over one hundred football wins. The NCAA is saying ill-gotten rewards must be forfeited. The real cost? The lives of an unknown number of pre-adolescent at risk kids who were referred to The Second Mile Foundation for help.
What really created the setting and ability for a serial pedophile to operate? A coach that had become more powerful than God; an attitude that winning games was more important than a few raped children; a University President that was willing to value a sports program (or any program for that matter) as being so important that it’s reputation trumped all other concerns. Would you trade one win for one rape? These men did. Would you attend a sporting event that started with a ten-year-old boy being led on the field and ceremoniously raped by one of the coaches? Now let’s play ball!
That is exactly what happened at State College, PA and it is what the NCAA and new PSU President Rodney Erickson apparently want to correct as best they can. “Our goal is not to be just punitive, but to make sure the university establishes an athletic culture and daily mindset in which football will never again be placed ahead of education, nurturing and protecting young people,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert.
“We want to do the right thing, we want to help them (the survivors) in their healing process, but we also want to make sure that Penn State becomes a national leader in this whole area of child abuse prevention and treatment,” Erickson added. “And the $60 million fine will go into an endowment, which will be used to assist in the prevention and treatment of abuse. Our children are our most important assets. Another lesson to be learned is one of accountability. We need to make sure that everyone, regardless of their position or standing, is held accountable for actions that they take.” Erickson said. “We can’t change the past, but we can look to the future. And we can hold ourselves accountable, not just to our children, but to all aspects of the world we interact with.”
It is irrelevant whether we think the sanctions at Penn State were too strong or too weak. It got everyone’s attention. Now what are we all going to do about it? Will we demand change not only at State College, but also in hometown USA, your home and mine where the same things have been going on in families and institutions since the beginning of time? How will you and I hold ourselves accountable, not just to our children, but to all aspects of the world we interact with?
Randy Ellison
I agree we should punish every single person involved in covering up this incredibly horrific tragedy, but I must say if it were my son who worked hard enough in high school (and often before) to play football for the next 4 years at Penn State and had to now pay for something he didn’t do by losing his chance, I would be furious. I do not believe more innocent lives need to be affected. Those who didn’t act, must now pay and things must be done in order to change the way Penn State handles sex abuse. That I agree with wholeheartedly.
It’s not about Penn State. Penn State was just where the horrors that are child sexual abuse happened. It’s about abject neglect and lies told by coaches, administrators for the sake of money. $60 million doesn’t cover the lives of those children who are much more likely to have serious public health problems as they age, who are more likely than not to suffer from addictions, and who will more than likely raise children in challenging environments unless we all do the right thing to help prevent child abuse, increase public awareness and promote systems change. These men can receive the treatment and therapy they’ll need and others can share the message that child sexual abuse can’t be in the closet any more!
This whole topic makes me sick and pissed off. i have read the indimtcent and I am not going to defend JoPa or any of the administration at Penn State that heard what was happening with Sandusky and the boy in the shower. With that being said I believe that everyone’s anger is directed at the wrong person. We should be extremely disappointed with the way the situation was handled by the administration at Penn State but the real focus should be on the grad student. He is the one that after being an eye witness to a rape did nothing to stop it but run home to tell his father. Upon disusing the scene with him he decided to wait a full day to report the incident not to the police but to JoPa. Who in turn relayed what he had been told to his supervisors. At this point everything is one mans word against another. This is where the administration is at fault for not reporting something of this nature to the police. However, as a male in my 20s I do not understand how someone who is a former football player and physically fit did not beat the piss out of a man they see raping a young boy. Instead of running away and hiding for 10 years this grad student should have taken immediate action by putting on his big boy pants and calling the police himself. This man (at this point in time) is still on the coaching staff at Penn State. Now people are calling for a self imposed death penalty at Penn State because football is too important to the school. Lets get one thing straight here. Football should be about the guys playing the sport. None of which have done anything wrong. Why punish them? With the incident that has taken place Penn State will see enough damage to their school and legacy. It has been a sad week for college football