Hey Penn State, how do you like THIS legacy…

The NCAA dropped the hammer on Penn State today, and the apologists are already decrying it…  


First article HERE.

– NCAA is imposing a fine of $60 million on the University (equivalent to proceeds of one year) — An endowment will be established to be used around the nation to serve victims of child abuse
– Penn State Football will be banned from bowl games and post season play for 4 years
– Initial scholarship reduced from 25 to 15 per year for four years
– Entering, returning athletes are able to transfer and immediately complete
– NCAA to vacate all wins of the football team from 1998 to 2011 and record will reflect change
– Football program on 5-year probationary period
– NCAA reserve right to initiate an investigation and impose sanctions on individuals


And of course the Paterno family is laying off blame HERE.

But I’d say go look at page 17 from the Freeh Report-  Paterno and the rest allowed Sandusky to retire as a ‘valued’ member, not as a child molester, and allowed him access to Penn State and the facilities until his arrest… Sorry, but THAT is covering your ass, and protecting your reputation and program NOT doing the right thing!


And if you check any of the blogs/comments the PSU ‘faithful’ are out there screaming “It’s not ‘our’ fault…

As far as I’m concerned, they should have gotten the death penalty year for year, for every year the abuse continued… 

And all the whining about ‘others’ that will be injured by this?  Well, too bad, so sad… PSU made it’s bed, and now they don’t like laying in it…

It took SMU 20 years to come back, and I hope it takes Penn State even longer!!!

Comments

Hey Penn State, how do you like THIS legacy… — 28 Comments

  1. Agreed. Penn State built the football program into a cash cow kingdom, with JoePa as monarch.

    Well, their royalty got caught oppressing and abusing the peasants, fearing no retribution as they had protection of the king.

    The peasants revolted, the king was deposed, and Penn State’s cash cow took a bullet in the process.

    I have no sympathy at all. But then, my opinion may be colored by my own history of being severely screwed over by the PSU cash grubbing machine. I’d just as soon see the whole place turned back into farmland.

  2. Pretty harsh thoughts, but understandable. My disgust would have played a slightly different tune.

    In my world any member of the coaching staff, the University administration and each of the boosters with knowledge about Sandusky’s actions… whether actually participating in the cover-up or simply silent… Each of these people would be facing prosecution. At the very least their names would spend eternity known as abettors and enablers of a child molester.

  3. I haven’t really wrapped my head around what’s “enough”.

    This is a good start, but “enough” . . . . no, not really. How on earth does anyone with even a passing knowledge of what’s going on face themselves in the mirror every morning.

  4. Cateach- I can’t dispute that!

    Danny- Concur, and I think THAT is coming!

    MB- I too hope they prosecute them! And if Paterno were still alive, I would hope he would be standing in the dock facing charges too!

    Andy- Yep

    eia- I can’t answer that, and don’t even want to try, I know “I” couldn’t do it… Personally I think a bullet in the balls, and putting Sandusky in GP is too good for him!!!

  5. One thing those protesting the penalties don’t get – a person’s actions DO have repercussions beyond themselves. Many innocents have been devastatingly harmed, and now the ripples of harm are spreading in a different way.

  6. I agree that there should have been very harsh penalties. And I agree with all of them, except one: Vacating the wins. Why punish the players who played the games during that time period? They weren’t involved, were they? The offenses perpetrated had nothing to do with the actual games on the field (unlike situations where players that should have not been on the field were playing and thus contributed to wins).

    And again, I’m not a Penn State fan, and I think the rest of the penalties are fully deserved. And I post this knowing full well that some will read this as me being sympathetic to the child molesters.

    I’m not, in any way, shape or form.

  7. [sigh]… “dropped the hammer.” They are careful not to drop the soap, though. Too bad no one taught those little kids to be on the constant look-out for creepy, old, turd-sniffing queens like Sandusky & frankly a lot of ‘coaches.’ But then we can’t HATE a certain ummm… “proclivity” & we can’t poison 8,9,10,11 year-old minds against Man on Boy anal rape, now can we? Those kids will be just fine. Jerry S. was being true to his identity & that’s by far the most important thing, right?

  8. I have no problem with punishing the University. If you wanted to cancel the seasons for a couple of years so be it. Make Penn State honor its scholarship commitments.

    But for the life of me how do you justify voiding the victories of the young men on the team who had nothing to do with this case. That’s just BS.

    Gerry

  9. Now we need to make the Catholic church take down all the statues of Jesus Christ!

  10. They covered-up Michael Mann’s academic data-molestations too. The bogus climate-science and hockey-stick manipulations brought a lot of money to Penn, too.

  11. PH- Yep, that whole ‘personal responsibility’ thingie…

    WSF- Concur too

    Dirk/Gerry- It’s about punishing Paterno, and the kids are getting the fallout…

    Russell- Probably… sigh… After all it’s an ‘enlightened’ educational atmosphere, right???

    Anon- So was Jesus a pedophile??? Is that what you’re saying??? I can agree to remove any pic/statue of an offender.

  12. Linked, you said things well although I think the point is the sports have become greater than the play, because of money.

    The NCAA should have turned the television off, or banned commercials. But ugly financial reward gets in the way doesn’t it?

  13. Actually, picking the State Penn square in the bank account is the most effective way to make the NCAA’s displeasure known.

    Think about it: if the fine is equal to ONE season’s team income, how long will it take PSU to rebuild the program?

    5 years? 10? 20?

    Every other school is going to have to take a hard, hard look at any allegations to make sure that they have been investigated and not buried.

    I’m still not entirely sold on vacating the wins, unless the NCAA is saying that the players knew or should have known that something was up and played anyway. If the NCAA is holding the players as accomplices, then I understand the logic they’re using. Still not sure I agree with it, but I understand it.

  14. When I told my husband about the vacated wins, he took a minute to process it, and then I watched light dawn on his face.

    Old NFO, you’re right. It’s more about punishing Paterno, and yes, those kids are taking some of the hit. But they’re not the ones who get the glory of the record. It’s the coach, the university, the athletic department. Not so much the athletes.

    And vacating the wins bumps Paterno from the vaunted position of being the coach with the most career wins.

  15. I guess that kinda makes sense, Auntie J. The players know they won the games – even if the record books will now say otherwise. And JP will not be on the top of the list any longer…

    But, even so, even though the aim is to punish him for not doing the right thing, it still doesn’t seem right to “revise history” to do so.

    I still don’t think vacating the wins is an appropriate penalty, even though I more-or-less understand the reasoning behind it.

  16. I was thinking about this yesterday and what a complete waste of a life. His selfish desire to preserve a legacy protected an animal and destroyed the lives of so many young children.

    I agree with Andy, I think they all got off too easy.

  17. Earl- It’s ALL about the TV revenues now… sigh…

    Scott- It’s NOT about the players, they are collateral damage. The REAL reason is to penalize Paterno and the University. It’s not the first time games have been forfited. USC had that done over Reggie Bush, remember?

    Auntie/Dirk- Yep… There is ALWAYS going to be some that suffer unfairly, but what about the suffering of those boys because Paterno DIDN’T do the right thing? In PA, it is a LEGAL requirement that the police MUST be notified. Paterno ‘should’ have done that himself, but he chose to bump up/cover it up…

    Agirl- EXCELLENT point!

  18. They got off light.

    Just how badly do you have to screw up in the NCAA before they say “You know what? You’re so screwed up that we’re going to fine you to pay to fix what you’ve done, and we’re going to ban you from collegiate sports for a few years.”?

  19. Daddy Bear, since nothing was done to Colorado’s football program after the evidence of repeated sexual assaults by players with the knowledge of the coaching staff, and nothing has been done to Duke’s administration for ruining the lives of the lacrosse players, I’d guess that you have to get caught either 1) molesting multiple children or 2) cooking the books.

    LittleRed1

  20. agree with most all of you,but

    i would have left JoPa’s statue where it was. with an addition.

    a 4’/3′ bronze plaque stating

    “all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do NOTHING.”

    rms/pa

  21. DB- Point!

    LR1- Also good points!

    rms- Oh… Oh… THAT would have truly enraged them, but I’d agree, especially if they put it in the middle of the chest!

  22. Hey Old NFO,

    My opinion would to strip the entire football program for a generation away from them. The rot is institutional. Vacate the wins and have PENN state honor the scholarships awarded to the players so they ain’t screwed.

  23. MrG- If I were a scholarship player, I’d be gone in a heartbeat! No point in getting beat to death on a team that can’t field big enough linemen…

  24. I don’t know why they would vacate all wins of the football team from 1998 to 2011. After all, it was the players that did all of the hard work, and because of a few asshats, their hard work will now be for nothing.

  25. @Orangeneck: Because it removed Paterno’s name from the record books as the coach with the most wins in history. (Think I found that over on Bayou Renaissance Man’s blog)

    The NCAA went Roman on the ‘Paterno Legacy’ and chiseled him out of history entirely.