Once known for the slogan, “success with honor,” Joe Paterno’s legendary Penn State football program is being dragged through the mud, and his statue being torn down, over the scandal that erupted within the university last November.
In June, former Penn State defensive coordinator and member of Paterno’s staff, Jerry Sandusky, was found guilty of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years, sometimes on campus.
An investigation commissioned by the school and released July 12 found that Paterno, who died of lung cancer in January at age 85, and three other top officials at Penn State concealed accusations against Sandusky for fear of bad publicity, according to the Associated Press.
The longtime football powerhouse escaped a total shut-down of the program, in football terms known as “the death penalty,” on Monday when the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA, chose to fine the university 60 million dollars, ban post-season play for four years, five year probations, and reduce the amount of scholarships awarded to players.
The NCAA also erased 14 years of victories, wiping out 111 of Paterno’s wins and stripping him of his standing as the most successful coach in the history of big-time college football, according to the Associated Press.
Penn State’s proceeds from Big Ten bowl revenues from the four years, amounting to an estimated $13 million and the $60 million fine, will be allocated “to established charitable organizations in Big Ten communities dedicated to the protection of children,” the conference announced.
“Football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said.
At a student union on campus, several dozen alumni and students gasped, groaned and whistled as they watched Emmert’s news conference. The news was a crushing blow to many students, according to the Associated Press.
There is no doubt that what happened to these young people was horrific, and some may say that Penn State’s punishment is more than fair, but their beliefs and actions are overshadowing what is at stake.
Nicole Lord, a senior, questioned why Penn State’s student body, and especially its athletes, should be punished “for the wrongs of three men and a monster.”
Why is the NCAA punishing the university and the community for the actions of Sandusky and others and does the NCAA need to be stepping into a criminal matter?
“The penalties were designed to force Penn State – at least the way it was operated by Paterno, the board of trustees, athletic director Tim Curley, and former president Graham Spanier – to change its identity. Hero worship is out. Accountability and transparency are in,” ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski wrote. “Penn State football will need prosthetics to walk again. There’s the death penalty, and then there’s what Nittany Lions football got Monday.”
“It’s ludicrous. It’s punishing all the wrong people,” Brad Benson, a former Penn State and New York Giants player, said. “The NCAA is way out of line with this. It’s an overreaction. It’s a knee-jerk reaction. I think the statue should have come down. I’m for it. They can take the games, take the wins away. That’s fine. There’s no future in the past anyway. But to punish the university now? How does this work for the new coach? What’s fair about this for him? It’s absolutely crazy.”
On top of the repercussions the program is receiving and the amount of players who won’t be awarded scholarships and bowl game chances, Penn State has also lost one sponsor and more are likely to follow suit.
With Penn State’s once sterling reputation in tatters, the university could face an exodus of sponsors unwilling to have their brands linked to scandal, said Kevin Adler, founder of Chicago-based Engage Marketing Inc.
The embarrassment the program has received is enough. Although there is not much to be done for the sponsorships; the fines, bowl game bans and reduced scholarships is bringing Penn State to its knees. The “three men and the monster” have been or will be punished by law and that should have been enough.
“They keep breaking our hearts and breaking our hearts and breaking our hearts,” Lord said.
