Penn St. Scandal and Sanctions.
My first blog post is unfortunately about the worst sports scandal of my lifetime. Jerry Sandusky abused countless young boys ( we will likely never know the number of victims) and the Penn St. football program and athletic department allowed it to happen and allowed it to continue to happen. By all accounts outside of this scandal Joe Paterno was a good man but even a good man’s legacy can be tarnished by one horrific action or in this case inaction. Paterno is not solely to blame, Graham Spanier, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz failed to do their duty and Mike McQueary failed to step up in the moment and be a human being. There are so many things wrong with what happened at Penn St. that it is tough to cover them all. Mike McQueary could have stepped up in the moment and stopped a monster but should he have even been in that position. We will never know what Paterno and his cronies knew before that moment in 2002 but they knew something as far back as 1998. We are supposed to believe that Jerry Sandusky’s retirement in 1999 had nothing to do with the allegations of molestation in 1998 but I find that hard to believe. Certainly though after what McQueary witnessed in 2002 there could not have been any doubt and after allegations in 1998 and an eye witness from his own staff in 2002 Paterno should have known. Twice Paterno had been told about allegations of what Jerry Sandusky was doing and this was a man that Paterno knew was running a charity for at-risk youth. Joe Paterno went to Brown University and I am fairly certain that while there they taught him how to add 2 plus 2. The administration at Penn St. knew the truth too, they banned Jerry Sandusky from bringing kids on campus after the 2002 incident, it seems it was a ban in name only but it still shows that they knew.
Today the NCAA handed down sanctions against Penn St. A $60 million fine ( to be paid to organizations that help abused children and work to stop the abuse of children) a 4-year Bowl ban, scholarship reductions over the next 4 years and vacating of all wins from 1998-2011. This judgement came down quickly compared to the usual NCAA punishment because Penn St.’s new administration signed off on the facts and agreed to the sanctions. I applaud the new administration for doing this in order to move forward and not drag this out of years, the people involved in this have all been dismissed from Penn St. and the school and the football program need to move on. The $60 million fine is one year’s revenue for the football program which I am not sure if I am more stunned by the fine or the fact that it is only one year’s revenue for the football program. The 4-year bowl ban and the scholarship reductions will be the most crippling thing to the football program on the field and vacating the wins is a gesture to say “this is when you knew and did nothing”. There was a lot of talk about what the sanctions would be (disallowing home games for a certain number of year, a TV ban) and I’m glad the NCAA didn’t punish the current players and the fans for something they did not do. The inherent problem the NCAA always faces is that their sanctions almost always punish people that had nothing to do with the crime and this time it was actually a crime.
The Paterno family has issued statements about how the conclusions of the Freeh Report are wrong and how they plan to launch their own investigation and my advice to the Paterno family is to stop issuing statements (you sound like idiots). Although I’m sure it would give Jay Paterno something to do his time might be better spent trying to find the killers in the O.J. Simpson case. I get wanting to clear your father’s name but everytime you speak about it only reminds everyone of your father’s failings. The NCAA has stepped forward to do their part but the punishment is far from over, the Department of Education is investigating and will likely sanction Penn St. on the academic side for their administrations failures. Gary Schultz and Tim Curley face trial over lying to the grand jury in the Sandusky investigation and I believe the Prosecutor should go a step further against Schultz, Curley and former Penn St. President Graham Spanier for covering up these crimes after the fact. I would have included Joe Paterno if he was still alive. This whole mess should serve as a reminder to every Athletics Director and University President that no coach (football, basketball or otherwise) is above the rules. I don’t care how revered the person is, how much money they bring in to the school or how beloved they are by the masses, they must answer to someone.
I hope I never have to write about another scandal like this in this blog but I’m too cynical to believe that. I promise my blog posts won’t always be this serious or depressing and I hope you come back and check out the funnier and more sarcastic side of my writing in the future. This surely won’t be the last time I mention Penn St. but hopefully next time it’s because I’m talking about a big Iowa Hawkeye win over the Nittany Lions.
As my tagline reads This is my opinion, get one of your own
Until next time,
Nate Hott
The Hott Read 
I agree with much of what you wrote, so can we share this opinion?
Good first post. I look forward to more!
Yeah Mitch, we can share the opinion I suppose.