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| NCAA President Mark Emmert (right) announces sanctions Monday for Penn State. |
NCAA Slaps
Penn State With Severe Sanctions; Was It Wrong?
By Diana L.
Chapman
As the news
streamed in that the NCAA slapped a $60 million fine on Penn State Monday and
wiped away its successful football record over the past 14 years, all morning
long commentators and others kept saying this: "It's not about
football."
In fact,
this has everything to do with football and that's exactly why the NCAA had to
act -- and act harshly even if it's not within its own policy or using its own
investigation.
This is a football
story on how a bunch of administrators at Penn State University believed the football
program was more important than the lives of a lot of young boys being
molested for years by the university's former defensive coach Jerry Sandusky. This
often happened in the school's facilities and was something the famous head
coach, Joe Paterno, apparently knew about. (Sandusky was found guilty of 45
criminal sex abuse counts last month involving at least eight boys.)
It's also about
how the popular and highly regarded Penn State football program racked up so much
money, administrators considered it more significant than the fact Sandusky was
raping boys in the university's gym showers. They seemed to think it better to
hide such a scandal to save its renowned reputation -- and its money.
It's also about how a janitor who cleaned the
football stadium and gym witnessed a Sandusky molestation and told his
supervisor. The janitors were too terrified to talk to anybody due to the football
culture that apparently had an iron-fist rule at the school for decades. In fact, the janitors believed
they'd be fired if they brought it up to their administrators, according to an
investigation completed by former FBI director Louis Freeh, also a former
judge, in a 267 page report.
The NCAA used
Freeh's report, released in July that sets the blame squarely on Paterno as
well as then president Graham Spanier and other powerful administrators, for
failing to protect the children.
After that,
the NCAA swooped in with some of the harshest sanctions it's ever imposed and are unprecedented.
"Football
will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young
people," Mark Emmert, NCAA
president, told the press.
Thank you.
While many
denounced the NCAA sanctions, I embrace Emmett's startling announcement Monday despite
many sports commentators complaining the board stepped way out of its league.
The heavy restrictions included that the team will not be allowed in bowl or
post season games for four years, the $60 million will be used to help child
abuse victims and the school will be undergo five years of probation. In addition, 10 new
scholarships for football will be eliminated in 2013-2014 along with another 15
the following year, according to news accounts.
The
university wins from 1998 to 2011 will be erased along with the fact that
Paterno will no longer be considered the most "winningest" university
coach in history. Penn state football players can also leave and go to other
school's without any punishments, the NCAA ruled.
Why do I so
agree with this NCAA action while others are crying foul for the innocent
football players, taking away scholarships for those who need them and ruining
the whole atmosphere of a school where students were once proud of its football
legends, many of whom were devastated when they learned of the sanctions Monday?
It's simple.
We
can never, never, never let this happen again. As soon as the Sandusky
case broke, we soon discovered there were other college coaches who had
molested young victims as well. The NCAA didn't go far enough in fact, and
should have gone after each and every administrator involved.
What these
sanctions did do is give an extremely clear smoke signal that any college
involved with any horrendous molestation scandals like this again will bleed -
and bleed badly all over.
As it
should.
And
something more important about the sanctions:
Penn State
has to be thoroughly stripped of this culture, cleaned up and sterilized to
show the world that in America this can never happen at any college again or anywhere
else for that matter. Children will no longer be treated like snared cattle
without any power, raped repeatedly while adults stand around more concerned about
their organizations or more worried about injuring the reputation of a Catholic
priest, a football coach or a Boy Scout leader.
I am more
attuned with ESPN football analyst Desmond Howard who points out that once
again people have forgotten the real victims here and are worried about the
innocent Penn state football players.
" Penn
state football players today have a choice, "Howard said to go elsewhere. "The victims did not."
We all need
to remember that.
