Saturday, July 28, 2012

Penn State: Tragedies Have No Winners, and the Games Should Not Go On (Not Now)

Much has been said and written since the Freeh report issued and the NCAA punished Penn State.  I have a friends who are Penn State alums, am a native Pennsylvanian and live here now.  Those facts, perhaps, give me a different perspective from someone who works in Indianapolis, lives in Centre County, Pennsylvania, went to Penn State, writes for a national media organization or plays or coaches major college football, among other things.  So, here goes:

1.  There are no winners here.    We all ache for the victims of Jerry Sandusky and at the fact that many more victims could have avoided their fate if senior, responsible adults who should have known better did the right thing.  We ache for the victims and their families, first and foremost.  As a Pennsylvanian, I also am sad for my state, and for friends and neighbors with strong ties to Penn State (I have none other than being a lifelong resident of the state).  I am sad for the kids who are there now, whose institution now suffers from a long-term, indelible stain, the roots of which began perhaps as long ago as before they were born and took root when some of them were in pre-school.  I am sad for those community members, faculty, students and alums who had nothing to do with the culture, and I am sad for those who did -- they fell into the gravity pull of golden-calf worship, poor priorities and forgetting what the purpose of a university education is -- to educate every student and impart a solid set of values that they will carry back to their communities and jobs and help make the world a better place.  Many of them do just that in their daily lives, but they enabled a culture of hero worship that ultimately led to a lack of accountability and awful harm to innocent young boys.

2.  Penn State should not be playing football this year.  I have vacillated on this point because of my proximity and because of compelling (at times) arguments that current players (who, likewise, had nothing to do to cause this tragedy) should not be punished, but at the end of the day, I keep on coming back to what I believe was a bad culture in State College.  Judge Freeh (and NCAA President Mel Emmert) got it right when he discussed a "football first" culture (although Penn State is far from the only place to suffer from this problem).  This culture had permeated Pennsylvania and elsewhere since I can remember.  There were too many who elevated Penn State football (because it played high-level football and was a "clean" program) and its coach, Joe Paterno, to a perch that neither deserved, not even before the Sandusky affair and the tragedy of the young victims surfaced.

I am also not sure if they should be playing football for a while.

Sure, there's the argument that the current kids had nothing to do with this, and that's absolutely true, they did not.  But, by the same token, we must not let that argument eclipse the tragedy and the larger issue -- which was that Coach Paterno and the football program had way too much influence at Penn State and that the overall culture was terrible at its worst and out of balance at its best.  I know from experience how far that culture permeated, through talking with alum after alum who, rightly or wrongly got off on the fact that they had some identification with Coach Paterno and football games.  That's probably not unique at BCS schools, but Paterno had way too much influence (so much so that he refused to retire and made a mockery of the succession planning process).  The bottom line is that a tragedy occurred because of football, and Beaver Stadium should lie fallow this year as a result (even if the entire team were to transfer).  The emptiness -- and silence -- should stand as a reminder for everyone of when a culture ran amok and young, innocent kids got hurt.   That's the least the NCAA and Penn State could have done -- to set an example that nothing is more important than the safety of our children.

There are things, after all, that are more important than football.

3.  The NCAA might think it took a strong action, but it set a lot of expectations for itself in meting out punishment to Penn State so quickly.  A columnist in the Philadelphia Inquirer got it right (I think it was Bob Ford) when he wrote that the NCAA, which has been under withering criticism for providing toothless remedies) got a free swing at Penn State and took it.  That's true, and while I believe that Penn State deserved to be whacked -- and hard -- I think that the NCAA might have misstepped in acting so quickly.   Here's the thinking -- suppose the next scandal involves an SEC school (and all of them have football-first cultures except Kentucky, which has a basketball-first culture, and Vanderbilt, which has an academics-first culture).  Suppose it's bad (if not as egregious and shielding a child abuser), but that it involves gang bangers or drug dealers or sexual harassers (and depending on the degree, egregious to just as egregious), some or all of which get protected because heaven forbid that a national championship be put in jeopardy.  Will the NCAA mete out analogous punishment?  And, if it doesn't, what will happen to the authority of the NCAA, moral or otherwise?  Look, the NCAA wasn't in an easy spot, but I think that President Emmert, through his words and actions, wrote some checks that this oversight body will not be able to cash.  And if it can't mete out similar punishment in the future, what authority will it really have over its members (and what could prompt the big-revenue schools -- as previously predicted -- to bolt the NCAA anyway, seeking to answer to a lesser, less powerful authority?).

4.  How many other scandals will surface at BCS schools now that the NCAA meted out such strong punishment for Penn State?   As a native Pennsylvanian, I am saddened, shocked and horrified by what happened.  To be blunt, I never really cared for Paterno because of his deification (and the fact that he not only let it happen but seemed to enjoy it) and got skeptical about all BCS-type schools (because I truly believe that academics should come first and that students should really focus on building their skill sets as opposed to identifying -- too much -- with their schools' teams).  That said, I've always thought of Penn State as a good school that offers excellent opportunities and that turns out very fine graduates.  I don't share that view about other BCS schools, many of which do not hold themselves (otherwise) to the standards that Penn State does.  And no, not everything at Penn State was or is awful because of the Sandusky scandal -- it's not fair to paint the entire school, its academics and its graduates with the unfortunate actions of a few (even if people in the community participated in a culture that had skewed priorities).  But do you mean to tell me that coaches never pressured professors at other schools, covered for habitual gamblers, sexual harassers or even drug dealers?  Or kids who en masse violated rules?  I predict that 5-10 scandals will surface in the next 18 months that represent cover-ups at other schools.  If that's the case, what will the NCAA do?  Cancel football at those schools?  Provide Penn State-like punishments?  It should, and if it doesn't, then why should it exist?

5.  Joseph Paterno is not Josef Stalin.  The former suffered from a lack of humility, skewed priorities and too much false pride.  But he also made sure his kids went to class, got (meaningful) degrees and graduated.  He and his wife donated millions to his university.  Most coaches cannot claim that.  Yes, he was tragically flawed, and there's no doubt about that.  He wasn't the guy that his enablers and elegizers wanted us to believe he was.  But he wasn't Jerry Sandusky, either.  Penn State students, fans, alumni and community members never should have put him on the pedestal that they did.  And he shouldn't have let them.  But he did a bunch of good things, even if he's getting excoriated now.  As for the latter, how many millions died because of his policies?  50 million?  Joe Paterno was human, and, yes, more so than most of the rest of us.  But that doesn't make him one of history's major villains.  What he did -- or did not do -- was terrible, yes, but as with many things, it will take a while for the furor to die down and for the professional observers to reflect on his strengths and weaknesses.  By the same token, those who played for him, many of whom had deep, personal connections, shouldn't blindly defend his image, either.  That's not right, and it certainly won't help the healing, either.

6.  Hopefully some good can come out of this across the board.  First, all universities should have clear rule as to how to report the types of activities that Mike McQueary and others witnessed.  Second, all universities should make it clear that it wants/needs that type of conduct to be reported quickly and that if there were any retribution, those who retaliate will be gone, even if they won 409 games in their careers.  Third, the BCS schools need to change their cultures -- no one there should eclipse the institution, period.  No coach or team, and that goes for Coach K at Duke and John Calipari at Kentucky and anyone else you can name.  The welfare of all community members -- neighbors, employees, students, alumni -- should come before the compensation and ego of any coach and the record and opportunities of any team.  As importantly, the education of all students must be paramount, period.  All students deserve more.

7.  Should they have stripped Joe Paterno of victories dating back to 1998?  Whew.  Outside a request from an attorney in Grambling, Louisiana (home of Grambling University and its legendary coach, Eddie Robinson), I didn't hear much about this until the NCAA did this.  I wasn't expecting it, and I think that what motivated the NCAA was to make the punishment personal to Paterno, whom it believed could have and should have done more to report Sandusky and make him persona non grata at Penn State.  Then again, the players on those teams most likely witnessed nothing, had nothing to do with Paterno's decisions and did nothing to cause the scandal.  The need to punish Paterno personally created collateral damage -- to hard-working kids, class-attending kids -- who, at least in their minds if not more -- now are victims too.  I'm not sure whether this is the right result -- or not.  It certainly knocks Paterno off any pedestals that might remain after his death.  That it does do.  No one wins in a tragedy.

8.  Should Penn State have taken the statue of Joe Paterno down?  Absolutely.  Heck, it never should have gone up in the first place, and while I do not like to use the words "always" and "never," "never" applies here.  Who on this earth lets a statue of them be constructed while she/he is still alive?  Who lets that happen?  First, it's not humble.  Second, it's hubris (and rubs the person's fame into the faces of others and also sets a standard of behavior -- tantamount to the qualifications for sainthood -- that the person will be held to).  Third, it's just ridiculous (and just as ridiculous as letting your likeness be painted on a mural -- with a halo over your head).   With that as background, the answer is easy -- of course it should have come down, and there shouldn't have been any debate over that.  The whole root of the problem was the glorification of football and the coach of the team -- straight out of the Freeh report and the NCAA's response.   I know that this hurts some people who really looked up to Joe Paterno -- but those people should re-examine why they did and why that statue is so important to them (and that's not to say that Joe Paterno didn't do great things for some people -- I am sure that he did -- but that doesn't mean he warranted a statue while he was alive).   As Diane Henriques wrote in her book about Bernie Madoff, commenting on why Madoff's scam lasted for so long, "the biggest lies are the ones we tell ourselves."  Among them are a) that Penn State football is more important than anything else in my life and b) Joe Paterno was a saint.  Admitting that those aren't true flat out hurts.

9.  The future for Penn State will be difficult, across the board.    The fine will hurt the school, and not just the football program.  Yes, fans will rally behind the current seniors and perhaps fill Beaver Stadium this year, but in year three when the team is depleted and not landing top recruits and ends up 3-9 and losing to the likes of Temple, who knows  Some will argue that this is a small price to pay when an over-emphasis on football led to what it did.  And if football were the only thing that were hurt, that wouldn't be so bad, at least for a while.  But revenues from football help fund other sports at BCS sports, and Penn State is no exception.  So, other athletes might get hurt.  Then again, many BCS schools over-emphasize all sports, so if all sports were to get hurt, I am not as concerned, either.  The reason I say this is that we need a greater emphasis on the education of all kids, and their positive experiences should extend far beyond the classroom and six fall football weekends.

But that's the easy part.  Penn State might not have insurance for the types of lawsuits that it will get hit with from victims, and if it has insurance the carriers might try to deny coverage.  The university might not have the funds to pay all the victims, especially if there are jury trials and if the plaintiffs ask for punitive damages (which may not be covered by insurance anyway).  The financial ramifications could be pretty awful.

10.  Conclusion.  Penn State is a wonderful institution with terrific programs and outstanding students and alumni.  It really is.  That said, it had a tragic flaw, one that it will have to take great measures to repair, and one that will take time to repair.  What the institution must do, however, is to move forward with its football program without further lament from current players or former players, most of whom are dismayed to disillusioned to devastated, but none of whom will help the process by arguing about the penalties the school incurred or Coach Paterno's legacy.  The jury has spoken in the Sandusky case, and the Freeh report speaks for itself.  Unless there are tremendous flaws which strike at the root of the findings, the school -- and its alumni -- need to move on.  The school also needs to adopt many of the suggestions of the Freeh report, change its culture and honor the best the the school and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania -- have to offer.  Ultimately, some good can come out of this tragedy -- about preventing child abuse, about cultures of accountability, about making sure that academics always come first, even at BCS schools.  But it will take some time.

Tragedies have no winners.

And no, the games shouldn't go on, not now, not for a while.

3 comments:

George Clark said...

Your posts deserve recognition. You have thought very deeply and, mostly, very clearly about this tragedy and its consequences. Most observers and analysts who have commented either do so from a football perspective or, more narrowly, from the Paterno persepective. The only criticism I find even mildly persuasive is typically couched in such terms as:
"The players ought not be punished for things with which they were not involved." To address the culture that has absorbed Penn State and to change it require drastic measures. The unfettered right to transfer is an appropriate if imperfect solution. Sportsprof, I know this is a painful time for you. Please know you speak for amny of us.

The Sports Curmudgeon said...

Prof:

Well reasoned and well said. Congratulations!

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It is a pity that something likes this happened. Things need to change to avoid this problem again.