The Tragedy of Penn State

As both a guy who follows college sports and a human being who has a soul, its hard not to have an opinion on the debacle that has become Penn State football.

Both of my degrees are from the University of Connecticut (i.e. the Mecca of college basketball) so its fair to say I've never really cared all that much about the goings on in "Happy Valley". They played in a different conference, excelled in a different sport, and (gratuitous self-affirmation notwithstanding) hadn't won a national championship in that sport since Ronald Reagan was president. To me, there was really no difference between Penn State and the University of Hawaii.

Jerry Sandusky & Joe Paterno

Everything changed last fall, though, when the state of Pennsylvania finally slapped the cuffs on Jerry Sandusky.

After a three-year investigation, Sandusky, an assistant football coach and top lieutenant of Penn State legend Joe Paterno, was charged with forty-eight - FORTY-EIGHT! - counts of sexual abuse, most of which centered around young boys. Within days, the Penn State trustees (in a rare show of leadership) ceremoniously fired both Paterno and University President Graham Spanier, and they hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh to investigate further. Freeh's report, which was released a few weeks ago, was both shocking and scathing.

"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State," Freeh wrote. "Messrs. Spanier, (Gary) Schultz, Paterno and (Tim) Curley never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest."

Its not just disgusting, its disturbing. And "disturbing" is perhaps the nicest word I (or anyone else) could use to describe the culture that was allowed to permeate Penn State, its football program and its community.

Former Penn State VP Vicky Triponey

One of the names that keep creeping up in all of these Penn State stories is Vicky Triponey, the school's former Vice President for Student Affairs who was fired in 2007 for (and I'm using editorial license here) having the gall to stand-up to Paterno. I knew Vicky when she held a similar position at UConn; knew her well, in fact. We did a lot of work together my senior year and I was genuinely disappointed when she left us for Penn State. On the day after Freeh's report was issued, Vicky was quoted in USA Today as saying "Penn State became... too big to fail. It wasn't just that we can't have bad press. It was, we have to protect this image that we're perfect."

Like lemmings, people followed Joe Paterno and the brand he had cultivated. Even after Sandusky was arrested and Paterno fired, thousands of Penn State alumni and students took to the streets to protest the nerve of the school's trustees to even question - let alone terminate - the ultimate authority of the Almighty "Joe Pa". This culture - this cult-like way of thinking - has lead to what, in my mind, is the biggest issue at hand: the lack of focus on or sympathy for the victims.

New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, whose views on sports, politics and life are almost identical to mine, said it best: "These are the men who did not hear the cries of children... they told themselves they were protecting a school and a football program and protected a monster in their midst instead." A monster. Sandusky was a monster. A monster who permanently scarred the lives of countless young boys. The students and alumni who took to the streets to protest the firing of their beloved "Joe Pa" should most certainly keep that in mind.

To cast a pox upon all of Penn State and everyone who has ever had any affiliation with the university is both unfortunate and wrong. In the wake of this scandal, a group of Penn State alumni have created a website to raise money for the victims and survivors of sexual abuse. They state they are "embarrassed and shocked by the recent events at Penn State" and that they want to "stand up for the victims of abuse."

Thank God somebody still has a moral compass!

Joe Paterno died of lung cancer in January. Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz, Tim Curley and Lord knows how many others will almost certainly face criminal charges. And Jerry Sandusky, who was found guilty on 45 of the 48 counts against him, will spent the rest of his natural life in prison before rotting his afterlife away in hell.

Students and alumni holding vigil at the Paterno statue.

Still being debated on sports pages and talk shows across the country is what Mark Emmert and the NCAA should do with Penn State football. My two-cents: whack-it. Let every existing Penn State football player transfer immediately, penalty-free - and then cancel both the 2012 and 2013 seasons, essentially forcing the university to start from scratch. This isn't accepting plane tickets or selling memorabilia on eBay - this is a crime, a felony. Multiple felonies... at the highest levels of the athletic program and the university. They deserve the harshest penalty the NCAA has ever issued.

And as for the famed Paterno statue: I say melt it. Then sell the bronze and donate the proceeds to RAINN.org. It would be a good first step down what promises to be a long, long road of healing and recovery.

On Paterno, the Patriots and Presidential Politics

This past weekend was filled with several events worth opining about - chief among them: the death of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.

Paterno was 85-years-old and had about as much business coaching a Division-1 football program at that age as Strom Thurmond did casting votes in the United States Senate. In fact, Paterno himself practically admitted as much in his now infamous Sally Jenkins/Washington Post interview when he he said "I never heard of rape and a man"... an absurd revelation for anyone alive in the year 2012, let alone for a 61-year employee of the State of Pennsylvania.

My beef with Paterno, though, is less about age and more about the manner in which he allowed himself to become canonized, immortalized - free from authority and wholly above the law (both natural and otherwise). The video footage showing the hoards of mourners holding an impromptu vigil around Paterno's iconic statue was indicative of such idolization and will undoubtedly bring much deserved comfort to Paterno's friends and family in the days ahead. But those watching the vigil unfold on this morning's news had to have asked themselves: if it was held for victims of child abuse instead of for a football coach, would nearly as many people attend? 

After doing a job - and doing it well - for 61 years, its a shame that the first line in Joe Paterno's obituary will be about the Sandusky debacle. But as the headline reads in today's Daily News above yet another blunt yet brilliant Mike Lupica column devoted to the subject: "Sad. Old. Beaten. Broken."

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Keeping with the football theme: the New England Patriots are headed to the Super Bowl.

Terrific.

For the next two weeks, all I'm going to hear on the radio, read in the newspaper and see on television is "Good Luck Patriots!" and "Go Pats!" and all of those other corny little tag-lines that Stop & Shop and Big Y and every other proprietary business in Connecticut will use to lure more customers. Ugh!

My loathe for the Patriots is predicated on three separate but equal truths:

1) I am a fan of the New York Jets.

2) I generally dislike all Boston-area sports teams.

3) About 15 years ago, that scumbag Bob Kraft took my beloved state of Connecticut for a ride.

To make matters worse, the Patriots are playing the Giants. Unlike some Jets fans, I do not hate the NY Giants... but I am dreading the inevitable (and inevitably unbearable) "New York vs. Boston" hype that both the local and national sports media will play-up. 

And let's be honest: who doesn't think Bobby Valentine will enter this fracas by the end of the week?

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The best story-line from the weekend was without question Newt Gingrich winning the South Carolina Republican primary. (Full disclosure: I am a partisan Democrat who already has an Obama 2012 bumper sticker on his car.)

Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious.

Newt is the guy who single-handedly created "the politics of personal destruction" in the late-1980's when he brought down then-Speaker Jim Wright on ethics charges. He rose to the Speaker's chair after the 1994 elections and within a year faced an ethics investigation of his own. During his six years as Speaker, he caused a government shut-down, was found guilty of ethics violations and managed to impeach the extremely popular President of the United States for inappropriate sexual activity while he himself was having an affair with a member of his own staff. Eventually his party lost seats in the 1998 midterm election and he chose not to run for Speaker again the following year.

The man is a walking hypocrisy... and now also (thankfully) the darling of the conservative nut-job wing of the Republican Party. He is currently leading the Florida polls by 9% - and if he wins there next week, I think he's going to be the Republican nominee.

Can we as Democrats really be that lucky?

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Finally, a shout-out to soon-to-be former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. There are no words to describe the miracle that is her mere existence, and I applaud her for showing us all the true personification of courage. Arizona, Congress and all of America is better for her having served... and I guarantee she will be back.