Penn State Was Worse, Not Better

7/12/2012

Looks like we all invented Joe Paterno and Happy Valley, turned them into an idyllic magic kingdom, to justify the seedy world of big-time college football.

There had to be one factory with a coach who got it, who walked with the philosophers in his spare time, who was plugged into the moral issues of his time.

There had to be one good place. Otherwise, what is the justification of college football?

After half a century of covering college sports, I came to think of the vast majority of big-time coaches as talented and maybe even charismatic hucksters, who were warped inside. Their job was to prepare for the next game, the next season. But morally, many of them were like moles, who dig in the earth but never see daylight.

With the Freeh report on the child sex-abuse scandal at Penn State emerging on Thursday, it seems clear that Penn State never prepared this sanctified football coach for the one real tough issue of his career. He could not act on evidence there was something wrong with his buddy down the hall.

Apparently, Paterno had never even walked through a room where the great common denominators of our time – the Oprahs, the Dr. Phils, the Jerry Springers – were blaring on television about the dark side of life.

The coach we needed so badly lived underground. And when confronted with hints and clues and allegations, he was surely not the person to do anything about them.

He had a game coming up. He had a practice. He had a recruiting trip.

And so did the rest of his university, and the fans who came rolling into the mountains on Saturday, and the sportswriters who idealized the coach. They all had a game. The pressure was on. The state of Pennsylvania and the whole football-loving nation wanted to think of Happy Valley as that good place that also produced linebackers.

We had the myth. How many children’s lives were ruined by a blind system of big-time college football that fit our needs?

Brian Savin

7/12/2012 12:15:00 pm

God bless you, George. Amen.

George Vecsey

7/12/2012 01:11:04 pm

thanks, man

Ed Martin

7/12/2012 02:24:18 pm

So sad and so true. While this is the most stomach-turning I have read, there is so much evidence that the leaders of big-time college sports have lost their moral compasses, cheating, ignoring unlawful behavior, renting a player for a year, (Kentucky basketball), and on and on. I am always hopeful the pendulum will swing back in situations like this. We shall see.

bruce picken

7/12/2012 06:14:46 pm

george, as you know i've ranted about the so called stoo dent ath a leets despoiling the major college sports programs for decades. the so called 'builders of men' were too often shown to be so interested in winning they allowed or encouraged all sorts of things to happened. there should not be a soul in university who isn't academically qualified--and that doesn't include credits for wondering around a campus for a 'nature appreciation' credit. 'coach' should be under the strict control of the college president.

George Vecsey

7/13/2012 03:21:21 am

Bruce, we Yanks do it a different way. We make the Paterno figure the focus of the entire university. Generations of kids have gone to Penn State to be near him. Woinder how they feel now. Presidents, chancellors, booster clubs, alumni, students, fans, are all invested in UK basketball or Penn State football or whatever. Weird. GV

bruce picken

7/13/2012 02:42:14 am

just noticed my happen(ed) typo. never used to be a problem. old age, i reckon

Hansen Alexander link

7/14/2012 04:45:03 am

George,
Your initial column condemning the Penn State scandal last fall was important in forcing the nation, the state of Pennsylvania, and Penn State University to examine a possible cover up and Coach Joe Paterno's role in it and whatever his responsibility was. Yet since then your comments have been all overkill. I find child abuse as horrible as any other American citizen and indeed discussed it in great detail in my 2009 book, "A Tort is Not a Pastry." But I find an angry, hysterical mob equally as appalling, and I believe you have joined the angry mob in using a criminal case unrelated to college football as an opportunity to allege that a college football program without major violations over 60 years and with the highest graduation rate among all major football powers as a fraud. It would be like calling Bob Knight's equal integrity regarding his basketball programs, including graduation rates, into question because of his off court antics. Your failure to understand Mr. Frees' role here as essentially a public relations one in the guise of a purported objective investigation just because he once headed the FBI is particularly disturbing. He was hired to get Penn State off the front pages first. He will have accomplished that. I will reserve judgment on his conclusions until I have actually read his report, including whether Paterno was involved in a cover up, which seems to me to have handed the actual university officials who led the cover up a great criminal defense: Mr. Paterno was so powerful he made us do it. Unfortunately, no court of law has ever agreed with Tip O'Neill's definition of power that you have it if people think you do. It is a cheap trick for everybody to throw the abused boys at Paterno's legacy when they are unrelated to it. It takes courage to understand what Paterno did and others do not, he had an obligation to respect Mr. Sandusky's rights under American law and to presume he was innocent of these terrible allegations until proven guilty. Mr. Paterno has been dead since last December. Mr. Sandusky has been guilty for less than a month. It is also interesting to note that the mob would now like to dig up Mr. Paterno's corpse and tear it to pieces because he mentioned that Mr. Sandusky, who a doctor has testified had a serious disorder, should be treated humanely. Paterno's family may be in denial that Joe played no role in covering up an embarrassing scandal, but the mob is equally in denial that there is a connection to a coach's responsibility to his football program and a former employee, protected by the state retirement system of Pennsylvania, and who sublets university space for an unrelated activity. The university signed Sandusky's lease for the space, including use of school showers. It was the university's responsibility and liability, not Joe Paterno's to monitor it. Finally, the abused boys are receiving their remedy. American justice has been rendered in an American court room, supporting their credibility in the telling of their stories, and holding Sandusky criminally accountable. Their families or the boys will be generously compensated. In conclusion, these boys are getting what 1 in 5 American girls in the United States are not given, justice for their sexual abuse. Therefore everybody is accountable so far except the hysterical mob. Now I am holding them accountable.

George Vecsey

7/15/2012 05:51:56 am

Hansen, thanks for the thoughtful note. Actually, my first column last fall focused on King Football as the site of this (at that point alleged) crime.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/sports/ncaafootball/Penn-State-Paterno-College-Football-George-Vecsey.html
As things developed, I took a tougher stance about Paterno, because he did not get it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/sports/ncaafootball/today-paterno-is-far-from-the-coach-we-thought-we-knew.html
If I'd been asked to write a column a few days ago, I would have underlined the link between Penn State football and Paterno and the crimes. I say they are connected. Nobody wanted to know because they had a game. This is more than a sex-crime scandal. It is also a big-time football scandal.
I always appreciate your learned and caring views. George
And, yes, I often wondered why parents sent their sons to play for Knight, graduation rates notwithstanding.

Micki Maynard

7/14/2012 05:08:37 am

George, it might be my journalism training, but I have never looked at college football as anything but a big business. It's AAA ball for the NFL plus the biggest weekly rock concert you can imagine plus a built-in fan base that willingly pays for the ability to watch the end result. ADs are CEOs, coaches are presidents, assistants are department heads, players are staff.

Of course, as in any organization, those in power do everything to maximize that power, which magnifies the importance of winning. The mythology of head coaches is a device to placate the fans - and to some extent, university officials. Behind it is a cold blooded enterprise dedicated to perpetuating itself.

We ask on a human level how Sandusky could have done what he did and how Penn State could have covered it up. We are taken aback by JoePa's hubris in his last contract demands. But at the enterprise level, it was excused. Not moral conduct, not ethical conduct, but organizations fight any way they can to protect themselves.

George Vecsey

7/15/2012 05:54:49 am

Thanks, I totally agree. In the end, Paterno was part of the problem. He preserved the status quo. A common tale in military (Pat Tillman case), banking (everywhere) and big-time football. GV

Alan Rubin link

7/19/2012 09:37:13 am

The Penn State scandal epitomizes what is wrong with the NCAA in general and BIG-TIME athletic programs in particular. It is my opinion that Penn State should receive the maximum penalties allowed for covering up a sex scandal. Predators of children rightfully set off alarm bells in our society.

I’m sorry, but being too big to fail does not apply here. It is unfortunate that innocents will be affected in the fallout when Penn State is sanctioned, but that not should be used as an excuse to water down any punishment. Everyone will have to adjust and recover the best way possible.

Joe Nocera, of the NY Times, in the latest article in his series on the ills of the NCAA, questions whether they are equating Penn State with Cal Tech if both receive the maximum penalty for their violations.

http://www.understandingsoccer.com/penn-state.html

There must be a better way to return college sports to normalcy without tweaking a failed system. Some are advocating that college athletes be paid as professionals to remove the hypocrisy of considering them students. This is absurd!!! All athletes should meet the academic standards of their school.

College teams and their supporters will still fill the stands if the product is exciting and entertaining to watch. This would be true of all sports including the high profile ones such as football and basketball. Why must the players be of professional caliber? It is only necessary that they are exciting and provide an entertaining product.

One suggestion would be to revisit the sports environment of the 1940 and 1950’s when I was growing up. In basketball, there were the NCAA and NIT tournaments at the end of the season. The excitement of the 1950 tournaments, in which CCNY twice defeated Bradley (NIT 69-61 and NCAA 71-68), rivals any tournaments held since. CCNY was the only team to accomplish this feat and the NIT was considered the more prestigious of the two.

However, excellent AAU basketball was being played at the time as well as in other strong leagues. The AAU had a strong sports presence, especially in track & field and amateur wrestling. The NCAA minimized the AAU and downgraded the NIT when they announced that any athlete or school participating in a non-sanctioned NCAA event would lose their elegibility. Their power and arrogance has steadily grown over the years.

Rather than take the student out of the student-athlete, leagues of increasing ability should be created for the gifted, but non-academic athlete, to hone their playing skills and provide them with an opportunity to pursue what the love. The pressure of college eligibility would be removed and life skills outside of their sport could also be pursued.

Some of the TV, cable TV and corporate money that fuel the current situation could be channeled into supporting a feeder system for the professional teams. Revenues from BIG-TIME College sports would still be earned, only the status of the players would be changed.

If the major players, including college presidents, the NCAA, owners of professional sports and the unions, TV and advertising media to name a few, collectively asked the question—“What is necessary to solve the student-athlete problem and how best to accomplish it?”; then progress could be made.

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Penn State Was Worse, Not Better

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