First, let me start off by clearly stating that I in no way support the actions of the Penn State administration, athletic departments, and football leaders in regards to their handling of the years of child sexual abuse at Penn State by Jerry Sandusky.
Before yesterday’s unprecedented NCAA sanctions of Penn State, I called for the death penalty. But the death penalty I wanted wasn’t your traditional “SMU-type” death penalty were a team is banned for one to two years from competing in a sport. I was calling for a complete shutdown of the Penn State football program … a more “permanent” death penalty.
You see, the problem I have with the sanctions levied by the NCAA isn’t the fact that they aren’t harsh enough; nor is it the fact that the NCAA clearly violated the traditional due process of an investigation it typically affords its member schools. My problem with these sanctions is that Penn State football has a chance to recover (albeit a slim chance). What chance of recovery do the victims really have?
Stuart Mandel of Sport Illustrated wrote yesterday, “Penn State will remain at the front of the news for many years to come, not for the criminal acts of a former assistant coach or its leaders’ abhorrent inaction in handling him, but for its football players’ inevitable on-field futility.” He highlights the fact that the focus is now switched from the actual victims of these atrocities back to the Penn State football team and whether or not they can recover. And to me, that simply isn’t right.
The NCAA missed an opportunity yesterday to send a resounding message the football isn’t king and in fact isn’t bigger than everything else. Although the sanctions levied are crippling, they don’t serve as true justice for the children who were victimized. In essence, by allowing Penn State to still play football, even a reduced version of football, the NCAA sends a message to the victims that football is in fact still bigger then each and every one of them and too big to “completely fail.”
Had the NCAA implemented a complete shutdown of the Penn State football program, I believe they would have provided each victim real justice, helped to close one of the more egregious chapters in the history of The Pennsylvania State University, and really served to deter future atrocious actions of its member universities and administrations.