Penn State football should play this fall.
There are already too many victims in the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal, and the football team and its fans should not be next. The passionate debate on shutting down the program for one or several years is misguided.
The only death penalty levied in this whole mess should be directed toward Sandusky, not the football program.
Yes, this was a terrible crime and those involved are being punished. Sandusky will be imprisoned for the rest of his miserable life for sexually abusing children. Hopefully, the afterlife will treat him even more cruelly.
Joe Paterno is dead and his legacy is now forever tarnished after former FBI director Louis Freeh’s report made it absolutely clear Paterno worried more about his football program than those children. There’s no getting around this anymore.
Former Penn State vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Timothy Curley await trial for perjury. Freeh’s report, based on 430 interviews, clearly shows these two covered up the 1998 investigation. They better cut a deal with prosecutors if they hope to avoid maximum prison sentences.
Former president Graham Spanier hasn’t been charged with a crime, but after the Freeh report found emails proving his knowledge and consent of the cover-up, the district attorney could press charges. Indeed, he should.
“The most saddening finding,” wrote Freeh in his report’s summary, “by the Special Investigative Counsel is the total and consistent disregard by the most senior leaders at Penn State for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims.”
Penn State certainly will face civil suits by victims that will surely reach of the tens of millions of dollars if not hundreds of millions.
Everybody responsible, aside Paterno, will likely be penalized, and the coach’s name will now be forever sullied. People will say, “Paterno was a great coach, but …”
Not that any of that helps the victims, but it’s all that can be done.
However, the football program should not be sanctioned because it didn’t break any NCAA guidelines. We’re talking about five bad men, not the team. This isn’t SMU receiving the death penalty and closing its program after persistent payoffs to recruits. This is a non-football crime where the NCAA lacks jurisdiction.
The NCAA always arrives late to a scandal after the coach and players have moved on. Why penalized those who follow? This isn’t just a game, but the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of people.
A campus community, already scarred by this horrible crime, needs to heal. Sports does that. No football on Saturdays this fall won’t help anyone, but it would further delay the healing and worsen the pain.
There’s no absolution given to the men involved in this crime. But none is needed for those who weren’t associated with it.
Let Penn State play.
Examiner columnist Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more on Twitter @Snide_Remarks or email [email protected].
