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"Think about the victims...think about what they were going through..." --Desmond Howard, 7/23/12 --ESPN college football analyst, Heisman Trophy winner, University of Michigan and NFL player
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA, of which the Penn program is a member, today revealed its decisions on penalties in effect for the next four years and, in the case of the football win record, for the period from 1998 to 2012. The NCAA wants the culture of football at Penn to change, and imposed penalties on Penn State due to serious, crippling offenses and failures at the top leadership in the football program, the athletics program, and the university--when its leadership did not tell criminal authorities of reports that a man near the top, on the university campus, was horribly, shamefully, and cruelly using children, assaulting them, and in the athletic building. Protection of children was put away so as to protect one man and one athletic program, and from that point crime and character failures continued, grew, and spread.
NCAA president, Mark Emmert, decided to focus on institutional responsibility rather than individual failures within one large, powerful segment of the university. Many would say that sports, overall, has become a too-powerful presence on college and university campuses.
Many of us have looked to sports for enjoyment, as players or as spectators. Outstanding sports biographies continue to inspire, presented in news articles, books, and movies. One feature of the names that last has been the outstanding courage and character of sports coaches and the development of strong character and skills of players.
This news of the NCAA sanctions and penalties upon a famous and "revered" university sports program carries much farther than one campus, one sport, and one college sports association. This news carries a warning to each one of us. Great responsibilities and tight accountability rest on teachers, and that includes coaches, writers, and all of us who touch the lives of others in any training or teaching capacity.
Many in sports--and I will add, religious and other--communities forget or choose to ignore the truth that offenses by people in authority cannot be isolated if ignored. Wrongs covered over or denied grow like an invasive disease within the system, touching the weak and the innocent as well as the powerful and the guilty. The deeper the wrongs, the greater the likelihood of damage that spreads like a fog of poison to kill, paralyze, or in other ways harm the life of an entire institution.
It is sad, definitely, that young athletes at Penn State, innocent of any involvement in the scandal and the resulting legal case, do now suffer. The entire student body and teaching staff are affected by this fog released by silence, the failure of people who should have known better than not to speak up for the weak.
This is a case of biblical proportions. The wrongs of each person matter beyond themselves, their privacy and individual choices. There is no such thing as "as long as it does not hurt, or touch, anybody else." What does not affect others? What actions do not affect others? And, in this case, children were cruelly treated and caused to fear one man, and anyone close to him. He had immense power over them, their families, and beyond, and what they went through, what they continue to suffer, is a horrible part, now, of a once-great university.
Good can spread, too, and that is the word of hope. The new football coach at Penn State, Bill O'Brien, has issued a positive statement about dealing with the NCAA-imposed penalties and sanctions. His statement, to his credit, included no complaining. This suggests that he has a correct perspective about where the worst damage has been done...to children who look to important people for protection, not for use and abuse.
Bill O'Brien offered a mature statement about going forth to do the job he was hired to do within the new situation. He would have every right and much understanding if he decided to leave Penn State, given what he has inherited. If he does stay, many will be pulling for him to do an outstanding and exemplary job...to gain the respect of players and to be a good moral and skills influence upon them. He can, if he chooses, influence the future of players and, ultimately, an entire university and its massive alumni population and fan base...for good. And shame on those who do not support his football program, win or lose.
Writers face the same temptations that brought down Penn State football program to the new level at which it must learn to function. Writers are encouraged within themselves or by others outside themselves to weaken a message while strengthening "appeal," to express points of view in fiction and elsewhere that are popular, "acceptable," and currently part of the easier routes of life.
This means that we must carefully consider why we favor one view or another.
In this case, protecting children is the top priority, far above sports or institutional wins. One hopes that Penn State students, also paying the reverberating price of others' moral and leadership failure, will be helped to realize that innocent children's lives...and their families' lives...have been devastatingly harmed in the most disgusting of power-plays of an adult on a child. The price that must be paid by a university and its fans is nothing compared to the life-long, heavy, and debilitating price already paid by innocent children placed in the care of an adult who, later, was protected by other powerful people.
In this case, protecting children is the top priority, far above sports or institutional wins. One hopes that Penn State students, also paying the reverberating price of others' moral and leadership failure, will be helped to realize that innocent children's lives...and their families' lives...have been devastatingly harmed in the most disgusting of power-plays of an adult on a child. The price that must be paid by a university and its fans is nothing compared to the life-long, heavy, and debilitating price already paid by innocent children placed in the care of an adult who, later, was protected by other powerful people.
It is right that pride be benched in the sports and life of Penn State, as well as other institutions. It is right that idols be removed.
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