Pennalized State

I think the NCAA got their punishment of Penn State almost perfectly right. They didn't destroy the program, they crippled it and forced it to rebuild itself.

The punishment included a $60 million fine, a 4 year post-season ban, and a reduction of football scholarships. The result of these measures will be the subjugation of the Nittany Lions to a second-tier team. The NCAA will also erase all of Penn State's wins from 1998 onward.

The fine confused me at first. How can you put a price-tag on rape? Then I learned that the $60 million will be going to an endowment for sexual abuse charities. And suddenly it seems like an appropriate amount. It's large, but the University will survive paying it. The NCAA says the amount is equivalent to a year's revenue for the football team.

The post-season ban is very significant. And the Big Ten declared that Penn State won't be eligible for the Big Ten Championship game either. Bowl games are showcases for football programs. And they're cash cows for the conferences. The Big Ten has announced that it will not share its bowl revenues with Penn State, and will instead give that money to charities. That was a very wise decision by the Big Ten.

For 4 years, Penn State will have no hope of a national title, a conference title, or even a bowl game title. That will hurt their wallets and also their recruiting.

The scholarship reduction is the most damaging punishment. Penn State will be allowed 65 full football scholarships, instead of the normal 85. And they will only be allowed to issue 15 new football scholarships per season, instead of 25.

That's a significant blow to recruiting. It means that Penn State will have 20 fewer scholarship athletes than its opponents. And that its recruiting classes will be 40% smaller than their competitors'.

Then there's the indirect punishment of players leaving the team, hoping to play for a program that can make a bowl game, and has more scholarship players and therefore a better chance of winning. Two recruits have already de-committed after these punishments were handed down.

In its punishment, the NCAA allows any football player to transfer without having to sit out a season.

The scholarship reductions will last 4 years.

The length of the punishments ensures that Penn State will struggle for a considerable amount of time. Any freshman player today will know that they'll spend their entire college career on an inferior team that has no hope of post-season play.

These penalties cripple the program and force it to limp along for 4 years, then possibly be rebuilt.

And that's exactly what this football program deserves to do. It deserves to struggle. If new people can rebuild it after struggling, then so be it. To me, Joe Paterno and all the other PSU scumbags who let Sandusky prey on innocent flesh are responsible for crippling the program they held so high. That's justice. They did what they did for the sake of the program. And now their actions and inactions have seriously damaged that beloved program.

I don't agree with the wins being vacated. The NCAA wiped out all Penn State victories from 1998 onward, when the cover-up began. Would they have erased the wins if Paterno didn't have the record for victories?

To me, Paterno's legacy is already a tarnished and tattered ruin. Even if he still had the record for wins, he wouldn't be remembered for that.

And you can't change the past. Penn State won those games and everyone still knows it. Even though Pete Rose can't be inducted into the Hall of Fame, he still has the record for hits.

The NCAA doesn't want Paterno to have the wins record, but he does. If you erase that from the record books, then the record books don't hold the actual records anymore, do they?

Some have argued that the NCAA shouldn't punish Penn State for their off-field sins. I disagree. The program and the school allowed this all to happen. The cover-up was part of the Penn State football program. So therefore the program is eligible to be punished for the cover-up.

The program became more powerful than the school. And as an institution, the program was corrupt. The program should be held accountable for its corruption.

Some have argued that the punishments don't go far enough. Unfortunately, there is no punishment, no matter how severe, that will unrape young boys. And I think that the Penn State football program, under new leadership and administration of course, has the right to rebuild itself and to be something different.

Would eliminating the program entirely accomplish anything positive?

The people who want to eliminate football at Penn State are seeking quick and decisive vengeance. And that's not what punishments are for.

The program has the right to rebuild itself as a clean, less corrupt, less powerful institution. The South had the right to rebuild after the Civil War. Germany had the right to rebuild after World War II. Similarly, PSU has the right to rebuild its football program, but it must keep that program under control.

It was the schools' lack of control that allowed Joe Paterno to become a campus dictator.

Bill James is an Idiot

Baseball numerologist and Red Sox adviser Bill James was being interviewed on ESPN Radio the other day, and very passionately defended Joe Paterno:

"It's very hard, in fact it's impossible, to explain why Paterno should have been the person to go to the police. Paterno didn't see anything. Paterno was not the reporting authority. Sandusky did not work for Paterno. Paterno had no supervisory authority over Sandusky. It's extremely difficult to explain why it was Paterno's responsibility to go to the police. He knew less about it than anyone else there...

"You're saying everything revolves around him. (Paterno) had very few allies. He was isolated and he was not nearly as powerful as people imagine him to have been...

"They kept it quiet because they had no idea what was happening... they just thought they were dealing with a little misunderstanding."

Bill James has never been afraid to go against the trending sentiment, but this is beyond reasonable. Paterno not only failed to notify authorities, he actively ended any investigation into what Sandusky was doing. He didn't turn a blind eye, he turned a seeing eye.

Anyway, James' defense of Paterno is outdated. And late.

He's entitled to his opinion, but he's also a prominent member of the Red Sox organization. So yesterday, the Sox told him to shut up. Then issued a statement publicizing their request that he keep silent about Paterno:

"This afternoon, Red Sox Principal Owner John Henry and Executive Vice President/General Manager Ben Cherington spoke to Bill James regarding him making public his personal opinions on Joe Paterno. In that call, Mr. James was informed that his comments in no way reflect the opinions or positions of the Red Sox; and, because he is perceived as a representative of the Red Sox, he was asked to refrain from any further public comments on this matter."

Smart move by the Red Sox. While James is entitled to his completely wrong and illogical opinions, he is perceived as a representative of the Red Sox. Him being a jackass makes the Red Sox look bad.

James should have at least known his opinion was controversial and not widely held. But judging from the opinion itself, it's hard to imagine him being rational about it in any way.

Yes, I am calling him an irrational numbers man.

What Would be Justice for Penn State?

The late Joe Paterno, former Penn State President Graham Spanier, and former Athletic Directors Tim Curley and Gary Schultz have all been accused of a cover-up that allowed Jerry Sandusky to prey on young boys, in order to preserve the reputations of the school and the football program. In other words, these high-ranking Penn State officials put PR ahead of the safety of children.

Sandusky has already met Justice. And Paterno has already met his Maker. Paterno's legacy is tarnished in the eyes of most people. Only a few Penn State cultists cling to the idea of JoePa as a great man. Some of the other PSU officials involved will likely face perjury charges. It will also be quite difficult for them to find a job at another school.

What about the program, though? What would constitute Justice for the football team that was placed on so high a pedestal that pedophilia was ignored?

Some have suggested the "Death Penalty," which would ban the existence of the team for a period of time. SMU received the "Death Penalty" when their rampant compensation for athletes was revealed. And surely this is worse than any NCAA violation.

That's a bit harsh to me. Not that I don't like the idea of being harsh to PSU, but I prefer a punishment that doesn't allow Penn State any sympathy. I can already see ESPN lauding Penn State's inevitable recovery from the "Death Penalty," with stories about the resiliency of the institution.

The "Death Penalty" would also be over too quickly. It's a very harsh punishment but it only lasts 1 or 2 years, I prefer a punishment that lingers on. Just as Sandusky was allowed to linger at Penn State.

The "Death Penalty" would not destroy Penn State football. The program would return to prominence shortly after it was born again. It's in a top league, has good facilities, has history, is nationally prominent, and is in a good geographic location for recruiting. It would be a premier program shortly after resurrection.

Instead, Penn State football should be banned from post-season play. No bowl games. No Big Ten title game. For at least 5 seasons.

They should have their scholarship limit severely reduced. From 85 to 50 (or fewer), for 6 years. After that, they should be allowed only 70 scholarships for 4 years.

All current players would be given the option to transfer.

What I would like to see is an extended period of Penn State football being a second-tier team. I want to see them lose recruits to Miami (Ohio). I want to see them get blown out by Northwestern.

I want to see the program that Paterno, Spanier, Curley, and Schultz tried to preserve reduced to mediocrity. I want their efforts to protect Penn State football to wind up hurting Penn State football.

That would be Justice.

If You're Pro-Paterno, I'm Anti-You

Joe Paterno has been fired by Penn State. And in the aftermath of it, thousands of PSU students took to the streets in support of the man who allowed more than a dozen children's lives to be ruined.

When I was 5, something happened to me that was not unlike what happened to the kids in Jerry Sandusky's "charitable" program. And if I knew that somebody had the opportunity to put a stop to what my attacker did, but instead only "informed his superiors," I'd hate that somebody almost as much as I hate the person who attacked me.

Joe Paterno did not commit a crime. He also did not stop a crime. He could have stopped it. I'm tired of hearing his defenders saying that he followed "proper procedure" by informing his superiors. You know what proper procedure is when you hear that a 55 year old guy is showering with and fondling an 11 year old boy? Call the police.

Anything short of that is not enough of an effort. Even Paterno admits he "could have done more."

But last night in College Station, PA, we saw thousands of students take to the streets in outrage. More people were more upset at the firing of an 84 year old man than they were at the molestation of over a dozen 7-12 year old boys. More people were more enraged at Paterno being forced out of Happy Valley, than they were over these defenseless boys being forced to participate in gruesome sexual acts.

They're rioting over a football coach being fired. Who rioted over the molestations? Where are our priorities?

We have one pervert who is unwilling/unable to control his disgusting urges. Then we have a few dozen people (including Paterno) who helped cover things up and placed the importance of Penn State Football above the well-being and safety of these boys. And now we have thousands of people taking to the streets in support of one of the most instrumental people in this cover-up. Why? Because he built a library on campus? Because he won 400+ games? Because he was the "father" of Penn State?

"We Are Penn State" is a motto of that school. It started as an anti-Segregation chant that originated when the school would play in the South. Now the chant has been used in defense of someone who placed Penn State Football ahead of the safety of young boys. That chant has been used in defense of a man who had the power to stop boys from being raped and all he did was "inform his superiors." "We Are Penn State" has become a slogan of people who support a football coach more than they support the well-being of young boys.

I'm glad the PSU trustees did the right thing and fired Paterno. And Paterno can ask for prayers for the victims, but one phone call to the police would have done so much more. Paterno could have been a guardian angel to those boys. Instead, he turned a blind eye. The sin is on his head. And the people defending him are defending a man who turned a blind eye to rape and molestation.