Penn State missed the Boat

Penn State did the right thing by firing Joe Paterno and University President Graham Spanier last week, but the administration did not go far enough.  By playing football last Saturday against Nebraska, with all of the same players and coaches in the game that Paterno recruited and hired, Penn State sent a message that football and finances are more important than child abuse and good ethics.  What was wrong with Penn State playing on Saturday? First, that assistant coach Jay Paterno was given a venue on National TV to express support for his father after the game.  Second, that thousands of fans were enabled to express support for Coach Paterno by holding signs saying, “We miss you Joe Pa” in the stands.  Third, and most importantly, it seemed that with Penn State sitting at 8-1 and number 12 in the AP polls, the school was unwilling to forgo the potential glory of a Big Ten Championship just because some little boys had been raped in the locker rooms a few feet away. 

There are those who will say that the players and fans don’t deserve to suffer for the mistakes of a few many years ago.  To them I say that in life sometimes we have to suffer for the bad ethics of those we are associated with even if we knew nothing of their actions.  Saying the players shouldn’t have to suffer by canceling the season is kind of like saying the government should pay back everyone who invested with Bernie Madoff.  Like it or not, collateral damage is the nature of bad ethics and it should have been in this case too.   When I read the graphic, disgusting grand Jury indictment of Jerry Sandusky last week it became clear to me that when faced with an ethical decision Joe Paterno chose loyalty and ego over sound ethical decision making.  Contrary to the former players and coaches who are supporting Joe Pa in the news media this week, I am convinced that someone who is willing to turn a blind eye to child abuse because he is afraid of the scandal it might cause in the press and because he wants to protect his friend is someone who is also willing to make other, smaller unethical decisions on a day to day basis. 

This story reminds me of a similar one from 11 years ago.  I was a student at University of Vermont when the President of the school, Judith Ramaley, canceled the entire hockey season when a story broke that a group of freshman had to hold each other’s penises and walk around naked at a party as part of a hazing ritual.  The scandal and canceled season rocked the University that had made it to the D1 hockey finals just a couple years prior.  At the time I didn’t understand why the actions of a few should have to effect so many, but now I understand that the Ramaley was taking decisive action and sending a strong message in the face of bad ethics.   Ramaley’s action and the media attention this story garnered led to a law being added to the books in Vermont that prohibits hazing.  The UVM hockey team suffered for a few years after the scandal with many players departing for other schools, but the school made it’s way back to the top and was in the college hockey frozen four once again in 2009. 

Penn State football is a much larger economic and social entity than UVM hockey, but that is exactly why new President Rodney Erickson needed to take a page out of the UVM handbook and act as swiftly as Ramaley did 11 years ago.  Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini hit the nail on the head when he said after the game, “Going into the football game, I didn’t think the game should have been played, for a lot of different reasons. ... The situation that’s going on is bigger than football. It’s bigger than that game we just played. It’s bigger than the young men in the game who would have missed it had they called it off.”  When Penn State made the wrong decision to go ahead with the game, the NCAA should have stepped in and canceled the rest of the season. 

The only silver lining for me is that Penn State lost the game on Saturday and with two games remaining against Ohio State and Wisconsin they likely won’t make the Big 10 Championship game.  God knows I will be rooting against them for the rest of the season.  I’m pretty sure the children who had their lives ruined by Jerry Sandusky will be too.