The Right Thing To Do

Joe Paterno's career at Penn State started out being about weeks, the distance from one college football Saturday to the next.

In then became about years, then decades, then, well, about no time period at all. Just indefinite. As forever as sport can be for any human.

Then, at some point in the past two weeks, like one of those crazily accelerated clocks you see in film to demonstrate time travel, Paterno's career path reversed.

It became about weeks again, but almost immediately, it became about days as the powder keg the school had been sitting on finally exploded. By yesterday afternoon, it was about hours, and then, the wake of his firing last night, it became almost minute-to-minute as police dealt with the situation on campus that erupted and turned out to be relatively mild as these things go.

Paterno went from having a statue in his likeness outside Beaver Stadium to being curtly dismissed over the phone in what seemed to be the blink of an eye. Once the steamroller started, the most powerful individual in the history of one of U.S. college football's most noteworthy programs was helpless to stop it. Those who had seen the school benefit from Paterno's football program to the tune of more than $50 million in profits last season alone suddenly discovered he was dead weight that needed to be jettisoned as fast as possible.

He didn't go alone. The Jerry Sandusky scandal has already produced all kinds of collateral damage outside of the tragic victims themselves. One phone call from Paterno to the police could have changed some, if not all of this. But that phone call was never made. There are those who want to believe this was a one-time error of judgement by Paterno. Maybe. Or perhaps it was just the way he looked as such issues. As the Orlando Sentinel reported again today, Paterno's comments in 2006 before a bowl game when the opposing school kicked a player off the team for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman was revealing. 

"He may not have even known what he was getting into. … A cute girl knocks on the door. What do you do? Thank God they don't knock on my door. I'd refer them to a couple of other rooms," said Paterno.

Yikes.

From afar, we Canadians look at U.S. college football with a certain level of puzzlement. Or awe. Some might compare it to junior hockey is this country, but the scale is something else entirely. There isn't a junior hockey team in Canada that creates the same mass-scale, blind loyalty as unsuccessful NCAA Division One progams, let alone the biggees like Notre Dame, Michigan, Alabama, Florida, Ohio State and, of course, Penn State.

So how to put the Paterno/Sandusky story into any kind of Canadian context, and how to imagine what the correct decisions are for the Nittany Lions and the school going forward?

Well, for Torontonians, there was the Maple Leaf Gardens sex scandal. Assaults of children at the Gardens by inside workers began in the 1970s, and by the early 1990s those who had succeeded Harold Ballard as caretakers of the arena and the team were contacted by victims looking for action to be taken. Martin Kruze told Gardens executives of the abuse he had suffered at the hands of men like Gordon Stuckless and George Hannah, and his silence was temporaily bought for $60,000. Four years later, however, he took his story public, and the appalling tales of boys exploited by a Gardens sex ring, their innocence purchased for sticks and pucks and autographs, exploded. Steve Stavro and his fellow Gardens executives stalled and stalled, failing to recognize the enormity of the tragedy. In one infamous press conference, Stavro's lawyer, Brian Bellmore, offered the same defence that would echo with the Paterno case years later, suggesting the Leafs didn't go to the police after hearing from Kruze because they weren't legally bound to do so. Ken Dryden's greatest achievement as Leaf president, however, was that he did understand the disastrous tragedy, and took action. When Kruze committed suicide, Dryden had the flag at the Gardens lowered to half-mast, and initiatives were undertaken to recognize and assist the many victims of the abuse that stained the building once seen as a Canadian institution.

There were certainly elements in common between what happened at the Gardens and what has happened at Penn State. If there's a difference, it was that no senior individual associated with the hockey club was ever implicated in either the abuse or the silence. Stuckless, Hannah and John Paul Roby were familiar to those who had been around the Gardens for years or even decades, but no evidence ever revealed that a coach or GM or player or team president was aware of the pedophile ring. That said, it all happened under Harold Ballard's watch, and he was dead by the time the scandal broke. We'll never know what he knew or didn't know.

In both cases, delayed action compromised the integrity of those that did know, or were told after the fact.

On a much smaller level, two Canadian universities have been hit hard by football-related scandals in recent years, and in both cases, the football program was shut down.

In Oct., 2005, McGill cancelled its football season after a hazing scandal involving players being assaulted with a broom was revealed. The coach, Chuck McMann, was not fired.

In June, 2010, the University of Waterloo suspended its football program for one year after it was revealed several players had tested positive for steroids.

So what happens next at Penn State?

Well, as with Graham James, police and prosecutors intend to move swiftly and aggressively against Sandusky, and there is all kinds of speculation that the depth of the scandal and the number of victims could expand.

While James committed his crimes in secret and was able to successfully hide his activities from those who employed him as a coach, it seems apparent that there was some kind of a cover-up in the Sandusky case that involved a number of senior personnel at the 95,000-student university. As with Watergate, the crime is one thing, but it's the cover-up that brings everyone down.

It's not clear whether the NCAA has any authority to act as it has in various recruiting scandals in football and basketball. But it's the school, really, that needs to recognize the enormity of what has happened and act. This weekend's game against Nebraska, a match of enormous implications to U.S. college rankings, could produce an ugly spectacle if those backing JoPa insist on making their case at the game. It would have been far worse if Paterno had been on the sidelines.

More important, continuing with the game, and counting the gate receipts after, suggests business as usual at a school where it should be anything but. Seriously, go online and read the Grand Jury Report on Jerry Sandusky. Talks of things that happened in Penn State football locker rooms. Then tell me it would be appropriate for the Nittany Lions to come running out of the tunnel on Saturday.

The game should be cancelled, with Penn St. forfeiting to the Cornhuskers. It would just be morally wrong to play the game after all that has happened this week, and an insult to the victims, many of whom are just emerging to tell their stories. Accountability is what is necessary now for Penn St., not a big win.

And beyond this weekend? Penn St. football, it's clear, needs a dramatic re-set, both as a sports program in which any number of incidents involving football players have been hushed up over the years, and as a functioning part of the university. Paterno can still help. He can come clean with exactly what he knew, and when. He can explain why Sandusky was allowed to remove himself as an assistant coach at a relatively young age but then continue to operate a foundation on school property. Paterno can really start thinking of the university rather than himself or the football program, and come clean. His old legacy is gone; honesty, true honesty in the face of scandal, can be his new legacy. Lord help him, however, if his knowledge and actions were far greater than what has thus far been revealed.

It's worth remembering other U.S. schools are also in the midst of enormous football scandals. At the University of Miami where a booster has admitted to providing players with cash and prostitutes for years, it's unclear what the fallout will be. Officials at the University of Central Florida, including the athletic director, were fired on Wednesday for recruiting violations involving the football and basketball teams. In recent months there have been all kinds of unseemly stories involving Cam Newton, Jim Tressel, the Oregon football team and the Fiesta Bowl. 

Yet its clear the Penn State scandal goes beyond any of them. It's quite possibly the biggest scandal in the history of U.S. college sports. You simply cannot minimize it. You cannot try to let the games go on. This isn't about tattoos or $10,000; this is about children, perhaps many children, being sexually abused by a predator. You can debate whether young men from difficult circumstances are in any position to reject offers of cash and cars. You can't debate that when there's suspicion of a pedophile being active the right thing to do is call the police. There is no debate, and there wasn't in 1998, or 2002. Or six months ago.

If Penn State voluntarily suspends it's football program - unlikely - or is forced to, there will be those who say it unfairly affects student-athletes who weren't involved in the scandal. Well, that's what always happens, folks. The old one-bad-apple story. Look at what happened at USC in the wake of improprieties involving Reggie Bush. When SMU received the "death penalty," it's not as if every player was implicated.

Same goes for many of the football players at McGill and Waterloo. Was it fair to all of them? Of course not. But the schools most definitely did the right thing.

Penn St. can still do the right thing, which would be to suspend the football program. At least for one year, allowing a entirely new group of administrators and football officials and staff to be located and hired. Unthinkable for Penn State? Maybe? But nobody forecast the possible death of the euro last month, and now it's being openly talked about as the European Union mess spreads.

That's what happens in these kinds of stories. The unthinkable becomes logical in a day.

And if this Penn State scandal does widen, it could be that such a seemingly extreme punishment, shutting down Nittany Lions football, will seem mild.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Jake]

Forgot about the Gardens debacle. There's a place for the predators and the ones who say 'not legally bound to do so'. When does the goodness of their souls say something-assuming there's a bit of good in all of us.

[dan]

Why should the players and the other coaching staff and the rest of the school, that did not know about any of this and have their lives and careers depending on playing football and that program.

I think thats a selflish reaction, im very sorry for the children that were involved its horrible, and for anyone involved who did nothing they should be punished and ashamed of themselves.

But to punish football players who had no idea who are using this year or next year to get into the NFL to provide for their families why should the year be suspended????

Society is overly sensitive now a days, with words we "cant" use anymore and people having to resign or get fired because ppl take offense to words or actions.

Something like this absolutely everyone who knew should be fired, punished everything and anything. But we can continue to be this sensitive and cancel a program because some ppl didnt go to the police, not fair to everyone else at all.

[Andrew B]

Well said Damien. Penn State should take a hard-line stance on this, but with so much money involved, we all know that isn't going to happen. How people can know that children are being abused and do, in essence, nothing simple boggles my mind. How can anyone involved with this live with themselves?

On another note, does anyone know if there has been a book written about the Martin Kruze/MLG sex scandal?

[Patrick]

sorry dan, you're just another fan(atic) who thinks the game needs to go on, no matter what horrible sense of priorities that communicates.
good article damien

[snacker]

Cancelling a season sends the wrong message - it tells these kids that if you do step up and bring and issue such as child abuse to light that the entire team is punished for that in the end - it sends the wrong message - these kids should be encouraged to tell the truth, knowing that they are not at fault and won't face consequences like not being able to play football and get an education. I'm not sure how banning kids from playing football solves this problem of grown men covering up their own behinds because they didn't want to own up to internal problems that would tarnish they're vaunted football program. If Paterno had stood up in the first place and fired Sandusky and sent him directly to police he would have been lauded as a hero - someone should have spoken up immediately when a grown man was found in a football stadium shower with another man - it could have been stopped right then and there. Grown adults chose not to do enough and even let this predator continue to be part of the Penn State family up until last week!! Why should a bunch of college students be punhised because of a bunch of old men wanting to protect only themselves and their "reputations". Cancelling football is the wrong message. Firing anyone who knew about this and pressing charges for neglect is what should happen and any moneys made through football next year should be paid to the victims.

[susan]

Agree there's no benefit in punishing the football players. Let them play and donate the proceeds to a relevant good-cause organization.

[Capt. Obvious]

Wow Dan-- society is "overly sensitive" for not cracking down on a pedophile ring?

I agree, the football program should be suspended. It sends the necessary message that such behaviour will not be tolerated. It's too bad innocents get caught up in that, but sometimes life just isn't fair.

God forbid anything should get in the way of watching college football....

[LogicalDude]

Well written article Damien, agree completely with everything you said. Dan, to be honest I could care less about the players/coaches etc. Yes, it wasn't their fault about what happened but they can move on. They can go to other schools and continue their lives. What happened at Penn State was completely vile and the school should be punished for their actions. As much as I hate child molesters, I hate even more people that cover it up. They're worse than the molesters themselves. Penn State should lose a lot of money this year as punishment, not continue the program and make more money. They should be hammered so hard that no one in the future would ever think about covering up a pedophile again. I agree that our society has become super sensitive about most things, but there's limits to everything. I wouldn't care less if Paterno used a sexist/racist/homophobic term, I wouldn't care less if he slept with a student...but covering up a pedophile is the lowest of the low. Screw Penn State and their stupid football program, they can all go to hell for all I care.

[Tom]

Cancel the game...cancel the season...cancel the entire football program.

What on earth do any of the players on this team...or any of the current coaches...or any of the fans...have to do with this scandal? The guilty parties are being identified one by one. They are being fired and/or prosecuted for their crimes. Let those who are responsible for these crimes pay the price - not dozens or hundreds of other innocent parties.

As you yourself say, this football program generated $50 million in profits for the University last year. So how many (completely innocent) people's jobs depend on this team? You would have innocent people lose their jobs, maybe lose their homes, etc. in the name of some "clean the house" shotgun approach to justice.

I suppose then, if something similar happened at the Toronto Star, you would support closing down the entire newspaper and throwing thousands, including yourself, onto the street.

[Honest Citizen]

Child molestation is not acceptable EVER. Who cares about anything else. Disgusting.

[nugentmania]

Damien makes some good points.......not sure I'd suspend the entire football program for a season, I thought the Waterloo decision was a little heavy handed. However....when Damien writes about the idea of this scandal "widening", I think the first thing that comes to mind is the number of victims may climb. That, sadly, is less a possibility and more of a probability. Sandusky created The Second Mile organization in 1977, one that would put him in direct contact with young boys who in many instances didn't have male role models. That he waited 17 years to start the abuse is unlikely.

But.....I think this is going to "widen" in other directions. Specifically, what role did the 1998 investigation play in Sandusky retiring? If it is shown that Penn State forced Sandusky out and Paterno knew the exact reasons why, then I think that puts what happened in 2002 in an entirely different light. And just watch....whether it's the two men now charged with perjury, or the fired University President...or maybe just someone with a conscience....someone is going to tell the truth, if only to bring others down with them.

[Braco]

Joe Paterno,Tim Curley,Gary Schultz and Jerry Sandusky should be lined up and shot dead.Period.PENN STATE closed forever.

[Nathan]

For those saying "It's not the player's fault, don't cancel the program," you have to realize it is about sending a message. The entire football program at Penn State looks like it has been maintained over the last 15+ years by covering up for their own vile transgressions.

I bet there were some great, upstanding individuals working at Enron who had no knowledge of what was going on above thier pay scale, but they paid for it along with many others. This scandal at Penn State dwarfs this example as it deals directly with sexual abuse of children.

[mrmetrault]

The clear parallel here is not to some other "sports-sex scandal". That whole line of inquiry is trivial. It's more instructive, and chilling, see see how this whole shocking mess resembles the Catholic sex abuse scandals. Football is a religion of which Paterno is a cardinal. What happens when a parish priest abuses children? Cover-up, silence, then the inevitable, stupid, hollow apologies once the story hit the press. We've seen it all before.

[kev]

Not sure what you actually accomplish by cancelling a whole football season. None of the current members of this football team had anything to do with what went on at Penn State in 2002, so it's very different from the McGill and Waterloo cases. The SMU and USC cases had to do with recruiting violations which gave those teams competitive advantages which again is entirely different from this case. You can't simply lump them all together through the use of the word scandal and say the penalties should be the same.

Everyone in the program who had any knowledge of this should be brought to justice no doubt, what went on was horrendous. That doesn't mean we need to penalize a whole football team and by extension a whole university.

[A Facebook User]

@dandmb50 - The students protested the firing last night because they like JoePa, and don't like the mainstream media. Don't blame the messenger, JoePa had the chance to report the incident and he chose not to. Does this mean the students think he should NOT have reported these assaults? What are they teaching these kids at Penn State? The real tragedy is it could have been stopped in 2002 but it wasn't... Daniel.. Toronto

[snacker]

I think what people posting are failing to understand is that when you ban an entire football program for something that a select few did or knew about and covered up, it a) punishes upstanding citizens for the actions of a small number, but b) it plants the seed of doubt in the mind of any victim that they will be judged and face being the reason an entire football program could be cancelled.

God forbid this type of situation should ever happen again, but wouldn't we rather have kids who aren't afraid to speak up when they've been abused? Shouldn't they feel safe in being able to talk to someone about something terrible like this? If that person knowingly knows that speaking up will eventually lead to the punishment of other innocent folks, the victims might think twice about avoiding the hassle of speaking up. Does the victim also need to deal with the fallout of being responsible for the end of an entire football program and any blowback that might mean for them? It's not right to blame the victims and that's what will inevitably happen on some level if programs are cancelled, etc...it just doesn't make sense to penalize everyone and have victims face the wrath of those who are penalized just for speaking the truth. We should always want the truth so that we as a society can get to the bottom of the issue. Cancelling the programs lets the pedophiles win in the end and this is not the right message at all.

[John MacInnis]

Wow, the story is really breaking now. I'm wondering if Paterno will face felony charges at some point in the scandal, and if the latest breaking news is true, then Paterno may be needing a good attorney.

[Keen]

you can't compare the Penn state thing to SMU - the players on SMU took money, they were part of the problem. No player on Penn Sate had anything to do with sandusky doing what he did. Knee jerk reactions like Cox's aren't needed now, careful thought and planning are required.

[RBeezy]

Punish those involved, not the players or the program. We're talking about a heinous criminal act that had nothing to do with the program. NCAA can use this to establish clearer guidelines on the responsibility of officials to stop and report crimes that they are aware of. After that, THEN you can punish programs that don't comply.

[comeoncomeon]

The point that Mr. Cox is making is that a coverup -- any coverup-- will have so-called innocent casualties (Collateral Damage). Such is the fate of the Penn State players and coaching staff, whether they knew about something or didn't know (more than likely the latter) they are, unfortunately, guilty by association.

[Ben Gunn]

Suspend the football program for a season? That's moronic.
Overhaul the coaching staff. Fine.
But punish entirely innocent players, potentially robbing several of them of future NFL careers. Idiotic.
Let's say a former Toronto Star co-editor was accused under similar circumstances, would you suspend the newspaper for a year? Likely not. Replace the editor and other senior employees who knew, of course. But suspend the paper, costing you and other innocent people their jobs? Didn't think so.

[Peter]

I don't like college football one bit, but I don't really understand what shutting down the entire program whould acomplish. The football team had nothing to do with what that monster was doing. The McGill incident had players involved, so did the other two example Damien lists.
The people who are guilty should be procecuted, but don't punish the players and the fans.

[no excuse]

my son was sexually assaulted when he was 12, he finally worked up the courage to report his abuser when he was 20 turns out his abuser molested numerous young boys and taped himself doing it he is presently going to trial for numerous counts of child exploitation and making child pornography, my son has suffered through severe depression drug abuse suicide attempts and trouble with the law. It's torture watching your child suffer, his abuser sentenced him and our family to a life of emotional distress, Penn state and everyone involved in this needs to suffer the harshest consequences possible including a suspension of the football program a message must be sent that this will not be condoned anymore. Joe Paterno put his head in the sand to this abuse and deserves what the victims of this will live with, a life time of the worst emotional trauma imaginable. Thanks Damien for taking a hard stand.

[Jim F]

What an idiotic proposal. Why should the CURRENT football players (and student population in general) have to suffer for what the administration didn't do 10 years ago. The admins in charge at the time will be criminally charged or fired - they're the ones who deserve punishment, not today's students.