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

[Samir]

Suspending the rest of the season is not fair to the seniors on the team who are looking forward to their last home game of their careers. What did they do DIRECTLY to deserve such a punishment? Suspending the season is the non-intelligent, easy-way, "I have no clue what they should do so do this because it's the only thing I can think of" excuse. Maybe they should consider changing the mascot and creating a whole new brand that is void of any image of JoePa. Maybe they should create governing policies in their athletic department that requires any person who witness's sexual misconduct to call the police BEFORE they call university administrators.
Just a couple of educated ideas.

[Lewis McClain]

What should be done is this. All of the money collected this year from the football program be given to the victims of this illegal dispicable act. And I do mean ALL THE MONEY...That will hit the University where they will really understand the gravity of their crimes. Any other penalty will be forgotten. No reason for this program to profit from the situation.

[Dan Mahoney]

Very, very, very well written and said Damien. I have also been following your comments about this tragedy on Twitter and you are so right on there as well, you see the issue here starts with the victims and they lives forever horribly damaged. Everything else, especially just another football game like the one this Saturday, is secondary.

Dan

[Sandy]

To the people who say that the players should not have to suffer for the actions of JoePa and his speriors, that ship has sailed. SMU was given the death sentence and some players who did no wrong were punished and suffered because of something they did not know about because coaches and some players were on the take.

What is worse, giving and receiving improper benefits or tacitly enabling a serial child molester who, according to reports, used penn state's institutional silence to sexually abuse more children ? Whatever the punishment ( from the law,NCAA or US department of education) Penn state should accept it.

[Ross MacDonald]

Surely Damien Cox can't believe that Dave Branch came down hard on this gutless jerk Kuhnhackl. Twenty games? What a joke! He deserves a lifetime suspension from the game for a hit that was a premeditated as they come.

[Murray]

I am sure Mr. Cox is all for shutting the Leafs down for next season due to the Gardens tragedy as well as shutting down the Catholic Church for a year as well. I guess that is the new measuring stick for punishment, a one year suspension. Do we also include schools where a teacher once worked? Do we shut the school down for the year? I didn't think so. Its easy to be a coward and demand things that we know will not happen if only to boost our image of morality and caring. Nothing will happen.

[Darryl]

I am in awe of the number of people commenting here that say that "innocent" people shouldn't be punished by shutting football down. Sandusky, Paterno et al are the symptom, not the problem. The problem is football and how it is idolized. Had college football not been more important than ending the reign of terror of a child molester, none of this would have happened. The false god has to be killed and only then will people realize how screwed up their priorities have been.

[Ross MacDonald]

Why is everyone shocked by a bunch of stupid football types being involved in a sex crime? You can't let anything get in the way of the big game, you know. And why would that vastly overrated creep Paterno have pursued the matter further? Think he'd want to jeopardize his big fat $1 million dollar salary or interrupt a winning streak? They should ban the football program at Penn State for good, and I hope the school's reputation is forever tarnished. Then maybe, just for once, the consequences will equal the magnitude of the crime, driven, as is so often the case, by greed. As Theo Fleury said so eloquently today, brain-dead students at the school are rioting to protest Paterno's dismissal, but what about the victims of the abuse. Who's crying out for them?

[Bob Holden]

One of the reasons this travesty went unreported and uninvestigated is likely because the money profits in major university football are so great and subsidize other university programs that someone decided not to rock the boat and the show must go on. It would be fitting that the university and football program, be sanctioned in such a way that the lesson would be to always do the right thing, not what may be perceived to be the most expedient at the time.

[Will Ashworth]

As a wise man once said to me, "Life's not fair sometimes." No, it's not fair that innocent players suffer because of a few bad apples. Unfortunately, Coach Paterno and his cronies turned a blind eye, not unlike the Catholic church, and should be punished for their lack of moral fibre.

[Rod]

I disagree with cancelling the football program and punishing the current players. I think the university should take any money they make on the football program (as determined by an outside audit) and donate it to help the victims of this crime.

I don't recall anybody suggesting that the Leafs should be kicked out of the NHL for a season due to their involvement in the abuse that Martin Kruze was subjected to.

[Greg]

The general term that describes what happened at Penn State is "institutional failure". Everyone was quick to throw this term around when it was Nevin Shapiro and Miami they were talking about... if this isn't an "institutional failure" in college football, then what exactly is? And when that happens, you shut down the institution until you're 100% certain that you've got it completely sorted out and there's nothing else floating around out there that can keep trickling out and damage it. You have to get out in front of this aggressively, even if it means being a little too cautious. If you don't, you're risking the entire institution.

[Mark]

Firing/suspending coaches and administrators is fine.

Cancelling the games seems to me to be punishing the players, who very likely had absolutely no knowledge of any of this until the indictments are handed down. You could be costing draft eligible prospects millions of dollars. And you just put a cloud over everyone saying "you're all tainted".

Plus, whenever the program starts back up so do the questions. To me, you fire anyone who knew anything, donate all the season's revenue to a victim's fund, and then in the offseason decide whether you can move past it or whether to shutter the football program (in which case you get the NCAA to let the players transfer and play immediately).

[Andrew]

I think a lot of people here are missing the point. The football team is the big money spinner for the institution. People in power at the institution apparently decided it was more important to protect the football program than protect children from a sexual predator. Keeping the football program humming along next year lets the institution continue to reap the benefit from all the money the football program brings in...which in a roundabout way, justifies the actions of the Penn State administration when the put the football program first. Suspending it for a year would send the right message about what the priorities should be at the university. As Damien says, other teams have had their teams shuttered for a year after questionable activities by and administration, and those actions are minor compared to the monstrous things coming out at Penn State.

As for the "players with NFL potential," if that's the case they will certainly be able to transfer to another school. But that's really of small concern given the larger picture.

[Bob]

Easy for you to say Damien, but isn’t that a lot of collective punishment for the horrible misdeeds of a few and the cowardly conduct of the administration. Would you say the same thing if it happened at the Star (close the entire sports section for a year because a past employee was a pedophile). Would you think it is fair to give up your livelihood because 8 years ago your superior was not courageous enough to do the right thing. Most of the people involved apparently followed the law of the state (admittedly by passing the buck to a VP who had the reporting obligation). Why are the current coaches and players (who had nothing to do with this) culpable and liable for punishment? Why limit it to football, by your logic shouldn’t the entire athletic program be cancelled? Why is the academic program immune? Is it not a failure of the entire University system rather than the football team?

Maybe, they should wait till all the facts came out before punishing people who are not responsible.

[ben petrie]

US College sports is the ultimate look the other way culture. Penn State, and Joe Paterno specifically, held themselves up as the moral high ground for all of college sports and even they choose to look away rather than protect these innocent boys. the evidence is clear that they knew or ought to have known that there was an ongoing problem with this individual. this is not an isolated decision, this is a case that goes back more than 15 years and the perpetrator was still allowed access to campus as recently as last week. maybe this happened because they didn't want to risk losing football games, maybe not risk the $50M per year in income, maybe, and most likely, because those in charge lost touch with right and wrong and what really matters. Regardless of the reason this institution failed and failed miserably. playing this game amounts to saying that life goes on and that is just the wrong thing to do. it is unconscionable that major college football would be played on that campus tomorrow.

[Mark]

@Nathan, and what message are you sending? And the program has not been "maintained" through vile transgressions. If JoePa or the Athletic director had called the cops, it may have been embarrassing, but the program would have endured just fine. I mean, if we're punishing people who did nothing, and "sending a message", lets just close the whole university for the year. Half of it was built on football program revenue, and the president and vice president (not employees specific to football) were in on the cover up. Lets be honest. This isn't about sending a message. Its about lashing out at everything and everything that reminds us of a terrible scandal. Oh, and by the way, those honest Enron employees weren't prevented from looking for another job. These football players can't transfer to another team. Cancelling the season is essentially banning the players from college football.

[Peter Panzerotti]

I'm not excusing Paterno in the least when I ask this question: If you're a boss and someone who works for you comes up to you and says that they witnessed another of your staff raping a 10 year old, how would you handle it? Would you go immediately to the cops? Would you confront the accused? Or would you pass it on to your own superiors? You're in a kind of catch-22 here. Why? You yourself didn't witness anything so you don't know for certain if you're being told the truth. You absolutely have to consider the possibility that the whistle-blower has an axe to grind with the person they are accusing and getting them back with a false accusation is a means of getting rid of them. So what do you do? You know if you let the cops deal with it, even if the accusation ultimately proves false the accused's career is still finished because of the publicity and notoriety that would definitely surround the accused. Do you confront the accused directly? Maybe, but if the allegations are true he will likely deny them anyway and you're back to square one. So maybe the best thing was for Paterno to go to his bosses and to tell them what he'd been told hoping a higher school authority and official school policy would decide the next course of action. I dunno, I can see why Paterno didn't go immediately to the cops and why he reported it to his bosses instead.

[Victor likes the Leafs.]

Finish the year, allow the players to go to another college to play, and never play another game there again. That the university would allow this and cover it up for the money that they have gotten from Football, I say the expoitation of children is easily worth the money that this unversity would lose as a start, from losing football. End of story.

[Jad]

I was wondering what happened to innocent until proven guilty? I don't condone what was allegedly done but other than Paterno saying he made a mistake not reporting it, what do we know? Sandusky, Curley and Schwartz have all claimed their innocence. Don't we live in a society where you are innocent until proven guilty?

[Paul Richards]

Ask the University of Waterloo how that worked out for them

Missing even a single year is a "death sentence" to a program

You don't recover!

[Mark]

There are several pro-shutdown comments on here that are constantly making the same assumption: that the reason these people did not go to the authorities was to protect the football program. But was that the case? First, it is in dispute how much McQueary actually told any of these people. Second, Sandusky no longer worked for Penn State, and if they had reported him in 2002 it is unlikely this would have crippled the program. It could be that people were looking to protect Sandusky, a friend. Or that they didn't believe the allegations. Or that they didn't know the extent of them. Regardless, Paterno, Curley, and the other ACTED VERY WRONLY. But to try and draw a line and say it was done to protect the program so you need to punish the program so it won't be done again is assuming a lot. The people who did something wrong need to be punished. The program suffering will happen on its own. Canceling the season will just give angry outsiders some relief for their moral outrage while punishing student athletes who did nothing wrong.

[James from Mexico]

Damian, you've got it right. Suspend the program otherwise how will any one learn to be responsible for speaking out and acting on wrong? The penalty must be harsh. Suspend the program and let everyone at Pen State and elsewhere think about it long and hard. For those of you who think it unfair to other kids, why don't you pause to consider the victims and while you are at it, why not reflect on your own kids or youngsters you know. I would rather have 95,000 students learn this lesson well and take it into the world as they grow and become leaders. If we simply let a couple of pathetic predators deserving nothing more in this life go to jail for their crimes, nothing, nothing approaching justice will ever been done, and we will be telling folks that the tragedy wrought is insignificant. Crimes of abuse that continue over many years almost always require facilitators like Paterno who turn a blind eye, don't take responsibility, leave it to someone else.... etc... Suspending the program will tell Penn State and football fans young and old everywhere that such facilitation is unacceptable. It will also hopefully help them have the courage if faced with the same situation to do the right thing. Harsh and immediate punishment is this only way can something good and lasting come from this horrible history.

[Pablo]

Penn state has made hundreds of millions of dollars during the coverup. They essentially sold out those boys to keep their pockets lined. Penn state should not make any revenue from football for a long time. When are people going to realize that the actions of our leaders impact us all. It's unfortunate for the players and others in the community but the death penalty has to be implemented here. Just as these people benefited from the coverup, them must now deal with the realities of the punishment.

[pennstater]

This is an idiotic idea. Why should an entire University, not to mention the team and hundreds of thousands of fans be punished for the mistakes of a small few. I'm not condoning what Sandusky did or any of the people that covered it up. I completely agree that it's disgusting and wrong and they should be strongly punished. But how will canceling the football program affect the people responsible for the scandal that occurred 10 years ago? The answer is NOT AT ALL. If they have been found guilty, they have already lost their job or been charged with a crime so what does it matter to them if the program continues or not. The only people affected by this would be innocent players and fans that had no part in the scandal. Additionally, JoePa should not have been fired. The media is twisting this story so much that they have made an American icon out to be villain. No one knows what JoePa knew or didn't know and what he could or could not have done. He could only go off of something that he heard from a grad assistant, not actually being a witness to the crime. What was he supposed to say when testifying in court, "Well I heard from an assistant that the boys were being molested." That's really some damning evidence right there... After all that he has done for Penn State, the way in which he was forced to leave was not fair in my opinion. People can say what they want but 95% of their opinions are just outrageous. JoePa is a great man and will forever be remembered as one. So just to sum up, this idea to suspend Penn State football is totally ridiculous. WE ARE... PENN STATE.