Punishing Penn State

Alright, if you read this, you know me.  And if you know me, you know how I felt when the Penn State story broke, when more and more facts came out, when the students rioted when Joe Pa was fired and that “presser” which was a bunch of Penn State fans asking why Joe Pa was fired that proceeded the rioting.

The main question right now, is what to do with Penn State and more specifically, what should happen to the 2012 Penn State football team?

There is the view that if SMU received the Death Penalty for paying players, then what happens to a program who had a coach who raped boys in the locker room and showers (and had the Iconic Head Coach along with the President, Assis. President and AD cover it up)?  Should the team this year be punished and the program hammered for a coach who is in prison and an administration who was fired, and one of the best all-time coaches fired and later passed away?

I have a hard time with this.  I do not think any of the players and coaches had anything to do with this, and the people responsible have either lost their job, lost their job and put in jail, or last their job and then passed away, I think the program has been punished enough.  I think it’s about coming together, moving forward, and learning about what happened.  This is the worst story in sports, but it’s bigger than a football program.  It’s about the victims.  They are going to sue PSU and sue PSU hard in civil court.  I just don’t think that the current players and coaches should be “put to death”.  They didn’t do anything, or have anything to do with the horrors that started 14 years ago.  You could say that the teams that have been punished, like USC and Ohio State, the actual teams that were punished had nothing to do with the players or coaches that violated NCAA rules, so the Death Penality or post-season bans are not out of the question.

If you/they want to take down Joe Pa’s statue, that’s fine.  If this year’s team doesn’t want to have a patch honoring Joe Pa, that’s fine.  But I think it is about rebuilding and moving forward.  This year’s team has nothing to do with the people responsible and those responsibly have or will have met their punishment.  Don’t take it out on the 2012 Nittany Lions.

Hopefully this is the last time I have to write about something this horrific.  Please pray for the victims and their families, and if you hear or see anything like this, please alert the police.