NCAA hits Penn State hard, but ‘death penalty’ appropriate (UPDATED with video)
Mark Emmert moved fast and hit Penn State for their actions (and inactions). (AP photo)
(See video blog with CineSports’ Noah Coslov below)
(Updated at 6:40 p.m. with comment from Penn State president that school accepted penalties to avoid death penalty)
Let’s start with this: NCAA president Mark Emmert acted swiftly and justly. That’s a rarity for the NCAA.
Emmert didn’t need a 17-month investigation by an overworked and underpaid staff to unearth something that we didn’t already learn from prosecutors and witnesses in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse trial, or from the exhaustive, 267-page Freeh Report, conducted by a former director of the FBI. Anybody who believes Emmert moved too quickly on Penn State without the NCAA doing its own leg work must not having been paying attention for the past several decades, when policing college athletics became far too big of a job for that relative mom-and-pop organization.
The NCAA appropriately slammed Penn State Monday for its perceived enabling and cover-up of Sandusky. Emmert referenced an athletic culture “that went horribly awry” and a misguided “hero worship” that led to it. He didn’t bury the lead.
The penalties will double-over every blinded school official, player, fan, alum and misguided individual who hugged and tried to protect the Joe Paterno statute. The school was hit with a $60 million fine, equivalent to one year’s gross revenue for the football program (the money will fund an endowment that will fight child sexual abuse).
There’s also a four-year bowl ban; the loss of 40 scholarships over four years; the freedom for existing Penn State players to transfer to another school without having to sit out a year; the vacating of all victories since 1998, a symbolic punch to the gut for the memory of Joe Paterno. (The quarterback for Paterno’s last official win in 1997: Mike McQueary, whose eyewitness account of seeing Sandusky in the shower with a young boy was ignored years later.)
The sanctions will cripple the football program. But Emmert still fell short.
The NCAA, as I’ve written previously, should have gone one step further and shut the program down for one to two years. It would’ve been more than just a symbolic hit.
There is a need for a cultural change at Penn State, as Emmert himself said frequently Monday, and the “death penalty” would have increased the likelihood of that happening. It would have prompted anybody who ever took part in a cover-up or ignored whispers about Sandusky to reflect during Saturdays in the fall when football wasn’t being played at Penn State. Beaver Stadium could have been used for weekly prayer vigils for the victims.
Penn State officials need time to process this. They need to consider where, when and why they jumped the rails on their mission. While there’s no question the NCAA’s punishment will make them feel the pain of their actions, nothing can equal the silence of an empty stadium, the absence of weekly pep rallies. No program in history deserves to be shuttered as much as the Penn State football team. We send criminals to jail. We don’t tell them, “OK, you can still go back to that bank that you robbed, but now you’ll have to take the bus, and just don’t do it again.” Penn State needed to lose its freedoms, its privileges.
For some reason, the NCAA apparently gave Penn State a choice. President Rodney Erickson told the Centre Daily Times the school accepted the sanctions to avoid the death penalty: “We had our backs to the wall on this. We did what we thought was necessary to save the program.”
Some believe the death penalty would have been a softer punishment than what Penn State received. I don’t get that. Has anybody seen SMU since the death penalty?
Emmert believes the death penalty would’ve caused “unintended harm” to those who were innocent in this mess. That’s true. Unfortunately, the innocent always get hurt in NCAA probation. New players and often new coaches are in place when sanctions hit for past misdeeds.
Those who believe Sandusky’s crimes didn’t warrant any sanctions because they did not give the school a competitive advantage are missing the big picture. Question: If Jerry Sandusky was a chemistry professor and not a former high profile football coach, do you believe he would’ve been protected? Of course not. Penn State’s actions and inactions were about preserving the competitiveness, image and profitability of the football program.
Even without the death penalty, however, it was encouraging to see Emmert take charge. The NCAA has needed somebody with logic and courage to run things. The hope is that this won’t be an isolated case, because the leaders of college athletics have long since lost perspective.
Emmert said the Penn State case “involves tragic and tragically unnecessary circumstances. One of the grave dangers coming from our love of sports is that the sports themselves can become too big to fail, too big to even challenge. The result can be an erosion of academic values that are replaced by hero worship and winning at all costs. In the Penn State case, the results were perverse and unconscionable.”
They were the perfect words to punctuate the punishment and begin the process of closure. Going one step further would have made it just a little better.
By Jeff Schultz
Here’s my chat with CineSports’ Noah Coslov on the NCAA’s sanctions against Penn State.
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525 comments Add your comment
GT
July 24th, 2012
9:21 am
I think Bill Payer is right. Jimmy Johnson treated the U. of Miami administrators like dirt and they kept begging for more. They had a special on ESPN and some of his quotes were unnerving, he declared himself god and dared anybody in that place to say differently. Looking back I admire Arkansas for having the guts to fire Petrino. The lesson to learn in this is no man no matter how successful is immune to his or her responsibilities to society. That is the message lost when we build up a Bobby Knight or a John Calipari. like Dick Vitale and many others do, ignoring these personality because they are successful. This gives the world the wrong role models. Too big to fail is running this country, we have become bum worshipers and no one calls us out on it.
Dixie Red Coat Band
July 24th, 2012
9:39 am
Don’t tell us that UGA is the Only school that may offer a PSU player a scholarship!
md
July 24th, 2012
4:54 pm
I can’t agree…..this whole concept of group punishment and guilt by association in relation to the actions of a few is totally asinine.
Those kids on that field for all those years had absolutely nothing to do with the infractions committed by those handful of individuals.
And in the case of the death penalty, please do tell how taking the job away from some little girl selling tickets in the ticket office is the right thing to do? What did she do?
Would you be amenable to getting punished if a higher up at the AJC committed a crime?
I bet not………..
Yancey
July 24th, 2012
4:55 pm
Get off your high horse Jeff….
Texas Pete
July 24th, 2012
5:08 pm
Jeff, you are absolutely full of BS. You failed to think that most of the people that were directly involved are gone, and the others that may have some involvement will undoubtedly be gone very soon. The football program is as good as ruined. The punishment is almost the same as a death penalty, but the one saving grace is that hundreds of small time people who live off this program, and had absolutely nothing to do with these horrible incidents will get to get making their livings. You would just throw these people out in the street without a second thought, and all the other readers who can’t think for themselves would just follow along with you. The penalties are not going to help the boys ruined by Sandusky, neither would the Death Penalty. None of this will help them.
Blaise Collin
July 24th, 2012
5:13 pm
“There is a need for a cultural change at Penn State”: so, the actions of a few (say 3-4 people) define a “culture”? Or do we assume that the vast majority of the 50,000 students and 500,00 alumni took part in the cover-up? Or does it refer to the culture of considering football a big part of the school, in which case I assume that we consider that people at Alabama, Nebraska or say USC do not care as much for their football programs?
“misguided individual who hugged and tried to protect the Joe Paterno statute”: well, it’s one thing to pay respect to a coach who changed the face of one’s university in a good manner, and it’s another thing to blindly protect a coach who might have been part of a cover-up of that nature. No one ever said (safe the right-thinking media) that Penn Staters were defending the alleged bad actions committed by Joe Paterno. They’re just trying to protect the legacy of someone who positively impacted their lives, more than 99.99% of the population could do. Talking about being blind, let’s call the Freeh Report the Bible, sentence Joe Paterno to death and move on…
“It would have prompted anybody who ever took part in a cover-up or ignored whispers about Sandusky”: this one is my favorite. Let’s ask all PSU students and alummi to reflect about the horrible actions they did in covering-up. All these Central PA bastards protected a criminal and they should be punished harshly. All of them.
“We send criminals to jail. We don’t tell them, “OK, you can still go back to that bank that you robbed, but now you’ll have to take the bus, and just don’t do it again.””: as a matter of fact the “criminals” are not part of the organisation anymore and whoever is still there is innocent. Unless, again, under the idea that all Penn State officials or students knew. The big PSU cover-up conspiracy.
“If Jerry Sandusky was a chemistry professor and not a former high profile football coach, do you believe he would’ve been protected?”: good he was not a chemistry teacher because I have a friend who got a Ph.D. in Chemistry form Penn State and I don’t think she’d had been please to vacate it. On the other hand it would have been fun to see the authorities try to deal with shutting down the Chemistry department, or restruct how many grad students could attend…
“winning at all costs”: this is another delusional idea from the NCAA and all the ignorant sportswriters. Last time I checked PSU football was not about winning at all costs. Winning is part of sports, but a big deal of emphasis was put in academic success, sometimes at the expense of football results. It’s always good to get the opinion of people who do not know squats about the real situation though.
Bottom line: interesting piece of B.S. Well, of course it makes a nice story, the NCAA looks like they’re still in charge (but ESPN and money is!), and it’s easier to put the blame on the football program even though 95% of its members didn’t know anything about the “activities” of Jerry Sandusky. Oh well, the public opinion needed a scapegoat, the football program was here standing. If nothing was done within a week people would just have turned their attention away so actions needed to be taken quickly. In that regards, it’s a wonderful job. Now the victims won’t feel any better and the community of Happy Valley will endure the consequences of the stupidity of the NCAA and all the sportswriters who applaude their decisions. And I’m not just talking about winning football games, I’m talking about the hit to the local economy, the college experience for all the students, etc. Stupid decisions from stupid men. So goes the world…
SWAC Guy
July 24th, 2012
5:22 pm
They should have received the death penalty, what kind of message are you sending kids now who may be going thru something of the same nature, that its ok they will be fined, FINED, that’s it one year’s pay, kill the tv contracts or games that would have been televised for 2 – 4 years or every year this went unspoken and not properly reported and investigated, now youi send a message here and around the country to all.
md
July 24th, 2012
5:30 pm
Fined? Last I checked they were going to jail…………..as they should be.
The innocent in the program should not have to suffer for what they did not do………
sliderule
July 24th, 2012
5:31 pm
I am more than a little puzzled at the moral outrage against Penn State (which it deserves I believe), but where are the similar feelings against the Roman Catholic Church for similar, but far worse allegations?
md
July 24th, 2012
5:47 pm
“but where are the similar feelings against the Roman Catholic Church for similar, but far worse allegations?”
Just an fyi, but a priest was just sentenced today for up to 6 six for his part in covering it up. As it should be, punish those involved………..
230gr Full Metal Jacket
July 24th, 2012
6:00 pm
While I agree with Jeff (My God! I can’t believe I just said that!!!
), I think many are missing the bigger message. Schools like Bama, LSU, UGA, Florida, Florida State. Miami, etc, etc — you know, the “football factories” where a bunch of illiterate kids playing a childs game with a deformed ball is WAY more important than anything as silly as actually educating the students — had better take notice. At all of these schools, Football is placed on a ridiculous pedestal and protected by the administrations at all costs. Academics is secondary to them. While their may not be little boys being molested in their programs, they ARE just as guilty as PSU of putting a game over and above their supposed primary purpose. To make it even worse, they do so against the will of most alumni!! They do it to appease the WalMart/sidewalk fans so they’ll come to campus once a year and spend a bunch of money. Period. Anything goes as long as Bubba is happy with how the team performs. What happened at PSU could easily happen at any of the SEC schools (with the probable exception of Vandy) because any observer knows the SEC administrations will do anything to protect their respective “brands” which is usually determined by success on the football field, not in the class room. Not picking on the SEC — this attitude is becoming common in ALL conferences — but the Good ‘ol boys in the SEC have been doing it for so long that they have pretty much made an art form out of it!!! Do you think if Nick Satan did something horrible the administration would immediately go into damage-control mode and cover it up or spin it to somehow be the fault of someone else (probably Auburn, lol)?? Of course they would!! As long as they can claim to be the National Champions in a childs game it’s all good. Everything else is secondary to the folks in charge. Sadly, this attitude is very common among both administrators and sidewalk fans. The “Football first” mentality has permeated MANY programs. And why should we be surprised? You take children and convince them they are the greatest thing ever just because they can play a GAME well, then you make coaches into little dictators and pay them ridiculous salaries (How many PHd-level professors get paid anywhere near what most coaches get paid???) and give them essentially unlimited power within the program. It’s only a wonder that things of this nature (administrations covering for coaches and/or players misdeeds) don’t happen more often!!!! Schools need to wake up and realize that colleges do not exist to support athletic teams. Or if they do, then they should meet the same fate as PSU.
RTD
July 24th, 2012
6:29 pm
Jeff,
How is the view from the cheap seats? You should remember you are a sports writer not an omnipotent king. No one wins in this situation, least of all the real victims! It’s time to move on where football is considered and let those that we taken advantage of begin to heal.
Enough
July 24th, 2012
6:42 pm
Jeff, give it a rest. How long are you going to beat this horse?
Stumpknocker
July 24th, 2012
6:52 pm
Realy “SHOOTZ”….The death penalty. Since when does the NCAA have judicial authority over criminal cases. This had nothing to do with Penn St football………but all those former players had their record changed because Emmert and Co couldn’t wait for the court system to do it’s job. I, in no way support Sandusky and hope the sob spends the rest of his life in prison. Speaks volumes about the power hungry (gestapo) approach the NCAA takes in this case.
Tucker
July 24th, 2012
6:59 pm
To quote Dale Brown, the retired LSU basketball coach, from 30 years ago, “The NCAA would screw up a two car funeral procession.”
Hazleton Dave
July 24th, 2012
7:00 pm
Hey Jeff, let’s pretend the following: The PSU scandal happened instead at your paper, in the Sports department, back in 2001; The CEO read your “lynch mob mentality” articler, and decided to shut down the entire Sports department for 2 years!
Boss: Loved the column. You’re fired, but free to look for work elsewhere. Creative Loafing is hiring!
Schultz: What? That’s crazy, I wasn’t even here in 2001. In fact, I was in 6th grade
Boss: Like your article said, the innocent always get hurt in these things
Schultz: Did I really write that? I didn’t think you or anybody else ever read my column.
Boss: First time in years!
Schultz: Why did I join an outfit led by people who were secretly committing crimes 12 years ago?
Boss: Well, those people are no longer with the Paper, so punishing you is the next best thing.
Schultz: If somebody has to be punished, might as well be me and the rest of the Sports staff.
Boss: Well, also had to fire ad sales staff, printers, janitors, carriers, and a few others.
Schultz: Well, you did need a “Cultural Change” — get rid of the new people who weren’t here, to bring in newer people.
Boss: Hear the nearby bars and restaurants will do the same
Schultz: So will companies that sell equipment and supplies to us, and who place ads in Sports
Boss: Yeah, sure they’ll have layoff with slower sales for their products
Schultz: Those innocent jerks had it coming, too.
Boss: But, look at the bright side, at least I still have my job!
Schultz: Yes, I am happy for you, even though you worked here in 2001, not me, and maybe even knew what was going on, not me, you clearly deserve to stay.
Boss: LET THIS BE A WARNING TO ALL! IF YOU COMMIT A CRIME WHILE WORKING FOR MY PAPER, I WILL WAIT 15 YEARS AND THEN HUNT DOWN THE NEW PEOPLE THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, AND PUNISH THE SNOT OUT OF THEM.
Seems ridiculous, doesn’t it. Just like your column. It’s so much easier to condemn the innocent when you are not one of them! You should interview one of them, look them straight in the eye and explain your article to them, see how they react. Each of them has a story, and they deserve better, especially those that are still children. And the “that is how the NCAA has always done it” argument is just dumb – back in the 1950s, the way it “was done” was that certain people had to sit in the back of the bus, but clearly that didn’t make it right and we don’t do it like that now. In this case, the NCAA had no legal authority to punish those who allegedly participated in the cover up, and Joe Paterno was already dead, so the only option for them was to punish innocent people. And you not only applaud that, but argue they should have punished the innocent even more. That approach is like shooting a mosquito with a cannon, with reckless disregard for the collateral damage. And to me, that is shameful. Not just because it makes no logical sense, but because of your callous indifference to the players that had nothing to do with this tragedy, and the thousands of others whose lives would be turned upside down by your proposed “solution” to the problem.
Hazleton Dave
July 24th, 2012
7:13 pm
Jeff – Let’s pretend the following: The PSU scandal happened instead at your paper, in the Sports department, back in 2001; The CEO read your “lynch mob mentality” article in today’s paper, and decided to shut down the entire Sports department for 2 years!
Boss: Loved the column. You’re fired, but I hear Creative Loafing is hiring!
Schultz: What? That’s crazy, I wasn’t even here in 2001. I was in 6th grade.
Boss: Like your article said, the innocent always get hurt in these things, always have
Schultz: Did I really write that? I didn’t think you or anybody else ever read my column.
Boss: First time in years!
Schultz: Should have never joined an outfit led by people secretly committing crimes 12 years ago.
Boss: Well, those people are no longer here, so punishing you is the next best thing.
Schultz: If somebody has to be punished, might as well be me and the rest of the Sports staff
Boss: Had to let go of some of the ad sales staff, printers, janitors, carriers, and a few others.
Schultz: Well, you did need a “Cultural Change” — get rid of the new people who weren’t here, to bring in newer people.
Boss: Hear the nearby bars and restaurants will do the same, and some of the companies that sell equipment and supplies to us
Schultz: Advertisers will probably have layoffs too, with slower sales, but those innocent jerks had it coming, too.
Boss: Look at the bright side, at least I still have my job!
Schultz: Yes, I am happy for you, even though you worked here in 2001, not me, and maybe even knew what was going on, not me, you clearly deserve to stay.
Boss: LET THIS BE A WARNING TO ALL! IF YOU COMMIT A CRIME WHILE WORKING FOR MY PAPER, I WILL WAIT 15 YEARS AND THEN HUNT DOWN THE NEW PEOPLE THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, AND PUNISH THE SNOT OUT OF THEM.
Seems ridiculous, doesn’t it. Just like your column. It’s so much easier to condemn the innocent when you are not one of them! NCAA had no legal authority to punish those who allegedly participated in the cover up, and Joe Paterno was already dead, so the only option for them was to punish innocent people. And you not only applaud that, but argue they should have punished the innocent even more. That approach is like shooting a fly with a cannon, with reckless disregard for the collateral damage. And to me, that is shameful. Not just because it makes no logical sense, but because of your callous indifference to the players that had nothing to do with this tragedy, and the thousands of others whose lives would be turned upside down by your proposed “solution” to the problem.
DawgNole
July 24th, 2012
9:26 pm
Well
July 23rd, 2012
1:12 pm
“The entire AJC sports staff will crucify the home team in a NY minute is it means getting blog hits. They will especially do it concerning UGA.”
Atlanta has ONE championship in its entire sports existence. Going after Atlanta sports teams for sucking is well deserved.
____________________
Well said, unfortunately.
DawgNole
July 24th, 2012
9:29 pm
PSU Alum
July 23rd, 2012
1:49 pm
You know…..Who cares……We still got the Steelers. WHat do you have? The Falcons? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
_______________________
Who cares???
Now we see what this guy’s really about. If there are other PSU alums on this blog, I can imagine they are cringing.
DawgNole
July 24th, 2012
10:13 pm
jp
July 23rd, 2012
1:49 pm
If I was the PSU pres or AD I would have asked for a one year death penalty over these sanctions.
___________________
Uh, I don’t believe they were in a position to ask for ANYTHING–much less preferential treatment.
TORONTOPLOPI
July 25th, 2012
1:31 am
Mark Emmert and gang made a huge error injustice when they penalize the present coach and players who are completely innocent of any error.
AD Stinky Fingers
July 25th, 2012
7:48 pm
Pedophile State U, no lessons learned there. Death penalty was a must and the NCAA fumbled. The civil suits should really hammer the estate of Paterno, the scum Sandusky and PSU.
By the way, anybody seen my life? Where them red panties at?
HAL
July 26th, 2012
8:01 am
The few people at Penn State that saw fit to protect their reputation rather than fire Sandusky and get him off campus will be punished. Their actions and the positions they held helped make money for the Penn State football program and keep Paterno’s record intact. The innocent people , fans, players , stadium workers and others that benefit from football in State College could have been better served had the NCAA leveled a fine of 30 million each year for 10 years and done nothing to the football program except vacate the wins that occurred during the time of the cover up. In that way no innocent people would be hurt.
The Big 10 could take the bowl money away from Penn State for the same time period. It is all about the money and in this case innocent kids got hurt in the process.
Brinda
July 28th, 2012
3:00 pm
I’m fine with the fines. The post-season ban is ok. I don’t think I would have taken away as many scholarships though. And I think a 2-year ban from television would not have been out of line.
Landon
July 29th, 2012
11:00 am
I feel bad that kids who had nothing to do with the coverup are getting punished by the NCAA, but on the other hand, the NCAA really had no choice. I do not think that sitting back and doing nothing made sense either.