Football First

At a State College hotel on last Wednesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, flanked by 40 supporters, including lawmakers, local businessmen, student leaders, and former Penn State football players, announced that he had filed a federal antitrust lawsuit to overturn the penalties imposed by the NCAA in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The NCAA sanctions, which were agreed to by Penn State’s president and board of trustees, came after former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh presented a 267 page report, which detailed the actions of not only Jerry Sandusky, but also the university’s hierarchy. Gov. Corbett though, has decided that the NCAA had no authority to punish Penn State in what was a “strictly criminal matter” and is seemingly concerned with the impact the sanctions will have on the State College business community. I would say he has forgotten what the impact was for the young victims of Penn State’s systemic treachery, but it is nearly time for him to begin campaigning and getting re-elected is what truly matters.


The Freeh report concluded that the “most senior leaders” at Penn State had known about allegations of child sexual abuse against Sandusky as far back as 1998, were complicit in failing to disclose them, showed a "total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims for 14 years” and "empowered" Sandusky to continue his abuse. When the NCAA announced sanctions, after the report was released, Corbett, who is a member of the university’s board of trustees, expressed relief that Penn State had escaped the "death penalty", while asserting that part of the "corrective process is to accept the serious penalties." He also wanted guarantees that no tax money would be part of the $60 million settlement. Since most of Corbett’s public proclamations on the scandal seem to be concerned with Penn State football, and the money it generates, it should not come as a surprise that he could file such a vicious, vile, repugnant lawsuit. To claim though, that he filed the suit because the NCAA seized on the publicity of the Sandusky case "to make a showing of aggressive discipline on the backs of the citizens of the commonwealth," is simply sociopathic and totally devoid of any measure of compassion for the children who suffered the worst possible fates for so long.


In the lawsuit, Corbett asserted that the $60 million fine and other sanctions levied against Penn State only harmed innocent people. Hell, we can’t have pubs and inns in and around State College going unfilled on game day is what he really meant to say. He seems to have forgotten that the only truly innocent people in all of this are the 8 children (at least) who were subjected to repeated violations at the hands of a serial pederast, Jerry Sandusky, who was then repeatedly protected by a) the head football coach, b) the school’s athletic director, c) the school’s vice president and d) the school’s president. All of whom were more concerned with the impact a scandal would have on the football program and the money it generates for the university, than they were for the lives of children. The Freeh report makes it explicitly clear that all four of these men engaged in “an active agreement of concealment.” Emails and confidential notes acquired by Freeh prove that. Corbett, in defending his lawsuit said “These sanctions did not punish Sandusky or the others who were criminally charged. They punished past, present and future students.” Guv’nah I beg to differ. The sanctions punished an institution that prized football, the second most lucrative national program by some accounts, more than it prized children. This was not just about Jerry Sandusky raping little boys, but that the entire hierarchy from head football coach to school president decided to cover it up rather than risk any public relations damage to the brand that is PSU.


Does anyone believe that if Joe Pa, the most powerful man in Pennsylvania before the scandal, had wanted something done about Sandusky that it wouldn’t have been done? Consider what the response by Penn State higher ups would have been if some first year head football coach had decided to cover up allegations of sexual abuse against one of his assistant coaches. They would have demanded he be tried criminally too, but instead, a coach who raked in tens of millions for the school and who won two national championships passed along allegations of child rape to his superiors and that’s supposed to be enough? The Freeh report makes clear that from 2001 on Paterno knew Sandusky was molesting children. If he passed that information upward, as he claimed and as he is mandated by law to do, than ALL of the hierarchy knew for a decade that Sandusky was molesting children and chose to do nothing about it. The only way to make certain that never happens again anywhere in the NCAA realm is to impose the sanctions they did. I am still of the belief that they did not go far enough. I would have shuttered the football program for a minimum of four years.


Gov. Corbett’s “innocent people” who were harmed by the NCAA penalties are the same ones that gave Paterno et al their power. By making Saturdays in the fall all about the Nittany Lions, they created a cult of personality around the football team and its head coach. Paterno could simply do no wrong. In this case though, Paterno not only did wrong, he allowed it to continue on his watch, as did Spanier, Schultz, and Curley. If the manager of a business conspired to fix prices, with the full knowledge of not only his immediate superior, but also the top two officers of the corporation, the business would be torn asunder by criminal proceedings and crippling fines for illegal activity. It would just be too bad that Dolores in the mail room, Todd the executive assistant and the other 2,000 employees now had to look for work Does the name Enron ring any bells in that cobwebbed head of yours governor? Because it was Division I football though, and a boon for the state tax coffers, and shhh… political contributions, we are supposed to consider the poor students who will be deprived of the chance to win a bowl game or compete for the national championship. If memory serves universities are institutions of learning of the highest level, and not vehicles for football teams, or does the win-loss record of your alma mater matter more than your GPA in job interviews? The hot dog bun may be the vehicle for the dog, chili, mustard, and onions, but it is still the thing that makes it a hot dog. Penn State is a university that has a football team, not a football team that happens to have a college or two.


The penalties were supposed to be a blueprint for suffering. They were designed to be a reminder to Penn State, and all big name football schools, that winning football games at all costs is not what a university, any university, is supposed to consider first. The sanctions were conceived to change the religious fervor and hero worship for the football program, at least as it was practiced under Paterno and Spanier, and to force a transformation of its identity. As part of the penalties, the NCAA vacated 111 of Joe Paterno victories costing him the record of winningest coach in NCAA history. Paterno’s image as an angel of steadfast honor and integrity was vacated too as an artist removed the halo from his head in the State College mural “Inspiration” and the university removed the statue of him outside Beaver Stadium. The pain was not intended to be solely for those who had stood silently as children were sacrificed on the altar of Big Ten Football. Those men should and will receive their legal due. The pain was intended to be of such a magnitude that no one would ever forget the lesson they imparted. They were designed as a reminder that future transgressions, of any nature, would be dealt with swiftly and severely.


The names have changed throughout the Administration of Penn State. Director of Athletics Dr. David Joyner pledged, “Penn State will become a national model for compliance, ethics, and embodiment of the student athlete credo.” New head football coach Bill O’Brien pledged similar designs and may very well deign to run the cleanest program in Division I football, but it is now, always has been, and apparently always will be, a cathedral to a football team that has a university program. Big Ten Football is God in many, many college towns, but in few places with more fervor than in State College, PA. Within days of finishing his first season honchoing the Nittany Lions, O’Brien’s agent was contacted by NFL teams and ESPN reported he interviewed with the Cleveland Browns. O’Brien had previously said, "I'm not a one-and-done guy. I made a commitment to these players at Penn State and that's what I am going to do. I'm not gonna cut and run after one year. That's for sure.” Billionaire booster Terrence Pegula decided to make sure by offering to add $1.3 million to O’Brien’s current $2.3 million dollar salary. That would have made O’Brien among the highest paid coaches in college football. This at a university which is banned for 4 years from bowl appearances, a reduction by half for football scholarships during those four years, the aforementioned vacated wins and a $60 million fine, which is roughly equivalent to the average annual revenue of the football program. The NCAA probably envisioned these punishments as a Samson type dis-tressing, but among the We Are Penn State crowd it is still apparently Football First.


The PSU website proclaims that 1 out of every 117 Americans with a college degree are Penn State grads. That's a lot of votes, and, as witnessed by the proposed $1.3 million gift above, a lot more money. Corbett, like all powerful politicians, CEOs and Wall Street traders is a sociopath when it comes to career advancement. Wondering how he can sleep at night after an action such as this mostly misses the point. It was a Machiavellian tactic of the purest kind by a man who desires a particular political power. The lawsuit plays to a demographic that feels itself wronged and is cunning in its simplicity. From the typical blue collar Penn State fan who feels the NCAA punished those who had committed no crime, Corbett stands to gain some traditional democrat party votes whether he wins the lawsuit or not. From big time alumni like Pegula who can drop $1.3 million without batting an eye, Corbett stands to receive an infusion of much needed cash for what is sure to be an expensive race for governor. All he has to do to tap into that powerful structure is stand up to an organization that no one likes anyway and play the downtrodden soul. Corbett raised around $28 million for his election in 2010. With the election ground game already afoot, money needs to enter his campaign coffers now if he is to continue sleeping in the Governor’s Mansion in Harrisburg. So what if this lawsuit Sandusky’s makes victims relive their abuse? So what that Penn State agreed to the NCAA sanctions? So what that his position as a university trustee makes his lawsuit a conflict of interest? No matter what you or I think, the sanctions were hugely unpopular with fans, students and those numerous alumni. Corbett knows that too and, by filing his lawsuit, has decided that his re-election is the true “moral” victory. In the Corbett camp, whatever has to be done to secure re-election simply must be done. Depravity has found a new home.