Did the Punishment Fit the Crime?

Photo by Matthew O'Haren (USA TODAY Sports)

Yesterday, amidst the chaos of the most recent Ray Rice fallout, the NCAA tried to sneak through news that Penn State was being reinstated. They now have all their scholarships again, and are eligible for the College Football Playoff this year. This ends what turned out to be about a two year suspension for the program, out of what was a four year sentence. So did the punishment fit the crime then? Did it fit now that we have the benefit of hindsight?

Yesterday, I still wasn't sure how to feel about the reinstatement. I was open to it, but I felt that the timing was absolutely terrible. Then, I saw a Dan Wetzel tweet last night.

At Penn St, celebration for end of Sandusky sanctions turns to restoring Paterno Statue https://t.co/ckI0PGlZii (via @OnwardState)
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) September 9, 2014

Let me be clear. I have no problem with the fact that students, alums, and other fans assembled to celebrate. That's their right. I might have done the same in their situation. It's a good thing to get your team back to full strength. But the lengths they went to are disturbing. These people are demanding the reinstatement of a statue of someone who admitted they didn't do enough.

There are a few common arguments that Penn State fans and others have been using against the sanctions. "The NCAA doesn't have jurisdiction over what happened." "The people responsible for what happened are no longer at Penn State." "You're punishing innocent kids." "This has nothing to do with the football program." On and on it goes. In 2012, I addressed a few of these concerns. I think they still hold true today.

Obviously, I don't know the exact details of what happened in State College between 1998 and 2011, when the subhuman Jerry Sandusky was finally arrested for his crimes. But based on the Freeh Report (which yes, I know, has some question marks to it based on the reputation of Louis Freeh), unless the emails they found are fake, the following facts can be established.

1. In May of 1998, there was a police report filed regarding Sandusky showering with one of the victims. An investigation takes place, but police decide there's not enough evidence to charge him. By early June, the investigation is closed.
2. During this time, PSU officials (including Joe Paterno, according to emails), are kept up to date with the proceedings. They know there's an investigation here.
3. In 1999, Sandusky retires as an assistant coach of the football team. Despite the lack of precedent for such a move, on August 31 of that year, Sandusky was granted emeritus rank, which allowed him continued access to "recreational facilities" on campus.
4. In 2000, then again in 2001, janitors and Mike McQueary, respectively, saw alleged sexual misconduct in the football building. While the janitors never reported what they witnessed, McQueary told his father about it, and then went to tell Joe Paterno.
5. Joe Paterno told a grand jury in 2011 that McQueary told him something sexual in nature happened in the building. Paterno reported it to his superiors, and they met more than once to follow up on the allegations. Despite this, no police report is filed.

I mentioned this in 2012, and I'll say it again. The 1998 investigation was handled the way it should have been. The police got involved, and authorities at Penn State, including Paterno, knew about it. If police didn't have enough evidence to do anything in 1998, I can give the Penn State leaders a pass at that moment. As soon as the 2001 incident came to their attention, their thoughts should have gone back to 1998. Even though there wasn't enough in '98, the fact that a second report, completely unrelated to the first, came out should have raised suspicion. The police should have been contacted. And don't start with the "Gary Schultz was in charge of the campus police!" His title was "Senior Vice President- Finance and Business". If he was in charge of police, his knowledge of these allegations meant he had an obligation to open an investigation too. If police aren't contacted, didn't these men at least have the obligation to revoke Sandusky's access to the football facility?

I don't know what the rationale was in 2001 for not doing more. But based on the facts above, I remain convinced that Paterno, Spanier, Schultz and Curley are all at the very least morally guilty for not doing more to dig into this. Had a police investigation been opened and nothing been found, these men would not be facing the scrutiny they are. Instead it would fall on the police, based on wondering how they could have found nothing not once, but twice.

So back to 2014. For people to think Paterno was innocent (I'm looking at the attorney general as well, despite the claim that Paterno probably wouldn't have faced charges had he not passed away in early 2012) is naive at best. Unquestionably, he did a lot of good for a lot of people. But we can't forget about the people he failed.

These fans need to realize that it''s okay to celebrate the release of sanctions. They just need to remember why the sanctions were imposed in the first place. Problem is, they aren't. This is why the sanctions were necessary in the first place. People claim there isn't a culture problem at Penn State, but there clearly is. People want not only the statue, but Paterno's official win total to be brought back to its on the field total of 409. Paterno's legacy is more important to some people than what happened in the football facility 15 years ago. That's why I tweeted this last night after seeing Wetzel's tweet.

The more I see, the more I think Penn State should have gotten the death penalty. They don't get it.
— Lucas Mitzel (@northsider89) September 9, 2014

Priorities, people. You can be happy that sanctions got reduced. Just remember what put you in a position to celebrate their removal in the first place.

Feeding the Paterno Trolls

I'm breaking one of the most important laws of the Internet, but I can't resist. It's a topic I've touched on on more than one occasion, and one to revisit again today.

This morning the Paterno family released a report to counter the finding Louis Freeh made last year. In what came as a total shocker, the report pretty much absolved Joe Paterno of any and all responsibilities for the heinous crimes of Jerry Sandusky. It's entirely possible they also made some other wild claims, though those are disputed (note: this link is satire, and is not meant to be taken with any degree of seriousness).

While I admittedly did not read through the entirety of the Paternos' report, I did read most of the first 40 or so pages. Honestly, to completely dismiss this report as biased garbage would not be smart, as one could argue the Freeh report was much the same since it was commissioned by the Penn State Board of Trustees. The attorneys who contributed to this most recent report did have some good claims.

The main argument that seems to be used here is that Joe Paterno was duped into believing that Jerry Sandusky was actually a good man who cared about kids.

"The entire Penn State community, including Joe Paterno, was fooled by Jerry Sandusky. Joe Paterno missed the red flags of child molestation, and he never believed Sandusky was a child molester due to the proven behavioral and psychological dynamics and blind spots created by 'nice-guy' acquaintance child sex offenders. This case, if analyzed correctly through the lens of criminal and psychological research, can serve as a model for the public to learn how to identify and prevent child sexual victimization...

"Expert analysis, not surprisingly, shows that such a profile is not unique to Sandusky. It is common in many other case studies of prominent child molesters who hide in plain sight by cultivating and leveraging community trust to escape detection, even in the face of key signs that, in hindsight, indicated child abuse. That fact — the cognitive disconnect between what the community believes it knows about one of its well-regarded members and its inability to reconcile and accept what it later learns about signposts of child abuse — is a behavioral, medical, and psychological reality that repeatedly allows pedophiles to explain away complaints of inappropriate activity. Often, recognition of child molesters is even more difficult for those colleagues or friends who work or socialize most frequently with the child molester, as their own personal experiences and belief that they know the person well in some capacity allows them to accept alternative explanations in the absence of training on how to identify a sophisticated and manipulative child molester." -pages 9-10

To an extent, I can buy this explanation. Sandusky would have done everything in his power to paint himself as the character he did to keep his access to children. But that argument can only hold water for so long in the context of the situation.

These attorneys also attack the core of Freeh's evidence in the emails that were sent, in particular attacking their specificity. It's a good move as well; Freeh does make assumptions about the emails referring to Joe Paterno, though this is where the attorneys' case falls apart in my view.

This is the issue I can't get past. In 1998, Sandusky is investigated by the authorities for reported child sexual abuse. Ultimately nothing comes of it since the authorities supposedly don't have enough to go off of here. Emails are sent about about the incident saying "I have touched base with the coach" and "Coach is anxious to know where it stands." While these are most definitely vague and don't necessarily refer to Joe Paterno, to assume he didn't know about this incident is asinine. Sandusky was still on the football staff at this time. Paterno would surely have known his defensive coordinator was being investigated, either from other Penn State staff or from being contacted by the authorities. On the off chance he didn't know, the administration is not doing a good job keeping the inside of their house in order and we still have a lack of institutional control.

Fast forward to 2001 and the Mike McQueary incident. The attorneys claim that Paterno's elevation of McQueary's story to his bosses is enough, but they claim Paterno "promptly" told his superiors. While he claimed he didn't remember exactly when he told his superiors, Paterno explicitly said during his grand jury testimony, "I ordinarily would have called people right away, but it was a Saturday morning and I didn’t want to interfere with their weekends." This at best shows the misunderstanding the attorneys argue for with the "acquaintance child sex offender" point, but I think there's more to it than that.

Let's say the attorneys are correct with their following conclusion:

"(1) Joe Paterno never asked or told anyone not to discuss or to hide in any way the information reported by Mike McQueary; (2) Joe Paterno never asked or told anyone to limit the investigation of Mike McQueary’s report in any way, and (3) Joe Paterno never asked or told anyone, including Tim Curley, Gary Schultz and Graham Spanier, not to report Mike McQueary’s story as deemed appropriate."-page 26

The following fact still remains true, and this is ultimately what convinces me beyond a shadow of a doubt that Paterno, Curley, Schulz and Spanier (and even Mike McQueary) are all guilty. These men (other than McQueary with the possible exception of Paterno if you want to give this new report the benefit of the doubt) all knew about the 1998 incident. To hear about another incident in 2001 from a completely different source would lend credence to the first report, even if law enforcement dropped their investigation, and would have given not only Paterno, but all those men the responsibility to get police involved again. They didn't, and a pedophile was allowed to roam free for another decade.

The Paterno family has the right to point the finger elsewhere, as there are other responsible parties that still have to answer for what they did and what they failed to do. But they also need to look deep inside themselves and realize their dear patriarch, for all his "I didn’t come to work every day for sixty-one years. I was sick a couple days, and there were other things, like when David [Paterno’s son] got hurt. I don’t know if I’d say that’s completely honest," moments of integrity, this black spot still remains on his legacy. As John Kincade said before we really realized just how deep this went, we need to take everything about Joe Paterno with regards to his legacy: both the men he shaped and the young lives he allowed to be destroyed.

Top 5 Confessions of 2012

I've had this little side project in operation now for probably about 15 months, and for those of you who have been regular readers of Confessions of a Sportscaster, I thank you for supporting the fruits of my down time that aren't spent sleeping, eating, or planning a wedding with my wonderful fiancee. So with New Years Eve upon us, I wanted to count down my Top 5 posts from 2012 based on page view as a quick look back on the big storylines from 2012.

5. COAS/SSLYAR Pigskin Pick 'Em Week 5 (October 4)
In August I started regularly playing basketball once a week with my best friend Nathaniel, who around the same time started up an NFL blog called "Someone Still Loves You, Alberto Riveron". It's an entertaining read with thoughtful analysis, smart picks, and awesome jokes and parodies. Around that time I approached him with the idea of doing a joint weekly post alternating between our blogs of picking games against the spread, and it came to be one of the high points of my week. For this edition, I think viewership may have been boosted by a mention of getting followed on Twitter by Green Bay's M.D. Jennings, but probably more so by having a GIF of "IT'S OVER 9000!", mentioning Bane and maybe Nathaniel's fantastic GIF of Eli Manning.

4. COAS/SSLYAR Pigskin Pick 'Em Week 15 (December 13)
Another of the picking posts (I ended up doing all the odd numbered weeks, Nathaniel did the evens. I'd like to do this again next year, in which case we'll switch. Fairness above all else) that turned out pretty well. It was my most read picks post (though not my favorite, that honor goes to my post with the Matt Schaub PSA about getting kicked in the balls) and a fun one as well. I think most of my views were bolstered by the sheer mention of Grumpy Cat (given my most recent set of search results that have led to COAS. You roll with what's popular.)

3. Game Notes: Elgin High School vs. Auburn High School (3/9/12) (March 10)
I started this blog while I was employed as a board operator at WROK up in Rockford, Illinois in the fall of 2011 before starting my current job with Nokia back in April. Before I finished up there, I was given an opportunity to be the third man in a booth (well, top row of the bleachers at Dundee-Crown High School) with a couple long time radio pros for an IHSA sectional title game. This was a fun game to call, and I also got to see one of the best prep players in Illinois in Fred Van Vleet, now a freshman at Wichita State coming off the bench, though I'm sure his role will grow. He's probably the second best prep player I've ever seen in person other than Ryan Boatright, who I coached against as a senior in high school.



2. A Legend Tarnished (July 2)
This was a fun one to write. I had touched on the Penn State scandal a couple times prior to this one, but with continued hearing about just how far the evil on that campus reached, I was reminded of a class I took on leadership my senior year at North Central. Before posting it, I even passed it along to my professor from that course, Stephen Caliendo, to have him look it over before I posted to see what he thought. He said he thought it was "very nicely written", and he was glad that his class had a lasting impact on my thought process. He was also gracious enough to pass this post around, which I think helped greatly.

The Sports Culture Problem

I am a sports fan, but it should not take precedence over life and death. Not ever.


I wrote these words back in January pertaining to both Joe Paterno and the Kyle Williams situation. I looked back at some of my words and I'm a little dumbfounded at how naive I was to think Paterno had merely been a guy who "wished he could have done more" considering what has come to light in the past 6 months. I revisit it now because these words really resonate today following Penn State's punishment for failing to do anything about Jerry Sandusky.

Many of us place sports as a very high priority in our lives. We carve out time in our schedules to watch our teams play all the big games. Many are not afraid to drop big bucks to go see their teams in person or buy memorabilia. Sports have become big business, even in the so-called "amateur" ranks like intercollegiate athletics. The big schools lose tons of money just for the "honor and prestige" of playing in a meaningless bowl game. We have March Madness that takes offices and sports bars by storm with bracketology. You have sports blogs everywhere like this one, or Geoffy's about the Bulls, or my friend Nathaniel starting up an NFL blog within the past couple days. Eventually we have to weigh the importance of sports against everything else in life.

And that's where the Penn State scandal comes into play. We had an assistant coach who retired after one incident of child sexual abuse, then saw it come to the attention of the school again a few years later, only for the most powerful men at the institution to do nothing about it. Once they were caught, a legendary head coach gets fired and many students are upset about it. As more facts get released, many people realize how duped they were by the bad leaders at Penn State. And yet there are some people that continue to defend the institution, despite all the evidence for why the school deserves condemnation.

Reading through the message board in the ESPN article I linked to above, I was dumbfounded reading many fans (a large chunk of which are Penn State students, alums, or fans, though not all) claiming that the punishment is unfair or too harsh, or even targets the wrong people since this supposedly "wasn't a football issue". This highlights the problem with the football culture at Penn State. To this day, some people are still more concerned with what happened to the program than what happened to the unfortunate victims whose lives will never be the same after their time in State College, PA.


Regarding the punishments, I think they are fair. Funds need to be sent out to deal with child abuse and preferably at programs that teach people what to watch out for in a potential abuser or signs that a child might have been abused as well as support for victims. But the sanctions on the football program are also entirely justified. A pedophile who was a coach for some time and later a major face of a "charity" used the Penn State football program to lure in potential victims, groom them, and take advantage of them. The program was not only the bait, but the willing co-conspirator in that Joe Paterno reportedly talked 3 other head honchos out of turning Sandusky over to the proper authorities in 2001, after there had already been a report of sexual abuse. Once is one thing. If you hear 2 different reports about 2 different incidents from 2 different people, odds are there is some truth there.

Penn State apologists still continue to defend their school and late coach, saying that with Paterno passed on, Sandusky behind bars, Spanier fired, and Schultz and Curley facing jail time as well, the perpetrators are gone and no punishment is needed as the legal system is taking care of it. While this is true to an extent, the program needs punishment. The NCAA needed an example of what could happen when an institution treats an athletic program with more care and concern than the welfare of children, and said culture at Penn State was obvious and needed to be rooted out. Many called for the death penalty, though I think that would have been a little overkill. This will still be a painful lesson for Happy Valley. You cannot treat a football program with more care and concern than children who are being raped. Period.

This wrongful prioritizing is rampant in people quick to say this unfairly punishes the student athletes who will no longer get the experience of a bowl game, though players are free to transfer and coaches from other schools are already circling the big time guys. Penn State is lucky they still even have a football team and didn't get the death penalty. The businesses in the area can still get their game day traffic and hopefully we can see some of the proceeds from PSU football go to the victims or a child abuse charity. This punishment is intended to change the culture at Penn State from a "win-at-all-costs"

But the most important thing to take away from this incident is a warning for all of us, not just Penn Staters. We are human. We all make mistakes, some worlds bigger than others. But to an extent we are part of the sports culture problem. Some fans have a win at all costs mentality, and while it's not necessarily a bad thing, Penn State proved it can be dangerous. We all need to remember that regardless of the sport and the team, sports and winning are not the most important thing. It's connecting with other people, having respect for your fellow human beings, and spending time with the people we love. No amount of championships can ever compete with the love you get from friends and family.

And if you do decide that the program and wins are all that matters, what price are you willing to pay?

A Legend Tarnished

Growing up I never watched college football and really had no idea who Joe Paterno was, other than a guy who had been around Penn State forever. That's why I didn't really have a whole lot of insight when he passed away in January. But his legacy was definitely being overshadowed by the whole Sandusky case, a blight on college football and that little corner of Pennsylvania. But in light of the CNN reports that have recently come out, the damage is much greater than we feared.

I was in the camp before this came to light that Paterno had to have known something and was, to an extent, responsible for the atrocities in Happy Valley. None of us realized how right we were. In listening to John Kincade talk about it, he encouraged people (myself included) to read the article. It was eye-opening to say the least. But it also made me think back to a little over a year ago as I was finishing up my bachelor's degree.

Sports ≥ Life?

This is probably going to be one of the more complicated posts I end up putting on here. I wanted to do something regarding the passing of Joe Paterno, but in light of some recent social media events (as well as mass media events too, I suppose), I'm putting his death into perspective.

I'll admit, I was fooled briefly on Saturday when a Penn State student newspaper broke the news that Joe Pa had passed away, and I retweeted the original post... only to find out a couple minutes later that the story was in fact false. I took down the retweet and felt bad that I had fallen for it, especially since I had checked ESPN and other sources to try and confirm what I had heard. When I saw it on ESPN's website yesterday morning with confirmation from the family, you knew it was official.

The lesson in all of this? Yes, it was a big mistake on the part of a young up-and-coming journalist, but it's rule number one. Check your facts before you post something. I always want to do my research before I post something, and it's always good to have data to back up your claims. You learn this in your basic writing classes even before college. The editor of said PSU paper did resign after his mistake, so he was at least accountable. CBS did later on too, but from a professional organization, you expect better.

As for Paterno himself, it's a complicated mess. I haven't been sure what to say about it, as I am not an avid college football fan, other than trying to incite people towards a playoff. Had he passed away 10 years ago, I'm not sure I would have known who he was. To me he was the guy who was at Penn State forever. History will show him as the winningest coach in D-I history, and a legend, as well he should be remembered. But fairly or not, history will also remember him as the guy who "should have done more" about the Sandusky allegations. Yesterday morning I was listening to John Kincade on the way to church, and he said we need to remember everything about Joe Pa, not just bits and pieces. That means Penn State fans need to take the controversy with the wins, and haters need to remember that despite the presence of an alleged pedophile in the football facilities, Paterno was still a good football coach and someone who strove to help boys grow into strong young men, though some say he got off easy, passing away just a couple months after being fired, without really a chance to reflect on what he'd allowed to happen.