I hear from all kinds of readers and their feedback to my work, but every once in a while I get a letter like this one, which stands out among so many others. Good Afternoon Jerry, I read with interest your recent story about the NCAA lifting the sanctions against Penn State for the Sandusky scandal. It initially bothered me that the NCAA had lifted the sanctions, specifically the bowl eligibility and scholarship limits…but I soon accepted it. In my eyes, those penalties did what was intended, i.e. send a strong message that the NCAA would also monitor issues not directly linked to sports, and it brought national embarrassment to Penn State for its role in covering up/not reporting the crime. At the time, I also liked that it was a slap in the face to the students who were blindly marching across campus in support of Joe Paterno. But after a few years, and given the fact that most of the major people in the case were punished or dead, those were now penalties on the current students that really had nothing to do with the case. Ok…a little background on me. I grew up in Pennsylvania, lived there for the first 30+ years of my life before moving to NW Indiana because of the steel industry. I grew up hating Penn State. Not in the way that you hate a team because they are your rival…there is usually some respect in that. I simply hated everything about PSU. Especially the way JoPa was considered a god. So while the crime sickened me (a father of two)…I took pleasure in the punishments. Sandusky was imprisoned…but more importantly Joe Paterno was fired and died in shame. Sandusky was a monster, but Paterno, who could move mountains in PA, did nothing to protect these boys. Before he was fired while his future with Penn State was still in doubt, he made a statement saying that he would make the decision easy for the board of directors and step down at the end of the season. My inbox was filled with emails from friends basically saying “who the hell does he think he is, that he can still make these decisions”…he just didn’t get it…and never would before he died. But now I just read that they are reinstating JoPa’s wins. He will be celebrated once again for what he did on the field…not reviled for what he ignored off it. And I am in a sitting here with a pit in my stomach and simple rage towards this decision. In the end, it will be a non-issue. His supporters will point that this is right and just, he shouldn’t be judged by one mistake in long career of service, no matter how heinous his inactions were. I expect to see a story soon about his statue going back up…and sadly all will be forgotten. Of course I don’t always agree with your columns, but I do always enjoy reading them. Whether you highlight a point of view that I may not have considered, or make me question my own views, or simply teach me a bit of NW Indiana history , I look forward to sitting down after work in the evening and seeing what is on your mind.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 03:31:35 +0000