I agree. I've never supported punishing today's program and today's staff and players for the mistakes made by yesterday's program and yesterday's players and staff. Make the people who did the crime do the time.
Maybe the college sports programs should follow the example of professional sports and spread the wealth, if not nationally by NCAA Division, then throughout each conference. This would remove the incentive from the big, powerhouse schools to cut corners and screw around and then lie, cheat and steal to protect their programs no matter how high the risk or what the cost.
It would also be helpful if staff members fired for breaking the rules weren't immediately snapped up by other schools or by the pros. If they can't be tried and imprisoned for what they've done at least put them out to pasture for a few years, make them unemployable and unpaid. As long as there are no real consequences for the people in charge, things aren't going to change.
Coach Paterno had an excellent record on and off the field until the program became more important to him than his legacy. Maybe it was ego. Maybe the program got too big to control. The reasons for Paterno's failures don't matter now. Sorry, but as much as some of us who've followed college football's legends always admired JoePa, he's not much admired anymore. It's what you do during your entire coaching career that matters.
Until Penn State can prove that its new coaching staff and management of the football team has zero involvement with the (ever-widening) Sandusky Scandal, it does not make sense to allow them to participate in the NCAA.
Is it fair to the players? Unfortunately, no it isn't, but at the same time, how would it be fair to allow people who are possibly guilty of a crime to still continue to hold their jobs?
"it was the others that failed to take proper action."
Um, no. Statements made by Paterno himself revealed that he knew things were going on with Sandusky yet he didn't do anything. At the very least, as Sandusky's boss, Paterno should have confronted him about the allegations and if things didn't change, could have called for an investigation or fired Sandusky outright - that is one of the powers of being head coach you know. While Paterno did tell his boss about the incident he heard about, the administration at the time made a conscious decision to suppress it, ignore it, and do nothing lest they damage the reputation of the school and/or its football program. I can only guess Paterno did nothing and instead decided to protect his friend.
This was not the correct decision. It wasn't the right legal decision, moral decision, or ethical decision. This also goes back to why Penn State should not be allowed to participate in football - or I would argue ANY sport - until such time they can show that their sports program is run by people who follow the law and believe in strong morality and ethical decisions.
Don't make up excuses, Penn State, and Joe Paterno leading them, always preached excellence, doing MORE that just the 'minimum required'.
So don't make a joke out of that, by using exactly that excuse, that they did the 'minimum required' because it wasn't enough, kids were raped because of that.
If you build up a legacy of being a 'better person' not just a better football player, then you can't deny that Paterno failed miserably.
And the NCAA should punnish the school, with a major suspension, because the people in charge there, STILL DON'T GET IT, they're minimizing the seriousness of ALLOWING KIDS TO GET RAPED, and allow the kids that play football, or other sports, to transfer out without a problem, because this is unacceptable, and there's NO EXCUSES for how bad this was.
And if you truly believe in what Joe Paterno preached those years, then LIVE IT, be the better-person, no excuses, these kids got raped, because the school didn't do enough, and that's unacceptable.
This is the moment where people get to choose, if you support what he preached, or if you're just another fanboy, for a celebrity.
They have to keep the punishments fair across the board because of the other punishments that were handed down to other schools for the actions of a few individuals.
I agree that they shouldn't be suspended. But what fines the school has to pay will be paid by the students which is also not fair.
The players can transfer to another school.
Instead of suspending Penn State from football I think the NCAA should fine the school. Players did nothing wrong and punishing them is wrong. There has been far too many attacks on Penn State for the inaction of a few administration people and Paterno's lifetime of service does not deserve to be thrown away. He did much more good than harm and it was the others that failed to take proper action.
