“You don’t understand Penn State! This has nothing to do with football” Is an angry response I heard to my 2011 blog post, Sins of Omission, Paterno & Penn State.
This child abuse scandal has everything to do with football and you do not have to be a Penn State student or alumni to understand it.
By now, the country has heard of the NCAA sanctions Penn State received and the fall out from investigations resulting from school leadership failing to respond to child abuse resulting from coach, Jerry Sandusky.
Understandably, many Penn State students, fans, and alumni are upset at yet another blow to the school’s and the football program’s reputation. Basically, the school’s team will not be able to really come back to full strength till 2020. To add to their lament, the school took down Joe Paterno‘s statute because the school felt it became it became “a source of division and an obstacle to healing in our university and beyond”.
It is clear from the Freeh report, there was a weak system of accountability for Penn State football. Administrators, school officials, trustees, and coaches feared to bring anything forward that would tarnish the football program. A former administrator, responsible for student discipline experienced this system of suppression for negative attention for Penn State football. CNN recounted Vicky Triponey’s employment at Penn State:
