Unnecessary Roughness

While the late Coach Joe Paterno and several top Penn State administrators appear to be responsible for covering up unspeakable crimes attributed to Jerry Sandusky, I wonder why the NCAA needs to revise history.

On top of huge financial penalties, the organization has stripped the school of its gridiron victories between 1998 and 2011, the years when Paterno and others, according to the Freeh report, agreed to hide Sandusky’s child sex abuse activities to protect the football program from bad publicity. Perhaps someone reading this may have seen one of those games. Did Penn State win, or not?

Typically, colleges are penalized for recruiting violations, unethical favors for star players, letting team members skate on grades, etc. I’m trying to figure out how Sandusky’s alleged offenses, horrible as they were, affected the performance of Penn State teams.

Maybe you could say that if the crimes had been exposed early on, the coaching system would have been disrupted, as Joe Paterno would have been forced to name a new assistant and the school’s ability to field top teams in the wake of the publicity might have been impacted. So, continuing with business as usual would constitute an unfair advantage. That argument may work for you; I’m not sure it does for me.

The school has also been banned from bowl games and will lose scholarships, as well as shared revenue from college football seasons. And current players will be able to take their scholarships to other schools. Observers say it will be the better part of a decade before the football program is back on its feet again. Many are saying, “Fine, football’s too important in what’s supposed to be an academic institution.” Explain that to current students, faculty, alumni, and also the business people in a college town who depend on seasonal income from fans. And, of course, there’s the question of where the money’s going to come from to pay off the lawsuits. How exactly is the school supposed to recover?

All those former Penn State administrators who participated in this scandal should be stripped of all their assets; others who turned their heads in denial of the facts shouold be identified; and whoever’s in charge of hell can turn up the furnace in the section where Joe Paterno may be, and where perhaps Jerry Sandusky may join him. But once the cancer's removed, isn’t it time to stop the radiation?

Fair Comepnsation at Penn State

Following the release of that scathing report about the Sandusky sex abuse cover-up at Penn State, CNN legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin observed that “wheelbarrows” would be needed to transport all the money the university would have to pay out to the victims in view of the punishment that angry juries would likely inflict in the inevitable lawsuits.

But what of the “other” victims here -- the students, faculty, administrators and board members who were not involved, and even the local community the university supports? Who is going to compensate them?

Certainly, the minors who were directly abused by Sandusky are entitled to fair compensation for what’s been done to them. But how much of a blow can the university take, especially if its insurance coverage doesn’t apply? Will classes have to be cut, faculty and other workers laid off? How about the vaunted football program, which would seem to be an especially juicy target?

Just to start with that, there are students whose opportunity for a college education depends on their ability to play football, and many have gone on to be productive members of society. Is that program now worthless?

It would clearly be appropriate to remove Joe Paterno’s statue from the campus, or at least cover it with a tarp for a long time. But Paterno and the other villains in this scandal are gone now – in his case, really gone. What more can the school realistically do?

When it comes to damages, it could be argued that no amount of money can fairly compensate Sandusky’s victims, meaning that huge awards to these folks would, in the great scheme of things, serve primarily as a symbol of the terrible things that have happened to them and a warning that such offenses will be have dire consequences in the future. When it comes to the money, though, I hope that a sense of balance prevails among the attorneys seeking compensation for their clients (and themselves) and among the civil juries deliberating cases that go beyond the settlement phase. There are others who will be suffering losses for which they have no remedy.

Sandusky's Other Victims

The conviction of Jerry Sandusky on child sexual abuse charges brings a rightful close to an unhappy chapter in the lives of his victims, but it’s just the first chapter of a long story. There will likely be an appeal, and much more likely, civil litigation, and the victim pool will spread. I wonder what’s going to happen to Penn State University. Will the cover-up, apparently perpetrated by a few, result in the collapse of a respected institution, affecting students, faculty, employees, and in some way, an entire college town?

The good news, though unpleasant, is that thanks to cases like this and those involving the Catholic Church – and with special thanks to those willing to come forward to talk about what’s happened to them -- this form of abuse, which has been shrouded in shame and secrecy, is coming to the surface to be dealt with. One of the “victims” will be our complacency about it. There just isn’t any more room under the rug.

And we’re going to discover how common this sort of thing is. The most difficult point to grasp may be that while the predation involved in these cases is a crime, the mere predilection, while perverted, is not, if there's no overt action that follows. Some men who are subject to it have no victims – they realize what their problem is and seek help for it.

This goes back to what we might call brain wiring. Where does this urge come from? Is it caused by a traumatic sexual experience in childhood? Is there a genetic predisposition to it? What’s the solution for those who have it – treatment, castration, banishment for life to Devil’s Island, or exorcism? In his own way, is Jerry Sandusky himself, at least in some small measure, a victim?

Judgment is the easy part. The criminal justice system can deal effectively and appropriately, as it has in this case, with predatory behavior. Delving into the mystery of what makes human beings tick – especially at the wrong rhythm -- is a lot harder. But if there’s a cure, it’s that process that will help us discover it.