Penn State.

Mi amigos and mi enemigos, there is mucho pain in America over this. I read an article today by a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania newspaper sports writer who wrote of the pain he feels over having loved covering Penn State’s beloved football team in the past and how he hates it now and how he did both because of money, that was what paid his salary.  He feels an enabler. $50,000,000, that was Penn State football’s “profit” last year. One year. That will pay the salaries of a lot of people. I’ve read other sports writers and the guilt they feel for going along with the contradiction between a university’s mission and big-time college sports.  They feel like enablers.

They were enablers. All of us were.  All of us who supported college sports by buying tickets, just by sitting on the couch watching college sports on TV (and increasing the Nielsen ratings) were enablers. I haven’t done it this millennium but I’ve admitted it here, I did it the last millennium so this is not to absolve me or to dilute blame by spreading it around. Penn State football’s $50,000,000 didn’t come from one Sheldon Adelson, it came from the students who went to Penn State because of the reputation Paterno had given the school. It came from the Penn State alumni, what is the figure, 500,000?  800,000?

I’ve read in a couple of articles that this could have happened at many universities.  I disagree and have written here also that I think the breadth and depth of this scandal happened at this university because of factors unique to Penn State. The larger point of these writers however is demonstrably true: college football particularly has led to scandals over money and power, all traceable back to sports fans, at many other places.

And I’ve read opinions on “what should be done.”  Should the statue of Joe Paterno be taken down?  Should the football program be suspended temporarily?*  This last I’ve read is highly unlikely given the power structure in college athletics so I hadn’t given it much consideration until I read a nationally prominent sportscaster say something like, “Can you imagine if September rolls around and there are 100,000 people in Penn State’s stadium cheering on the team?” (I gasped.)  But others have written that the football team and the university are inseparable given the unique circumstances here and I agree with that too. Suspending the football team for a year or two doesn’t get to this identity.  I’ve read (and I’ve written) that Penn State should be prosecuted civilly and criminally under racketeering (“RICO”) laws. That’s what I think should happen.

Prosecuting Penn State under RICO laws gets to the identity of the university and the football program. Prosecuting Penn State under RICO may destroy Penn State. That’s what I think should happen. Leave the statue stand and let the grass and weeds grow around it next to the rusting stadium. Show them, and the rest of the campus, to others as an example and lesson to all of us. Give guided tours, and charge for admission.

*This option is known universally to sports fans as the “death penalty,” which one writer pointed out is the best example there can be of how out of whack priorities have gotten.