Warning: This is LONG

The past week's events at State College have really made me re-examine the way that I look at college athletics. Although I don't want to create yet another Penn State or Joe Paterno thread, I do want to share a few thoughts on our current college athletics system, the NCAA, and society (I suppose) as a whole.

Years ago I was a big NFL fan. Although I always fancied myself as more of a college football enthusiast, I didn't really have a team at that point because I attended a small liberal arts college with no D-1 programs. I was a big fan of a particular NFL franchise and spent my Sunday watching the team on Sunday Ticket. God only knows how much merchandise I bought and how much money I had spent on NFL licensed items over the years.

Eventually, I got sick of the NFL. Goodell's policies of fining players for hits that weren't called penalties, re-enforcement of strict uniform policies, his general demeanor, and over-inflated egos of the players and coaches all helped distance me from the league. It became clear to me that the owners, players, and league officials had lost sight of their position in the world - entertainers. Somehow, I stopped being so entertained.

When I started attending Pitt in 2008 I became a big fan. Having a rooting interest in college athletics made me even more of an enthusiast. I really enjoyed the fact that I had ties to the same university as the players on the field/court and appreciated being able to support amateur athletes - some of which would never play in the NFL. I suppose I bought into the fact that there really were amateur athletes and that there was still a love for the game that wasn't corrupted by a paycheck.

This week has seriously shaken my confidence. I just recently reflected back to the incident at Notre Dame where a student lost his life video taping practice for the football team and couldn't help feeling a connection between the incidents that unfolded this week in State College. It's all a business.

I knew college athletics generate revenue. I knew there were business components to it. I think that perhaps I just willfully overlooked the significance and impact of the business and revenue components.

At ND, a decision was made to allow a student to go up into a lift in extremely dangerous conditions in order to film practice. The conditions proved to be so dangerous, in fact, that he lost his life. For what? A few minutes or hours of footage? How much was that footage really going to be worth to the football team? Would it be worth a win? A national championship? Better yet - would it be worth the millions of dollars they would receive because it made them successful?

At Penn State a decision made over ten years ago not to report the actions of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky comes out much to the horror of Americans. Even more shocking are allegations that there had been a previous issue of child abuse with boys in the shower from 1998 and a potential cover up of the entire situation. The university's cult hero, Joe Paterno lost his job because he didn't report the situation to the police and felt compelled to just pass it up the chain of command. His superiors, much to everyone's dismay, never reported it to police.

It appears as though Paterno and company decided that their football program was more important than the welfare of children. Rather than report the incident to the proper authorities and take the risk that it might reflect poorly on the program they decided to cover it up and have now potentially become complicit (morally speaking) in the abuse of God knows how many children.

So what happens next? Mostly hollow gestures. ND attempts to honor their dead student at the next home football game. Penn State has a moment of silence at their next home football game in order to respect the victims of child abuse. Penn State fires key members of their administration including Paterno (I do not mean to downplay this). The football games go on. Penn State packs 108,000 fans into Beaver Stadium. The money continues to pour in.

I don't mean to use these examples to suggest ND or Penn State should do more at the current time to remedy these wrongs. They're just two examples of the problems in the system as a whole. College football has become so important that death and child abuse have taken a back seat to football programs. Doing the right thing was nowhere to be found - unless of course you mean doing the right thing for the football program.

I don't know how to remedy this problem. In fact, I feed into the problem as I have tickets to Pitt football games, attend a few basketball games a year, and have spent countless dollars on licensed merchandise.

I do know that kneeling in front of Joe Paterno's house in reflection isn't the right thing to do. Rioting because a football coach was fired isn't the right thing to do. Hollow gestures to save face for the program aren't the right solution to the problem. Not even the allegations of child abuse will keep 108,000 fans out of Beaver Stadium. If that won't, I guess nothing can - the money train will just keep on rolling.

What does this say about society? I feel a bit ashamed for the money I have spent in support of this system. I know the system needs a complete overhaul but I'm not sure that's going to stop me from tuning in to the Backyard Brawl in two weeks.

Dude... did you steal my notes for the blog I'm working on lol.

I 100% agree with your post. All of us on these very boards are part of the underlining problem. We all love our sports, each and every one of us.

But I must ask... we can name 10 players from our favorite teams, but can any of us name 5 candidates in our local elections from the past week.

We all can recite lyrics from our favorite songs, but can any of us recite the Preamble.

We all wonder why politicians are so corrupt... but we're more concerned with that big game next week. We let these politicians become corrupt because there is 0 accountability. And electing the next dumb f*ck isn't exactly accountability.

Until we as a society get our priorities fixed, it'll be the same ole sh*t. Corruption run wild in politics and in sports in general.

I do think we need to go back to the days of when the TV deals went through the NCAA. It'll be a first step from taking the industry out of college sports.

Note... I'm very hypocritical in saying this stuff because I'm just as guilty as the next guy.

What really got me was seeing the Penn State students outside of Paterno's house, then rioting in support of Paterno as though HE was the victim in this. I realized pretty quickly that they were out of touch with what was really going on.

Since then, my Facebook news feed has blown up with comments from Penn State fans (and even some people who weren't) supporting Paterno and admonishing the board's decision to fire him. People I had thought were pretty level-headed have showed me quite the opposite.

I really didn't tie everything together until I remembered the ND incident, though. It's easy to blame one particular fan base. Penn State's students (and some fans) have done plenty over the past week to look foolish. The fact that someone died at ND and the game went on there without a beat and really nothing but hollow gestures shows me that it's not just Penn State - it's a systematic problem.

That's when I started to feel ashamed of myself. I feed into this monster constantly. As much as we'd like to think that this type of coverup was an isolated event at Penn State I think that it could happen anywhere. The entire system has led to the corruption of its participants and there's no end in sight.

Where I was originally going with this thread was to mention that I wouldn't be upset if a decision was made to cancel the entire 2012 season to get things under control. A new governing body should be installed that closely monitors issues within programs and wields actual power over the schools. Unfortunately I don't know how that would eliminate the ultimate corruptor - money. Also, this would take political involvement and it's usually my gut reaction to tell politicians to stay the hell out of sports and focus on real issues. I guess my tune changes when I see that sports ARE a real issue.

I've been thinking about blogging lately. How does one get into that?

Well, one was an single act of negligence, an accident. The other was systemic enabling of child rape and failure to report or stop child rape. I don't see close parallels here.

ND has created a scholarship fund in Declan Sullivan's name and has erected a monument to him near where he died.

I guess you can call that a "hollow" response, I don't know. Declan Sullivan's family has announced many times that they were overwhelmed with the response by ND and the ND community towards their loss. They even have declined to file a lawsuit against ND and have not accepted a settlement.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-...practice/2


I don't think the child rape victim's families have expressed a similar sentiment towards PSU or its leaders.

(11-13-2011 08:58 PM)Joey_Niklas Wrote:  Dude... did you steal my notes for the blog I'm working on lol.

I 100% agree with your post. All of us on these very boards are part of the underlining problem. We all love our sports, each and every one of us.

But I must ask... we can name 10 players from our favorite teams, but can any of us name 5 candidates in our local elections from the past week.

We all can recite lyrics from our favorite songs, but can any of us recite the Preamble.

We all wonder why politicians are so corrupt... but we're more concerned with that big game next week. We let these politicians become corrupt because there is 0 accountability. And electing the next dumb f*ck isn't exactly accountability.

Until we as a society get our priorities fixed, it'll be the same ole sh*t. Corruption run wild in politics and in sports in general.

I do think we need to go back to the days of when the TV deals went through the NCAA. It'll be a first step from taking the industry out of college sports.

Note... I'm very hypocritical in saying this stuff because I'm just as guilty as the next guy.

I can sing the Preamble...

I agree with much of what was said on here. But it's even more fundamental than waking up one day to realize that CFB is driven by money. If people are truly ready to tackle the problems of sports, you'll see a truly radical change in our culture on a very fundamental level. Because to take this to the logical conclusion, i.e. people should not be paying money to watch adults play games and that adults should no longer be worshiped because of their association with playing games, will result in many changes for the better in society. That's the truth.

We shouldn't be sick over the fact that a lot of money is swirling around CFB, because that is not the root of our problems. We should be sick over the fact that we are willing to spend all of this money on CFB in the first place. ESPN may spend an awful lot on CFB, and many wail about the evils of ESPN and how it is changing the game, but realize that ESPN is merely acting in the interests of the CFB fan. Expansion, realignment and all the money tied up in CFB are the effects - we are the causes that drive this "monster". And it's not just CFB but all professional sports. If we stop consuming the product, the sports world evaporates practically overnight.

(11-14-2011 12:40 PM)Lucy Wrote:  

(11-13-2011 08:58 PM)Joey_Niklas Wrote:  Dude... did you steal my notes for the blog I'm working on lol.

I 100% agree with your post. All of us on these very boards are part of the underlining problem. We all love our sports, each and every one of us.

But I must ask... we can name 10 players from our favorite teams, but can any of us name 5 candidates in our local elections from the past week.

We all can recite lyrics from our favorite songs, but can any of us recite the Preamble.

We all wonder why politicians are so corrupt... but we're more concerned with that big game next week. We let these politicians become corrupt because there is 0 accountability. And electing the next dumb f*ck isn't exactly accountability.

Until we as a society get our priorities fixed, it'll be the same ole sh*t. Corruption run wild in politics and in sports in general.

I do think we need to go back to the days of when the TV deals went through the NCAA. It'll be a first step from taking the industry out of college sports.

Note... I'm very hypocritical in saying this stuff because I'm just as guilty as the next guy.

I can sing the Preamble...

I had to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution, "Paul Revere's Ride", the Gettysburg Address, and other historical documents in the 5th grade. I though everyone had to do that. I still remember most of these historical writings today.

(11-13-2011 07:37 PM)ndlutz Wrote:  Warning: This is LONG


I don't know how to remedy this problem. In fact, I feed into the problem as I have tickets to Pitt football games, attend a few basketball games a year, and have spent countless dollars on licensed merchandise.

I do know that kneeling in front of Joe Paterno's house in reflection isn't the right thing to do. Rioting because a football coach was fired isn't the right thing to do. Hollow gestures to save face for the program aren't the right solution to the problem. Not even the allegations of child abuse will keep 108,000 fans out of Beaver Stadium. If that won't, I guess nothing can - the money train will just keep on rolling.

What does this say about society? I feel a bit ashamed for the money I have spent in support of this system. I know the system needs a complete overhaul but I'm not sure that's going to stop me from tuning in to the Backyard Brawl in two weeks.

You should feel no more ashamed about your tickets than you would listening to your Ipod, watching a movie or surfing the net. If we destroyed every institution that perpetrated a major law their would be precious little left of our society.

What does this say about our society? Nothing, as predators have been with us since the beginning of human history and there exists no prospect for us ever eradicating them from our midst. The same is true for cowards, brown-nosers and inept leaders. Please don't misunderstand this as me poo-pooing your guilt. But we have a system in place that will ensure that the guilty, if convicted are punished. If there is one take-away from this episode it should be this:

Eternal vigilance is the price for everything.