Paterno Statue Down, NCAA Dolls Out Big Punishment

Jerry Sandusky was found guilty, two former board members are awaiting trial, and now the university itself faces steep punishment from the NCAA. Before the NCAA threw the gavel, Penn State took down the statue of Joe Paterno over the weekend as there was pressure from around them to do so and threatened vandalism of the statue anyway. Now just an empty memorial is left.

As for what the NCAA punishment is, it was harsh but not as harsh as it could've been. It hit the school with a $60 million sanction, a four-year bowl ban, the vacating of all the wins under Paterno from 1998-2011, and a loss of 20 scholarships a year over a four year period. With the vacating of wins, it's puts Paterno at 298 wins instead of 409. Bobby Bowden now has the most major college wins with 377 and the late Eddie Robinson now holds the division I record again at 408. The program is also under a 5 year probation and will lose shared Big Ten money of 4 year's worth of about $13 million which will be used "to established charitable organizations in Big Ten communities dedicated to the protection of children," as stated by the conference.

All the penalties and the vacating of wins has effectively taken aim at what Penn State has built over the years. They were lucky to have not received the Death Penalty but this is not much better for Penn State. Seeing it all, it might as well be the Death Penalty. All of these punishments have affectively taken Penn State out of the picture in the college football for a long time. This whole thing might put them in the same boat as SMU and what the Death Penalty did to them back in the 1980's. The bowls games and prestige are gone, the great players coming to the program are gone (and some that are there are likely going to transfer), and by the time that the punishment period has passed, they might not be able to get any of it back. SMU sure hasn't.

Now I understand why some will ask why punish the players and the program for what a few individuals did. I get that the players weren't involved and the current staff there wasn't involved but it's not about them. It's about a couple of things: One is the people involved who decided to cover this up for the sake of their program instead of doing the right thing. In a way, it's just what they covered up to preserve should be torn down. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it's about sending a message that the NCAA will not tolerate this kind of abuse again and that no university should put their program in front of the safety of our children. Football cannot be king in this matter.

Investigation: Definite Cover Up at Penn State

It's easy to make several accusations against someone based on knee jerk reactions and little bits of information. It's what I do everyday. But this story is different.

After 8 months, the independent investigation led by Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI, at the behest of Penn State Trustees concluded and their findings have been revealed. The investigation concluded that coach Paterno, President Graham Spanier, AD Tim Curley and VP Gary Schultz "failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade." It also concluded that these four men instead chose to conceal facts regarding Jerry Sandusky. Curley and Schultz are currently awaiting trial with charges related to this matter.

This investigation just concludes what we all knew and feared: that Joe Paterno was involved in a cover up. I know that we don't have the luxury of asking Joe his reaction but this is still all pretty damming evidence. Now the important thing right now is just to move forward and learn from this. The university has already taken measures to prevent this sort of thing from happening again and I'm sure that other universities will follow suit.

The one question that I kept hearing the last day or so is whether or not the school should take down Joe Paterno's statue. To me Joe's legacy is no more. He knew about this all the way back to 1998 and he failed to act on the knowledge and even was involved in concealing it. I know he was Penn State and this is something that cannot be brushed under the rug but the statue has to at least come down.

Of course the university will make the final decision but when they discuss this, they have to remember a few things: First, that nothing is more important than the safety of our children... that's pretty much it.