I have seen and experienced what collateral damage can do to innocent victims first hand. So it is with that perspective I read through many of the pieces the past few days about what next to do at Penn State. There is no doubt that the healing will have to continue for years, and this horrible miscarriage of justice and coverup will never completely go away. The victims of the abuse scandal can never be fully compensated for what they have been robbed of, and those who knew and didn’t act will have to answer somewhere to a power much higher than the courts. There are no winners here, and the process will continue.
In my opinion, what is important in going forward is to help the victims, raise overall awareness of abuse, and minimize the damage for those involved who had little or nothing to do with this, now that the facts have been presented as clearly as possible. Those new victims are the student-athletes and the business of State College, who would now have their lives changed by cancelling a football season. Many very smart people and very thoughtful members of the media, many of whom I consider friends and longtime colleagues, suggested a season away from football as a just penalty. Just to who? Not the businesses who need that income to stay afloat in a challenged economy, not the athletes who chose Penn State not just to play football, but to get a degree. Give the students amnesty to transfer was a suggestion. Then what? They have to start over at a place they didn’t really want to go to, they disrupt the lives of innocent students who were working hard at other schools, or they have to make a life-altering choice to leave a school they love because of the horrible mistakes of people no longer in control? State College is not a thriving large city, there are many who use the income that flows from fall Saturdays to put their kids through school and pay their mortgages. The thousands that would be lost in income to those people…who had nothing to do with this…would be horrible. They too would be innocent victims…the little guys…who would be pulled into the vortex of this horrible series of mistakes that will never end.
The current administration at Penn State appears to be doing the right thing. Those at the top have been removed, money from last year’s Bowl game went to a victims fund, a victim’s center is being established and the University has pledged total transparency going forward, which is where we should all be looking. Forward. What is a possible solution? How about the pocketbook. Don’t cancel the six or seven or five home games. Have the net receipts from those games go directly to programs for victims abuse, the dollars of which could be in the millions. The athletes get to stay, the residents in the area get to pull in their dollars and every home game is a national living and breathing testament to moving forward for a year. The sounds of fall, not the silence, benefit the victims. Less people lose, and less people are hurt.
Some people have said that in State College there are still apologists, and the students who rioted should be punished, and taking away football for a year is the way to do that. For sure those students who rioted should be punished if they haven’t been already, but will a season away really change the minds of the narrowminded? Doubtful. All it will do is create new innocent victims, and there have been way too many victims already of this horrible series of events. Remove the statue, remodel the showers, maybe even change the uniforms, but don’t create problems for even more lives.
My opinion is not because I love college football. I have never been to a major college football game. It also sickens me to think that this went on and so many knew and no one acted. What I worry about is grandstanding and the widening circle of victims that will be created when a huge business…and football is a business…is pulled out from under. Maybe it is just. However I think what helps more are the dollars that can go to help support and fight injustice, not a one-shot several month cure-all, after which those who championed the death penalty for football will flock back to cover the games played there again.
Hit em in the pocketbook…and help the victims by being proactive not inactive.
And now back to best practices.
