A debate over the future of Penn State’s football program and whether the university should now remove a statue of the longtime football coach Joe Paterno on campus erupted online Thursday after the release of a scathing new report that concluded the late Mr. Paterno and top university officials concealed child abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky for more than 14 years.
With most people, including Penn State students and alumni, expressing outrage over the report’s findings, hundreds of people on Twitter, Facebook and other social sites called for the immediate removal of a statue of Mr. Paterno that stands outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa. Mr. Paterno died in January at age 85, months after the scandal’s details became public and after he was fired.
Tony Basilio @TonyBasilio
Amy Lavoie @amy13phins How about taking down the Joe Paterno statue and putting up a Memorial Tribute to the Sandusky victims in its place.
Penn State should be completely barred from major sports for a period of time, not just lose the ability to offer scholarships or be in bowl games. Then, start rebuilding from scratch. It has been decades since sportsmanship had anything to do with college sports. An object lesson, prison terms for the enablers, and some deep soul searching would be the best memorial to those abused.
I agree about jail time for the enablers, but Penn State students should not be punished. Clean house and bring in new staff for their athletic department. Tear down Paterno’s statue, absolutely.
I would say Penn State should be banned, except that it is not like, regarding football and basketball, that the NCAA is that honorable to start with, or hasn’t made a mockery of the idea of amateur college athletics. For it has. This is not to mean that the individual Div 1-A athletes themselves are not some of the hardest working students on campuses, for at many campuses they probably are. Certainly at my alma mater they are (where everybody works hard, or fails).
It’s just that the entire system is a fraud.
Penn State, should, of course, be banned from the NCAA. But with this reprieve–that if it disbands the Athletic Association, has no more scholarships, no more special admissions, no recruitment–in short, no program– it can stay in Div 1-A. For what should really happen is that it should take the opportunity provided to go back to the original idea–your team consists of the students you have, as they come, because the sport is supposed to be an additive to the academic education, not the other way around, and certainly not a semi-pro team for the citizens of your state. The NFL and NBA need to get their minor league acts together and stop corrupting the idea of what college extracurricuar activities are supposed to be about.
That being the education of the student himself, not providing other people’s entertainment.
But the NCAA placed sanctions on Cal Tech for its policy of permitting students to delay registration for 3 weeks… allegedly student may not have been fully registered.
So the NCAA has to be honorable…. right?
Tear it down? At first I’d agree….but then I heard a better idea earlier today: flip it around so Paterno is forever “looking the other way.”
Give it a while. The way our country is moving Sandusky will be a hero – for sexual liberation – in 20 years. They’ll tear down the Paterno statute and put up a statue of Sandusky.
Fear’ why is it still there?