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As of this writing, I have no idea whether the Penn State Nittany Lions won their Jan. 2 Rose Bowl matchup against the Trojans of USC. To be honest, I don’t care.
Even though the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke more than five years ago and he’s been in prison since 2012, it’s still hard for me to watch this team and its fans enjoy a football game. It seems like the world of Penn State football continues to roll on as if nothing ever happened. It’s just football, and today, none of the players or coaches attached to the program had anything to do with the horrific child-molestation scandal that resulted in the firing of longtime coach Joe Paterno.
But if you look beyond football, the Sandusky affair is still kicking up dust, and it will continue to affect the lives of those involved for many years to come. And it’s clear now that the Sandusky situation went unchecked as long as it did because its discovery would not have been good for the football program.
Earlier this year, for example, Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary won $12 million in a whistleblower lawsuit he brought against the university. McQueary, you’ll remember, reported to Paterno that he caught Sandusky in the locker-room shower with a young boy. University officials decided not to call authorities and never brought the matter up to McQueary again. When the scandal broke, however, McQueary was fired and made a scapegoat for Penn State not reporting the assaults.
After the whistle-blower trial, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Stephen Nesbitt reported McQueary’s account of how the former coach lost his wife, became estranged from his daughter and was unable to get even the lowest level of employment. “For me to not be able to go to work … as a coach[,] or work a cash register, man, it’s humiliating,” he told the P-G.
Stories like McQueary’s are among the reasons I’ll find it hard to watch the Rose Bowl. Some things are more important than football. Sandusky’s victims know it. Mike McQueary knew it and he paid for it. Five years later, there just aren’t enough roses to cover the smell of what happened at Penn State in 2011. Maybe there never will be.
This article appears in Dec 28, 2016 – Jan 3, 2017.
Stop spreading this trash! Do your research. You keep spreading the false narrative. People wonder why no one listens to the media anymore. All it is is tabloids any more.
Give me a break. What happened at Penn State was a tragedy, and the man responsible is rotting in prison where he belongs. The school administrators accused of the cover up are still awaiting trial 5 YEARS LATER and if PROVEN GUILTY, they should go to prison along with Sandusky. However, in a rush to put out subpar content such as this article, many “writers” such as yourself choose to ignore facts and due process.
If it bothers you so much that Penn State alumni and fans continue to support the current players and coaches who had nothing to do with the horrible acts that occurred on our campus, then do us all a favor and keep your uninformed opinions to yourself.
The current Penn State coaches and players deserve better than this. As the first comment says, what happened was a tragedy, and justice for some is still pending. But generalizing your outrage to players and coaches who were not there or who had nothing to do with the crimes is just self-indulgent and helps no one.
As a child who was raped I think we are the ones who should be listened to. A bowl game this quickly shows how little PSU fans and alumni care about their scandal.
It was a football culture that allowed this to happen. It’s why Penn State football should have been reduced to at least, the FCS level.
These events have nothing to do with the current players, coaches, administration or students. Stop continuing to slander a great university that has already paid dearly for it’s mistakes. There is no excuse for what happened and those individuals are being held accountable. But not supporting a group of kids that have made tremendous strides in the face of adversity and garbage press such as this is ridiculous.