Penn State officials have broken a lot of hearts in the past few months, past few decades, with their historic mishandling of a life situation.
It's likely they broke some laws along the way.
And as despicable as the action and inaction have been, that the NCAA is barging in, sort of, is debatable.
Maybe it's just the talk of the death penalty that's unnerving. Fortunately, that will be just talk. When we're told on Monday what the NCAA is handing out, it will be severe and leave bruises, as it should. It won't be the death penalty, and it shouldn't be.
Laws of the land and rules of an organization are different. It's not expected that a business or group has in its bylaws that those under its rule cannot molest children and cannot cover up for those who molest children.
So the death penalty is absurd and no doubt a stretch of the NCAA's reach, and certainly would have led to a round of legal moves, which would have been warranted. And it takes a lot to say that.
The nation has done a remarkable job the past three or four years of ignoring logic, of focusing on one-dimensional or no-dimensional knee-jerk analysis. And as disgusting as this is, reality still has a place in it.
The reality nobody wants to talk about is that this could have happened at almost any major college, for the reasons some are talking about: too big.
People have made sports and teams and people bigger than they should be. Sports and teams and people have as much or more power, in some ways, than government. After all, society knows more about the bowl system and baseball wildcards and the date of the Super Bowl than it does about, well, relevant and important stuff.
There is more delusion than passion in sports. That sports is considered an escape from reality is part of the problem: too many people have escaped from reality and we're still awaiting their return.
The venom is strong in too many "we" and "us" arguments and debates. People hate a state because of a team.
How idiotic is that? Grow the hell up a little bit.
To blame Penn State fans for the Penn State mania that inspired officials to feel so much pressure to cover up is mostly unfair. That mania, that obsession, exists in nearly every state.
It exists in this state.
But there are those who stand up to the brainlessness of fan bases, who exercise logic and a grip in that rare reality. Penn State had a reputation for doing the right thing, for proper priorities. That's why it's almost a shock that this is the school that screwed up so badly.
I had never been enamored with Paterno. He found a way to mix a certain humility with an understated and overlooked level of arrogance. Being generous and a jerk doesn't define you any more than been nice but cheap does.
As we found out, he wasn't much different than those he no doubt dismissed with disgust. Yessir, he was about making some money, too.
Taking down the statue is a no-brainer. Renaming what needs to be renamed is a no-brainer. Noting that Paterno did accomplish positive at Penn State is a no-brainer.
Penn State will pay for its misdeeds for generations. The city and region will, and the state, to a degree. The people certainly will, for a generation or two. They won't forget because they won't be allowed to.
The NCAA can overdo it, and thus punish the innocent. The humanity part of the scandal is a deterrent, as is the inherent public relations considerations that, admit it, enter into people's minds. Can't help it.
Athletics officials may not do the right thing often enough when it comes to basic NCAA rules, and they can find a way to defend that. And they can understand in large part the mentality of the Penn State officials who felt so much pressure.
But they also know that they can be forgiven for a recruiting or booster violation. They won't be forgiven for a human violation.
The NCAA has to be careful not to be perceived as a dictator. It can scold and punish, but it can also go too far and damage its own reputation and effectiveness with an unfair decision.
Fine the athletics program. Throw down some scholarship and recruiting limitations. Cut the football or athletics department staff – and if you don't think that's necessary at every top 50 program, you haven't looked at how fat those staffs are – and hand out the requisite postseason limitations.
But here's a longstanding issue from this spot with NCAA TV penalties: they also penalize another team that may not get the TV call all that often, and on a given week, that team playing Penn State makes it on TV.
It's not as if every human watching a Penn State game on TV won't be thinking of the scandal for the next several years. That's a punishment as well for people who had nothing to do with this.
Simply don't allow Penn State to share in any TV money for a game that's broadcast. Give that share to the other school perhaps.
Leave the seasons and wins and record alone. Tell 'em they can't have a Paterno statue anywhere. Sorry, but nope.
There are ways to punish a program without punishing other programs. Too, let's not cripple the program so much that it affects the non-revenue sports where the obsession doesn't exist, not to say there haven't been such scandals in those sports.
The NCAA better realize that it oversees a lot of schools that think the same way Penn State did: limit bad pub. That they so mishandled it – they could have done the right thing and, well, would have mostly been praised for doing the right thing in an abominable situation – is as bad as it gets, but it is, in fact, possible, to do the wrong thing as far as punishment goes.
Here's hoping NCAA boss Mark Emmert doesn't overdo it, but that gut feeling is that he will. And that isn't good for anybody.
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