[NU Sports] kill PSU football

Wed Nov 9 22:57:18 CST 2011

Would it be bold? Yes. So would lining up every PSU official for a firing squad.

Would it be intriguing? Yes. So would banning the Catholic Church within the state of Pennsylvania.

Would it be a move against the big business of college football? Yes. So would dropping out of the B(C)S Cartel and pushing the rest of the Big Ten to do so.

But would it make sense? No.

Personally, I've had enough of "bold" politicians who make bold statements and sign bold pledges and then boldly back themselves into a corner where they refuse to do anything that isn't 100% of what they want. Too many in recent years have "boldly" gone in the wrong direction and taken the nation with them. I prefer smart action over bold action.

And as for being a good political move, I think it would show through as grandstanding and trying to ride the winds of mobocracy to big poll numbers.

It would do nothing for the victims. It would create new innocent victims in the PSU student athletes who would simply be told that life is not fair. And it would do nothing to address those responsible or help the state.

It just doesn't make sense to me politically, morally, athletically or logically.

But maybe it's just me. 

I can understand getting rid of Paterno now -- I don't necessarily think it was the right call, but I understand it. And I can understand making a significant gesture that big-money athletics are not in control of a university ... and I think that's what the PSU and OSU boards did when they got rid of their high-profile and powerful football CEOs (I still think OSU needs to dump their president as well), taking back some measure of control.

But I don't understand giving the student athletes a "death penalty" for this situation. Even if we assume the worst, there's still nothing linking this to players or what happened on the field or PSU students. In the cases this drastic measure was taken in the past (voluntarily by Chicago, imposed on SMU), it was because either he athletic corruption was damaging students or booster corruption was damaging student athletes. I don't see anything like that here where the actions of a former coach and the inactions of the current coach have damaged current players or students.

Like I said, I hope this is the end of it for the PSU football players -- send the angry mobs after Spanier, the AD, the university police head and Sandusky and focus the attention on the victims. No need to add more victims to this mess.

- Stephen

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
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From: Alan Abrahamson <alan.abrahamson at gmail.com>
To: SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
Cc: "MHRJGScott at aol.com" <MHRJGScott at aol.com>; "nwu-sports at tssi.com" <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 9:31 PM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] kill PSU football

Stephen (and everyone),

I totally understand your position.

Try to put yourself in the position of someone advising the governor. Think of what makes political sense. Not what makes football sense. That's the argument I'm making here. 

Think not only of the statewide political landscape but also of the national political landscape and of making a decisive political stand. This college football season -- which started with the Ohio State scandal and has now segued into this metastasizing scandal at Penn State -- has potentially created an opening for a bold political move related to what is a huge problem in our country related to the big business of college football.

It would make for an intriguing political step, wouldn't it? I bet a lot of people would really welcome such boldness. A lot more than you think ...

Best, Alan

On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 8:18 PM, SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com> wrote:

Alan -
>
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>You know I respect your writing and opinions greatly ... but I do think that calls to cancel a season and especially future seasons is absurd. It's absurd as students "going crazy" over the termination of Paterno's contract.
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>I need a better reason than "life's not fair" to impose a "death penalty" on a football program. Not a bowl ban or scholarship loss - but what you and others proposed is the death penalty for dozens of student athletes and others associated with the program who had absolutely nothing to do with this.
>
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>I gave you the example of closing churches and schools for all parishes within a diocese where abuse occurred ... or closing down the Sun Times because Conrad Black was a criminal ... or in the example I gave in another message, firing all the teachers at a school where the vice principal was accused of molesting a student.
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>It's an overreach and it punishes students for absolutely no justifiable reason.
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>The angry mob has gotten the head of Paterno as they had demanded -- my sincere hope is that they now remember the true victims and go after the people who knew more and did less, ultimately leading to the person who did the crimes themselves, instead of trying to take down student athletes who had no part in this mess.
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>Let's be more Cronkite news-like and less cable news-like in this story and not jump to drastic measures before we stop and think.
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>- Stephen
> 
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>STEPHEN J. TRUOG
>sjtruog at yahoo.com
>GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
>Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
>________________________________
>
>
>
>________________________________
>From: Alan Abrahamson <alan.abrahamson at gmail.com>
>To: SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
>Cc: "MHRJGScott at aol.com" <MHRJGScott at aol.com>; "nwu-sports at tssi.com" <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
>Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 8:29 PM
>
>Subject: Re: [NU Sports] kill PSU football
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>Stephen,
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>Not being ridiculous.
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>If I were advising the governor, that's the advice I would give him. I think my advice would be well-taken and well-received. You're free to disagree. That's fine. But it's clear that something in State College was seriously amiss, and it's going to take a long time to figure out why that was, and how to fix it. They need decisive action there. If the governor was to take such decisive action, he might find it to be a political lightning strike. If I were advising the governor, I'd be looking for political lightning strikes. 
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>For those of you interested, the Penn State Board of Trustees' news conference is live on ESPN News right now.
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>Alan
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>On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 7:23 PM, SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com> wrote:
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>I can understand #1 (and it appears the board of trustees just did that) and am absolutely on board with #2 (along with the AD and university police head).
>>
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>>But the rest are just ridiculous.
>>
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>>Like I said, it's going overboard and punishing people who had absolutely NOTHING to do with this. And I know you mentioned Reggie Bush/USC, and that is the stupidity of the 5-years-late NCAA, but even there it has SOME connection in that these recruits came to SC because of the cheating going on and success it created. This has NOTHING to do with the PSU football players on or off the field.
>>
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>>It would be like closing all the congregations and schools of an archdiocese where a priest was charged with abuse -- even if the priest never served directly at that parish.
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>>It would be like canceling classes at the university for the year if a professor raped a student. Even if none of the students in the class had the professor, but it happened in the department that their prof oversaw.
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>>I think we're getting out of hand here and the attention on the JoePa part is allowing the others who knew more and did less (and the actual perpetrator) to sit in the shadows unscathed.
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>>Let's calm down for a second and not get caught up in the feeding frenzy.
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>>Canceling the season is ridiculous. Canceling future seasons is absurd.
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>>- SjT
>> 
>>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>>STEPHEN J. TRUOG
>>sjtruog at yahoo.com
>>GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
>>Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
>>________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>>________________________________
>>From: Alan Abrahamson <alan.abrahamson at gmail.com>
>>To: MHRJGScott at aol.com
>>Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
>>Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 7:13 PM
>>Subject: Re: [NU Sports] kill PSU football
>>
>>
>>So this is what Neil Kaplan and I were just talking about.
>>
>>If we were advising the governor of Pennsylvania, we would tell the
>>governor:
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>>1. Relieve Mr. Paterno of his duties immediately.
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>>2. Ditto the university president.
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>>3. Cancel the remainder of the 2011 Penn State football season.
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>>4. Cancel the 2012 Penn State football season.
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>>5. The state will honor the scholarships of those young men on the football
>>team who wish to stay at Penn State. Those who wish to leave and pursue
>>other opportunities will be released to do so.
>>
>>6. Announce that you are taking these steps because the university's
>>leaders have clearly lost their moral compass.
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>>7. It is going to take some time for everyone to appropriately again
>>understand how football fits into the scheme of the state's flagship
>>university. Thus: no football until 2013.
>>
>>8. Understandably, this means complications and a raft of
 details to be
>>worked out. Today is not the day for details. Those details will be worked
>>out, with the Big Ten and with our other partners.
>>
>>Neil and I believe that if the governor was to take this sort of decisive
>>action it would be applauded around the United States. Thoughts? Comments?
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>>On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 5:59 PM, <MHRJGScott at aol.com> wrote:
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>>> Like the Roman Catholic Church, Penn State is an arrogant institution
>>> hiding behind its mystique, an insular world that protects its own, and
>>> operates
>>>  outside of societal norms as long as victories and cash continue to flow
>>> bountifully.Penn State rakes in $70 million a year from its football
>>>  program
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