I have spent the last few months talking to people about how youth or high school athletic experiences built their confidence, taught them discipline and basically, just enriched their lives. These successful people talk
about how coaches became key figures in their lives, how athletics
showed them they were capable of much more than they believed and how
much they cherished just being a part of something.
But in the last few days I
have been haunted by the Freeh report, which not only confirmed what
many people knew, it revealed legendary Penn State football coach Joe
Paterno wasn't the only powerful man covering for a now convicted child
rapist. I got a few emails on the
subject because last November I wrote a column about how the university
should handle the remainder of the 2011 football season. And while I
acknowledged there were reasons to keep playing, I suggested the reasons
to cancel the remainder of the season were more important.
I wrote: For me, it came down to one question: Are we our brother's keeper? If we are, then the Nittany Lions shouldn't play any more football games this season. They shouldn't play until an investigation by the
university rids them of anyone who knew something and did nothing.
Over time, inaction becomes action. By
doing nothing, those who knew chose to allow an alleged child rapist to
not only roam free, but to maintain office space in the very same
building where they are trying to teach young men how to look out for
one and other.
For
Penn State to rise from this devastation, they must be what Joe Paterno
was not in this instance — courageous, bold and unequivocal.
And, I concluded with this: That coaching staff shouldn't coach another practice or game until university officials finish their investigation. Then, and only then, will it be time to play again. Let's just say I didn't get a lot of support back then.
But in the wake of the Freeh
report, there is renewed talk of cancelling football. Some have
suggested that if the NCAA doesn't punish the program, the university
should (finally) do the right thing and cancel the program for at least a
year.
To read the remainder of this article by Amy Donaldson in the Deseret News, please click here.
