Lessons from a program in ruins

By Quad-City Times

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A year ago, a legion of Penn State University students and alumni and the Happy Valley crowd looked forward to another stellar football year under legendary coach Joe Paterno.

Today, any legends surrounding the program are crushed, unceremoniously ripped from their moorings like Paterno's statue.

The program continues to fall upon itself like a house of cards in the wake of the conviction of former long-time assistant coach Jerry Sandusky of 45 counts of child sex abuse. Adding to the devastation is the knowledge, backed by an investigation headed by former FBI director Louis Freeh, that Paterno, Penn State President Graham Spanier and Vice President Gary Schultz not only knew about the alleged abuse but did their best to cover it up.

All, seemingly, for the sake of not sullying a storied football program.

Because of the failure of people at the top to do the right thing, past and current football players are penalized, recruits are scrambling to decommit and those at Penn State who have nothing to do with the football program wonder how they can possibly escape the fallout from the heavy financial penalties assessed on the school by the NCAA.

We know this: Penn State isn't the only place where the football program is held up on such a high pedestal. College football is a business worth billions of dollars with much at stake. Adoring fans demand more and more from their teams. Media scrutiny on every down is intense. But college officials shouldn't be in the business of shielding star players or star coaches.

Other schools with proud sports traditions, including the University of Iowa, have challenged media efforts to obtain information about athletes charged with criminal offenses and details about their cases. That's just wrong.

If the Penn State saga teaches us anything, it's that never again can so much ride on one sport and one coach.

That kind of power is dangerous and, in the case of Penn State, has left dozens of people irreparably harmed and a university community devastated.

Sarah Ganim, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting for the Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot-News broke open the Sandusky story, posed this question in a story this week after the NCAA sanctions against Penn State were announced:

“And how many more days like this are ahead?”

None, we can only hope.