We all know about the Jerry Sandusky abuse that occurred and the PSU's administrations attempt to cover it up. Many people believe the NCAA should give the Penn State football program the death penalty. Many believe Penn State should get rid of its football program all together. For now, lets stick to the NCAA DP. In order to receive the Death Penalty, a program must violate the repeat violator rule. If the program has committed 2 major violations within a 5 year period.
3 Reasons why Penn State Football deserves the Death Penalty:
1. Crimes were committed in the football facilities
2. Football employees were involved. Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, and Mike McQueary were all football employees when the abuse and cover up occurred.
3. The crimes committed were far worse than any NCAA violation.
3 Reasons why Penn State Football shouldn't receive the Death Penalty:
1. Technicalities: technically, PSU didn't commit 2 major NCAA violations during this span. The NCAA hasn't hit them with a major violation in the last 5 years either. All the evidence the NCAA collects and possibly uses for a violation will fall under 1 violation.
2. Penn State football is cleaning house: there are only 2 coaches left on PSU's staff from last year, Larry Johnson and Ron Vanderlinden.
3. Penn State needs the money for upcoming civil suits.
Precedent to this case: 2003 Baylor Basketball- basketball player Patrick Dennehy was murdered by teammate Carlton Dotson; then-coach Dave Bliss was fired for allegations that he had made improper financial payments to players and planned to cover it by characterizing Dennehy as a drug dealer.
Should Penn State football get the Death Penalty? Should they receive any punishment from the NCAA?
The question is worded funny. Do the current players deserve it? No. However, the Penn State football program does.
Stephen A. Smith had a good idea, just not practical. I will use his idea and tweak it a little to make my own:
Give Penn State the death penalty. However, ALL current players and recruits should be either set free from their commitment or allowed to transfer with no penalty.
As the report showed, almost the entire administration and football program knew what was going on and covered it up.
Grant it, this was not done for a competitive advantage like paying players, etc... BUT they knew penalties were going to come and they covered it up.
This program is pretty dead already now, but the NCAA needs to make an example of them. I would say kill the program for one year. I would say longer if Joe Paterno were alive but one dead year, along with the tarnished image AND allowing the kids that are LOCKED-IN there, to freely leave.
I would not mind if the program were given a 14 year death penalty though because child rape was covered up for 14 years. Obviously that will not be done, but still.
Kinda up in the air on this.
Everyone's gut feeling would be, and should be, to scrap the program for a while...
however, you can't just give a program the death penalty because you think they deserve it.
If there is a process in place that leaves Penn State football under the umbrella of the death penalty - then lock the doors. I'd say this won't get the death penalty because according to the guidelines they don't deserve it. The NCAA will take a long hard look about revising the death penalty provisions - I see them adding a provision for criminal misconduct and how it is handled within the program.
LWC Wrote:Give Penn State the death penalty. However, ALL current players and recruits should be either set free from their commitment or allowed to transfer with no penalty.
in most situations that involve violations, players are allowed to leave without penalty unless they were knowingly and directly involved
This is the most blatant violation of Institutional Control in the history of NCAA violations. Shut them down!
IMO, the child abuse itself is not the NCAA's to investigate and handle, that's for law enforcement to deal with.
Stardust hit a good point though, the NCAA should investigate the institutional control, because it was extremely clear that they put the football program ahead of the university and more importantly their ethics, and there is evidence to support that.
I do think Bill O'Brien is doing the best he can to repair the team's (not the program) image, and knowing that Penn State will need every penny they can get to get through this, I don't think the NCAA will level the program, but I will be shocked if they don't come down hard on PSU
Penn State needs to take the initiative and punish theirselves. IMO they should put a self-imposed 10 year probation on the football program, no post-season play for two years. Along with the NCAA, allow the remaining players to transfer to a school of their choice and be immediately eligible. Remove anything Joe Paterno from campus. Make every employee attend training on spotting and reporting child abuse. Have every student attend a seminar about sexual abuse and how to show compassion and sensitivity. This can be held at the football stadium.
One thing is for sure, Penn State is done anyways for many years and maybe forever, what parent would want there kid to sign with a school with all of this controversy?
Its very possible that the program could complete fall out.
Something needs to happen to make any school not even hesitate to report a situation like this.
Shut program down for two years minimum. Let present players transfer out without losing eligibility. Statue gone. Paterno's name will bet thought of along the same line as O.J.'s , and deservedly so. Sickening.
I think first they should sit down and figure out the best thing to do that would not hurt the players,students and fans because none of this is their fault. They should clean house with all the team staff if they have not already. If some of the staff are innocent then they can get a job elsewhere if someone is willing to hire. If any current players want to go they should be allowed to do so. In history and not just football it never works to punish everyone for a few peoples sins. I know some sick things went on and some people should pay and all who were involved will in one way or another in this life or the next.
- The school should be harshly penalized, possibly even the death penalty (Worse case of failure to meet Institutional Control in history)
- The Players should be allowed to transfer from the program with NO restrictions from the school (Players who decide to stay do so understanding that the program will be dead)
The penalty is on the institution! Thus, the program must be severely punished. If you want to give the players who are innocent to the discretions of the school, then you release those who wish to transfer freely.
I just look at this one like this. I don't have all the facts on this story because I did not follow it much. The man who did this stuff is behind bars and will never see the light of day and we know what happens in prison to people like him. As far as I know most or all of the people who were in on the cover up were exposed and will probably get fired or have been fired or they just quit. The coach is dead. At this point if you punish the school and the football program who are you punishing. The man in prison don't care at this point about the school or program if he ever did. The coach is dead so we know he don't care. I just think at this point that if you give this program the death you will only hurt the players who still want to play at PS and the fans and students.
f I were the one making the decision, Penn State football would not get the NCAAâs âdeath penalty.â
#Some of you are now probably glad that Iâm not the one making that decision. The death penalty â the NCAAâs ability to ban a school from competing in a sport for at least one year â is the harshest penalty that an NCAA school can receive.
#But it is too light of a sentence for the atrocities that took place on the Penn State campus, not to mention the extent that Penn State powers-that-be took to cover up the scandal.
#Since last November when the details of Jerry Sanduskyâs disgusting spree of sexual child abuse could no longer be hidden, the fate of Penn State football has been college footballâs hot topic.
#And the vitriol of the debate and discussion of the proper punishment for the Big Ten Conference school only increased after the 267-page âFreeh Reportâ was released on July 12.
#The former United States district court judge and FBI agentâs findings virtually unloaded on the late coach Joe Paterno, ex-university president Graham Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley and former Penn State vice president Gary Schultz for what they did â or didnât do â- to help perpetuate the Sandusky sickness.
#I read a majority of the report. I skimmed through the summary accounts of some of the over 3 million e-mails that characterized an administrative cover up at the highest levels of the schoolâs hierarchy of leadership. I saw the blatant attempts at trying to keep the outward image of Penn State clean, while inwardly it was rotting at the core.
#Moreover, after reading the report, I went back to read some of the victimsâ testimonies during Sanduskyâs recent court hearings. And while I couldnât hear the voices, the pain of their words seemed audible as they described the way Sanduskyâs abuse scarred them for life.
#And thatâs when it dawned on me.
#I didnât need the Freeh Report to determine that Penn Stateâs fate would not be best represented by the NCAAâs death penalty. All I needed was an overall understanding of the behemoth that has become college football to understand the real problem.
#The death penalty has only been exacted by the NCAA five times, and only once for a major college football program.
#Some remember the pay-for-play scandal that rocked Southern Methodist Universityâs football program in the late 1980s. That case, however, was different from the Penn State saga, because the immorality that corroded SMU football was a joint effort between administration and athlete.
#In fact, each of the five death penalty instances share that characteristic â collective wrong doing from those both on and off the field.
#At Penn State, as far as we know, no traces of athlete involvement exist in the Sandusky case. There are no reported instances of any athlete having known anything about what Sandusky was allowed to do to these boys, often right on the Penn State campus.
#If the NCAA decides to throw down the gauntlet on Penn State football, it will probably cite a lack of internal or institutional control as its reason. And yes, there are many examples of such.
#But, if the NCAA is to be consistent with how it has doled out its most extreme punishment in the past, theyâd better drag up some hidden pieces of student-athlete drama to add to the puzzle.
#Otherwise, (and unlike each of the five death penalty instances) the NCAA would be punishing student-athletes who have absolutely nothing to do with the mess that JoePa and company worked so hard to cover up over the last 15 years.
#The purpose of the death penalty is not only to punish institutional wrongdoing but to also purge the wrongdoers from the scene. What would be the purpose of cleaning house at Penn State now when everybody who has been attributed to this fiasco has already been removed?
#The only people being punished then would be a bunch of athletes, coaches and university personnel who had nothing to do with the garbage that has gripped our attention over the last 10 months.
#I agree with the sentiments of Eagleâs Landing football coach Joe Teknipp who recently weighed in on the matter.
#âYes it deserves a punishment thatâs harsh, but make the penalty so the kids donât suffer,â he said. âIf the death penalty is for the wrongdoers, then fine. But kids have already suffered enough in this situation.â
#Shutting down Penn State football alone is a very poor punishment for the crime because it makes this more about football than about the lives of hurting people.
#If you want to punish Penn State, punish the entire university. Spanier, as president and Curley, as athletic director, were Paternoâs bosses. But they let Paterno call the shots. Why? Because of the obsession with cash cow college football.
#Spanierâs role was to protect the interests of an entire university â not just those of his iconic football coach. Curleyâs job was to protect the well-being of all Penn State athletics. Not just the sport that greased the most palms and lined the most pockets.
#Weâre talking about taking away football teams and removing statues of coaches.
#Stop making this about football.
#Stop and realize how petty and unimportant football is when juxtaposed to the emotional torment of at least 10 men who will never view life or relationships the same again â all because of one manâs twisted desire for boys, and a few other menâs twisted desire for football.
#Take away Penn Stateâs accreditation. Provide current athletes opportunities to transfer their scholarships to the school of their choice. Make Penn State an example to other big-named schools that would dare fall to the temptation of putting big-time college athletics over the well-being of human souls.
#I enjoy college football as much as the next person. Maybe even more. But when statues and coaches and bowl games and scholarships and championships and wins and losses take priority over the sanctity of human decency, then we have problems that far transcend anything sports-related.
#We can blame coaches all weâd like, but the truth is the football programs are only feeding the appetites of hungry fans who want more. More wins, more titles more five-star recruits enrolling in their favorite universities.
#What will a football death penalty at Penn State really solve?
#The only thing that deserves a death penalty is Americaâs unhealthy obsession with college kids and the games they play.
#Gabriel Stovall is a sports writer for the Clayton News Daily/Henry Daily Herald newspapers. He can be reached at [email]gstovall@news-daily.com[/email]. On Twitter? Follow him @GabrielStovall1.