With today's announcements by the Penn State Board of Trustees and the NCAA, it appears like we'll finally be allowed to move on from the disgusting scandal that's taken place in Happy Valley over the past year. Penn State won't be getting the NCAA's "death penalty." Which it shouldn't. Joe Paterno's name is staying on the library. Which it should. The statue in front of Beaver Stadium has been taken down. Which was necessary.
First, the "death penalty." The NCAA will announce what will likely be heavy sanctions against the program tomorrow, but I was never one who thought Penn State deserved to lose football entirely for a year. I know that's not the most popular of positions, but let me explain why. For starters, the NCAA is very hesitant to hand out the death penalty. They've only done it once. 25 years ago. When SMU's blatant cheating, and not even trying to cover it up, even after repeatedly being told to stop had gotten so out of control they had no other choice.
It took SMU two decades to even be competitive again. That's the reason the NCAA hasn't issued another death penalty since, and probably never will again. The closest they've come since was when Baylor's men's basketball team wasn't allowed to play any non-conference games in 2005-06 after the murder of Patrick Dennehy.
Furthermore, at SMU, it was win at all costs, the rules be damned. They were cheating for the sole purpose of trying to win football games. What Jerry Sandusky was allowed to do for so long at Penn State was heinous in every sense of the word. He'll be spending the rest of his life where he belongs. But Penn State's decision to cover up his criminal actions (and give him a means to continue them) for so long, while certainly wrong, immoral, unethical, and, yes, even illegal, is nowhere near the same as what SMU did. Penn State was more concerned about the reputation of Joe Paterno and its football program than anything else, which led to tragic consequences.
I'm not saying Penn State shouldn't be punished for turning a blind eye to a monster for so long. But the death penalty would've been too harsh. Everything Penn State's football team did on the field was above board. That's the difference. SMU was intentionally breaking the rules for the sole purpose of winning. The death penalty was the only way to stop that kind of behavior. What went on at Penn State, while horrifying, isn't an example of an out-of-control program. It's a culture of higher-ups who were more concerned with bad publicity than doing the right thing.
The main culprits in this scandal are already gone. Joe Paterno's dead. Jerry Sandusky's in jail. Graham Spainer and Tim Curley are likely to join him there soon. Several members of the Board are probably going to resign, too. The remaining 98 percent of the Penn State community knew nothing of these despicable acts until November. They're the ones who live and breathe Nittany Lions football. Football is this community's identity. Right or wrong, it's what they need to move forward and begin to heal.
Likewise, I personally didn't think the Joe Paterno statue needed to come down. But I understand that, my personal opinion aside, it had to come down. That statue was erected to celebrate Paterno breaking the all-time wins record, and was meant as a tribute to the many, many, many wonderful things he accomplished during four decades at the university. But its mere presence was too polarizing. Enough people wanted it down and weren't going to change their minds. Those angry masses weren't going to stop their protests until it came down.
I can see both sides of the statue debate, though. For Paterno's supporters, the statue stood for all the good he did. It became a rallying place, and it was the site of a vigil the night the coach died. However, Bobby Bowden's right. Since it was located at the entrance to the stadium, the first thing people would think of when they went to a Penn State football game wouldn't have been the great things Joe Paterno did. It would've inevitably been Jerry Sandusky. For a school and a community trying to move on from a horrible scandal that shocked the sports world, the only way to do that was to remove the statue.
There's currently a debate going on as to whether they move the statue to another location or leave it in storage. One of the options that seems to make the most sense is to move it to the library, which will rightfully keep the Paterno name. In explaining why they're leaving Paterno's name on the library, Penn State's Board rightfully reasoned that his legacy does still have to be honored in some way. That's true, but my reason for why Joe Paterno's name should stay on the library has nothing to do with his legacy. That library never would've been built without the millions of dollars that the Paterno family donated. Unless they're planning on giving all of that money back to the Paterno estate, he should be recognized as the library's donor.
Perhaps that's the best compromise. Joe Paterno's legacy will forever be clouded by one horrible mistake. But it's impossible to ignore the 40 years of good that he did for Penn State University. He did so much for the university, it would be disrespectful to simply erase his name and act as if he never existed. Healing will come with time. When all Penn State fans are ready to once again celebrate Joe Paterno's accomplishments, they'll be able to. In the library that bears his name.
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