Not a Fan

I think the time has finally come for me to share my secret: I don't like football. In fact, I'm not much of a sports fan of any type. I attended Penn State when the football team won the National Championship in 1986, but to this day I've still never attended a football game. I'm also not a proud Penn Stater. Not that I have any particular ill will towards my Alma mater, but I'm not generally loyal to institutions. So that said, I don't care if Penn State's reputation is sullied by recent events or if the football program suffers. I'm past the point in my career where prospective employers will judge me by the standing of my undergraduate school, so the downfall of Penn State would have no practical ramifications for me.

So now you know, my friends and family who bleed blue and white, what I have always been nervous to state openly: I'm not a fan. I don't care about Penn State or football or Joe Paterno. But before you stop reading in disgust, please let me tell you what I *do* care deeply about: the safety and welfare of children.  And despite the fact that I don't even really know what the NCAA is or what it does, I care very much about the recent sanctions imposed on Penn State. Why do I care? Because to me, the NCAA is abusing its power in a manner that furthers its own agenda at the expense of Jerry Sandusky's victims.

Perhaps I am ill-informed about the system works, but from the basic news coverage, it seems that the NCAA (which even a sports ignoramus like me knows stands for National Collegiate Athletic Association) is punishing Penn State and its football program for something that is not related to athletics.  I won't recount the specifics of the sanctions, as I'm sure you have all heard them and read them countless times and probably understand them much better than I. But I will tell you what I think as an "outsider" -- rewriting history by removing wins from the team's record seems to punish the players most of all, players who had nothing to do with any of this. I don't see how these sanctions will do anything to rectify the appalling lack of a compliance infrastructure at the university, a problem which is not limited to the football program. (And here I do have some expertise, having worked for many years as a compliance professional.) Furthermore, the sanctions are being brought by an organization whose purview does not extend to the actions triggering the sanctions. In the past week, I have seen that when others criticize the NCAA, they are met with accusations that they are "die-hard" Penn Staters, overly loyal to JoePa's memory, biased and unable to see the "truth." But here I am, clearly not any of those things, and I'm saying it DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.  Do I care if the NCAA wrongly sanctions a college football program? Am I outraged by the injustice of it all? Honestly, no.  I don't support that type of injustice, but I have other fights to fight that matter much more to me. But in this case, I care because the NCAA's ruling is all over the news. People are reporting and blogging and arguing about the NCAA's actions. In a tragic situation where various parties keep shifting the focus off the victims,  the NCAA has stepped in and taken its turn at stealing the spotlight from the once-young men who were abused by Jerry Sandusky. So I am outraged. Not out of Penn State pride or long-standing loyalty to an iconic coach, but out of concern and respect for the men whose lives were forever damaged. Shame on the NCAA for stealing the headlines and distracting everyone from the tragedy that truly matters. The NCAA blames Penn State officials for abusing power, but even someone who's not a fan can see that the NCAA has done the exact same thing.

7/3/2012