Should Penn State Suspend Its Football Program?

[buckeyemania11]

Of course it would. How many of those players do you think would stick around for a year without football? Not to mention how it would obliterate 2013 recruiting and beyond. It would have a profound effect on that program. We're talking a decade setback, minimum.

This....very few would likely stick around for a year without football

then they'd basically have to start all over

SMU was handed a year without football....but cancelled the season after as well due to not being able to put together a capable team, would have to think Penn State would probably suffer a similar fate.

 

[RB07OSU]

Hate to say it but...time to vulture some more recruits (Dorian Johnson and Adam Breneman for sure). On the real though, no way they can keep the program going.

 

[Oh8ch]

Hate to say it but...time to vulture some more recruits (Dorian Johnson and Adam Breneman for sure). On the real though, no way they can keep the program going.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the realization to surface for these recruits and their families. O'Brien sold the idea that this affair had nothing to do with football - it was just some administrators. But Freeh repeatedly cited the football culture. As the lawsuits and trials continue it will only get worse. We are fixated on it. Imagine what it must be like in the isolated valley of the pedophiles.

In six weeks these guys play their first game - at home. How do you celebrate football in this context? It will not be the atmosphere these kids signed up to experience. It better not be.

The following week they go to Virginia. Will they experience the sympathetic reception we were asked to provide last season? I doubt it. I trust the student body wherever they go will have the same ready responses to "WE ARE .... PENN STATE" that many have proposed on this very board.

And the media. For once you can count on ESPN to come through. A bad season described as penance. A good season condemned as ill gotten gain. I don't see too many talking heads praising the team for "fighting through adversity". Not when it was the culture itself which Freeh labeled as a pedophile.


Six weeks will come quickly. If I am on that BOT and I am responsible for reacting to the Freeh report I don't know how I get the message across. Folks standing outside the gates with cans reading "For Jerry's Kids" doesn't get it.

Shut it down. In the end it is either "only football" or it is a gigantic revenue generating machine. Neither can be used as an excuse to continue.

If the BOT does not have that option on the table right now the Freeh report is just one more stage in the cover up.

And if they do shut it down it will be very different than SMU. Nobody forgets that SMU once got the death penalty. But SMU was doing what everyone else was doing - they just got caught.

Nobody will ever forget the unique set of circumstances that led to Penn State's demise.

 

[JBaney45]

In six weeks these guys play their first game - at home. How do you celebrate football in this context? It will not be the atmosphere these kids signed up to experience. It better not be.

You give these diehards too much credit, they'll use it as a rallying cry, they'll still be people in the stands with signs supporting Paterno. If the university isn't going to shut down football for the right reasons, at least shut it down because these delusional tards are destined to embarrass the [Mark May] out of themselves on national tv every weekend.

 

[AJHawkfan]

...because these delusional tards are destined to embarrass the [Mark May] out of themselves on national tv every weekend.

That's just it - to the PedTards, it isn't embarrassing. It's a badge of honor to be as blindly loyal to JoePa as the entire Happy Valley was blindly tolerant of Joe's running every aspect of day to day life for so many years.

 

[DaveyBoy]

I bet that SMU regrets having cancelled the 2nd year. While it would have been a very tough season to watch the team getting pummelled, it could have been a very short downturn

recruits would have come with the promise of early playing time
fans would have been able to say they've put the past behind them
the downturn would have been a 2 or 3 year blip

I can't recall why SMU thought this would have been a good idea, but it was a bad one

This....very few would likely stick around for a year without football

then they'd basically have to start all over

SMU was handed a year without football....but cancelled the season after as well due to not being able to put together a capable team, would have to think Penn State would probably suffer a similar fate.

 

[dav713]

We are fixated on it. Imagine what it must be like in the isolated valley of the pedophiles.

In six weeks these guys play their first game - at home. How do you celebrate football in this context? It will not be the atmosphere these kids signed up to experience. It better not be.

You want to bet?

Six weeks will come quickly. If I am on that BOT and I am responsible for reacting to the Freeh report I don't know how I get the message across. Folks standing outside the gates with cans reading "For Jerry's Kids" doesn't get it.

Shut it down. In the end it is either "only football" or it is a gigantic revenue generating machine. Neither can be used as an excuse to continue.

If the BOT does not have that option on the table right now the Freeh report is just one more stage in the cover up.

And if they do shut it down it will be very different than SMU. Nobody forgets that SMU once got the death penalty. But SMU was doing what everyone else was doing - they just got caught.

Nobody will ever forget the unique set of circumstances that led to Penn State's demise.

The BOT needs to send a message that football is not god. This is the bedrock of the "culture" that allowed this coverup to occur. A readjustment of priorities is needed, and this is the only way to send that message.

And hopefully this message will be heard at schools across the country. Football is big money at dozens of schools, but don't make it your god. If you do, you risk losing it.

 

[malibuspeedrace]

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the realization to surface for these recruits and their families. O'Brien sold the idea that this affair had nothing to do with football - it was just some administrators. But Freeh repeatedly cited the football culture. As the lawsuits and trials continue it will only get worse. We are fixated on it. Imagine what it must be like in the isolated valley of the pedophiles.

In six weeks these guys play their first game - at home. How do you celebrate football in this context? It will not be the atmosphere these kids signed up to experience. It better not be.

The following week they go to Virginia. Will they experience the sympathetic reception we were asked to provide last season? I doubt it. I trust the student body wherever they go will have the same ready responses to "WE ARE .... PENN STATE" that many have proposed on this very board.

And the media. For once you can count on ESPN to come through. A bad season described as penance. A good season condemned as ill gotten gain. I don't see too many talking heads praising the team for "fighting through adversity". Not when it was the culture itself which Freeh labeled as a pedophile.


Six weeks will come quickly. If I am on that BOT and I am responsible for reacting to the Freeh report I don't know how I get the message across. Folks standing outside the gates with cans reading "For Jerry's Kids" doesn't get it.

Shut it down. In the end it is either "only football" or it is a gigantic revenue generating machine. Neither can be used as an excuse to continue.

If the BOT does not have that option on the table right now the Freeh report is just one more stage in the cover up.

And if they do shut it down it will be very different than SMU. Nobody forgets that SMU once got the death penalty. But SMU was doing what everyone else was doing - they just got caught.

Nobody will ever forget the unique set of circumstances that led to Penn State's demise.

Saw this on another board.

People who chant "death penalty" every scandal, particularly this one, have to remember that the football program basically subsidizes all of PSU's other athletics.

And I don't think it's fair to punish basketball players, track runners, even football players for the reprehensible acts of the men at the top.

Regarding the letter written by Paterno a month before his death, the whole concealment motive i.e. preventing bad publicity makes sense to me. My actions are my actions but not the football program!

Albeit, there was a lot of truth about what he was saying, but IMO Paterno just got a little too much power. I've heard accounts from my father who attended the school in the early 70s that Paterno was already elevated to god-like status. Considering all of the prestige the football success brought to the school I'm not sure how they would have avoided the whole "the football program is everything" though.

Not to mention, the local economy which basically hinges on the enormous influx of fans in the fall every weekend.

The logistics of a death penalty to a major football program are way too complicated and destructive to ever institute.

And like I mentioned up top, the NCAA simply doesn't have jurisdiction for any sanctions.

you don't want to devastate the economy in that community now do ya?

 

[dragurd]

I don't think they get it. The keep talking the ramifications to the uni and the community the athletics department. That is the damn culture that got them in this situation in the first place. They lost the right to protect them when they ignored this for 14 years or more. If athletics, the community, and the uni must suffer to eradicate the culture that allowed the ongoing rape of little kids then they must suffer. That's all there is to it.

 

[ucfknight]

Too bad I can't change my vote from yes until the investigation concludes to yes indef.

 

[buxfan4life]

Saw this on another board.


you don't want to devastate the economy in that community now do ya?

One way to get a message across to inbred cults is to hit 'em in the wallet. This was not just a university problem, there were many in the community I bet that also turned a blind eye to the tickle monster since he was part of Ped States success on the field. Since that town lives and breathes Pederno State, maybe this is exactly what that whole area needs in order for them to wake up.

 

[jlb1705]

I bet that SMU regrets having cancelled the 2nd year. While it would have been a very tough season to watch the team getting pummelled, it could have been a very short downturn

recruits would have come with the promise of early playing time
fans would have been able to say they've put the past behind them
the downturn would have been a 2 or 3 year blip

I can't recall why SMU thought this would have been a good idea, but it was a bad one

They were banned from playing any home games in the second year. The university would have lost a shit ton of money fielding a football team without any gate receipts to support it. It was a killer decision for their football program, but probably the right one for their university as a whole.

 

[NFBuck]

I bet that SMU regrets having cancelled the 2nd year. While it would have been a very tough season to watch the team getting pummelled, it could have been a very short downturn

recruits would have come with the promise of early playing time
fans would have been able to say they've put the past behind them
the downturn would have been a 2 or 3 year blip

I can't recall why SMU thought this would have been a good idea, but it was a bad one

jlb covered the rest, I'll get this. Blue Chip recruits don't generally flock to bad situations on the promise of "early playing time". Part of what makes/made ped aggy a strong recruiter was that they could sell tradition, a now roasted culture, a chance to compete for conference titles, and a chance to play in the national spotlight. You shut that program down for a year, a large chunk of their current roster is transferring. There is no 2013 recruiting, and you are essentially looking at a ground-up rebuild. Kids chased by tOSU, ND, scUM, SEC, USC, and Texas aren't going to chose playing for 1-3 win teams. You shut them down for a year, they're Indiana for at least a decade.

 

[Oh8ch]

You give these diehards too much credit, they'll use it as a rallying cry, they'll still be people in the stands with signs supporting Paterno.

pre-Freeh I agree. And to be sure there are some who feel that way.

But the 1998 revelations generated a sea change. I will continue to revel in their message boards and use it for material. But if this were happening here (God forbid) I would be hanging out in the Romper Room if I were logging on at all. As others have pointed out we are reacting to the deranged posts of die-hard wackos. Most see it for what it is and the only time they wear their jerseys is when they are curled in a corner late at night wondering how it all went so wrong.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Let's be fair here, if the same thing happened at Ohio State no real Buckeye fan would vote to suspend the football program. We'd want to punish those involved to the full extent of the law, but we wouldn't want the "football death penality" nor would we consider it justified.

:osu:

100% disagree.

If this happened at OSU, I want everyone even remotely involved to be in prison and I want football to stop instantly. Football isn't bigger than the school. If it got so over the top and out of control that child rape was effectively sanctioned for the betterment of the football program then the football program must die. Period.

Serial child rape went unreported so as not to interfere with the football machine. I would be so fucking ashamed and angry to OSU for letting it happen I would make those BWI guys look like Nelson Mandela in my zeal for the football culture's head on a platter.