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Health & Fitness

The Cult of College Football: The Penn State Scandal

Venting about college football and the Penn State scandal.

 

Let me tell you a little secret: I love football, but I HATE college football. I hate college football enough that I wish they would get rid of it (I know that will never happen). I have this hatred for a variety of reasons, but after hearing about Penn State I'm even more of the opinion that we need to take a serious look at college football and how society perceives it.

I've been having a rough few weeks listening to stories of child abuse. It KILLS me, absolutely kills me. I end up getting so worked up I have to turn off whatever I'm listening to/reading and take a walk. When I heard the tape of Dog The Bounty Hunter's son-in-law beating his son I literally saw red. I had to pull over in my truck and let my blood cool off a bit. When I heard the tape of the judge beating his daughter with a belt my stomach went into knots and my hands formed into fists.

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Now we hear about Gerald Sandusky at Penn State and his years of abuse of young boys. I'm so angry it feels like I'm going to explode!

There are so many thing wrong with college football and for me the Penn State scandal epitomizes it all. I played football in high school so I "get" what football is supposed to do and for the younger players it often reaches the goals.  It teaches young men that you need to work hard at something, even when working hard isn't that fun. It teaches young men that no matter how hard you work you aren't guaranteed a win or a place on the team. It teaches that if you don't win, how to be graceful in defeat.

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It teaches young men that team is important, not the individual. It teaches young men the difference between being hurt and being injured. It teaches young men how to work through being hurt, and how to support your team when injured. These are the lessons that young men need to learn to be strong adult men. If Jack wants to play football when he's older I'm all for it. Too many young boys don't know the lessons above and I want my son to know the value of them.

However it starts to get a little crazy once they enter high school and the further up they go they crazier it gets. Penn State epitomizes what is wrong with college culture around football. They were willing to let young boys be victimized in the name of not upsetting their precious football team. It's sick and wrong.  

Joe Paterno (the head coach) was at best morally reprehensible, and at worst was aiding a pedophile. From what I've been reading from the Grand Jury report it sounds like the whole thing was a poorly kept secret. Sandusky retired at age 55, which makes absolutely no sense since that's prime football coach age. He was being groomed for the head coach job at Penn State with JoePa's blessing!  

To suddenly retire and then not work again in college football says a lot. To me it says that everyone was aware of this guy and his sickness and chose to just ignore in hopes it would go away. This was to keep the football program pristine to the detriment of the young boys that were victimized. For them football came first, everything else was secondary. What a sad state of affairs.

It's absolutely disgusting and it makes me angry; very, very angry. I hope that this scandal wakes up the other learning institutions in this country and forces them to take a long hard look at their athletic programs. They need to reset their values and focus on what's important. In the grand scheme of things 22 guys running around a field with a weird shaped ball means squat.  

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