A sickening lesson in sports

The story from State College, Pa. gets worse as the clock ticks and if the charges of a cover-up by Penn State University officials wasn’t itself disgusting, the way some on the sports beat are covering this story places the exclamation point on one of the most horrendous stories in more than a decade. 

Over the weekend, real news reporters shared this gruesome story of a trusted adult, a key figure in his community, who allegedly sexually assaulted as many as eight young boys.  We went on to learn from legitimate “news” reporters that senior officials at the university likely knew about the allegations and later lied to a grand jury to cover it up.  That charge itself is another crime against these children in my opinion. 

AP Photo

But today as I scan through the headlines of some of our nation’s top media outlets I’m seeing a mixed bag of reports.  Some in the news media wonder who else might have known about and concealed these crimes, head coach Joe Paterno is among those being scrutinized.  Other stories today, mostly written by a few “sports” reporters, lament the tarnish this could have on the famed coach’s legacy.

I’m absolutely disgusted that this ink is published now.  I got it, Joe Paterno is a legendary coach, but when you position a legacy built around a “game” above the fold, over the criminality of this whole tragedy, then I have to question the reporter, the editor and the publication’s moral compass.  Who cares about Jo-Pa’s legacy when you have children who have been victimized and continued to be scarred because a university covered up one of the most heinous crimes our society knows? 

People need to put his in perspective because the last time I checked, college football was a “game”.  How does a coach’s legacy, no matter how accomplished he was as a coaching in this sport, deserve any attention now?  We have children who were criminally violated so unless he was tied to or complicit there is no way we should be talking about his legacy.

It makes me wonder if the big money college football generates doesn’t drive the social and media narrative to place a coach above sexual assault victims, and victimized children no less. 

I wonder how many in and around the university were first concerned with a tarnished legacy before it hit them that this was a disgusting crime against children.  I wonder if there aren’t some in that big circle who have yet to understand that this story should be about child victims and a disgusting perpetrator rather than a coach’s legacy or a football program’s legacy.  Apparently some in the sports media value a “game” over a child, a human being whose emotions will be tangled and scarred for the rest of their life. 

What this story shows me is that a crime against innocent children weighs less on some of our collective consciences than the secondary effect it may have on some third party’s legacy.  I’m learning that things like the “game”, legacy and money are what truly drive our sports world.  

I’m learning that besides the people who may have lied and covered-up these crimes, a segment of the sports media are also enablers by devaluing the worth of the victims and placing their sacred sports figures above them.  Maybe some of these hacks can take the game hat off and be human again, a lesson they could certainly learn in all this.

I’m learning a lot about the sports world I didn’t need to know, but now I do, and it sickens me.