The Penn State redemption

It appears as if things have finally returned to normal at Penn State in the wake of that whole "sex scandal" mess a while back.

Back then, front and center, of course, was the lead villain, one Jerry Sandusky. Mr. Sandusky was alleged to have had, shall we say, "inappropriate contact" with several young boys, some on the grounds of Penn State itself. He would eventually be found guilty of such and sent off to prison, where he'll likely live out the remainder of his days.

The tip of the iceberg first broke the surface way back in 1998, when a mother filed a complaint that Sandusky had showered with her son. Not much became of it and business proceeded as usual. It wasn't until many years later that all hell broke loose. Sexual abuse accusations pointing at Sandusky came rapid-fire as victim after victim stepped forward to tell their stories. In short order, the nightmarish ball began rolling and it became a sordid scandal of epic proportions. Sandusky would finally be charged in 2011 and subsequently convicted, as mentioned above.

But many other questions remained. How could so many such instances have happened, involving so many boys, with nobody else being aware of it? So the hunt for the "conspirators" was on. Somebody must have known something and, if they turned a blind eye, they were guilty too.

Besides the football coaching staff at Penn State, this eventually reached the highest levels of their administration. The prevailing thought at the time was -- if they didn't know about it -- they SHOULD have. It happened on their watch and hence, they had to own it too. Fair enough.

So the hammers started coming down on Penn State. Long iconic coach Joe Paterno was forced out and scholarships slashed. A ban on post-season play and a hefty $60 million fine were imposed. And all wins, dating back to the original 1998 allegation, were vacated. They never happened, at least on paper. The Penn State administration was scrambling to save their own necks and was basically in a shambles.

It could certainly be argued that the actions, or nonactions of a few, resulted in a blanket punishment which swallowed up a vast majority of totally innocent people. After all, why should kids who had absolutely nothing to do with whatever happened have a hammer dropped on their heads as well? Consider the plight of a high-school football star who's lifelong dream had been to play for the Nittany Lions. Then his scholarship got revoked due to the actions of others before he even set foot on campus? Nevertheless, at the time, a lynch mob mentality prevailed and if rooting out the crooks meant "collateral damage" as well, then that's just the way it goes. But it didn't necessarily make it righteous.

Fast forward to the present. All the "perpetrators" and/or "bystanders" when this mess unfolded are either dead, in prison, been fired/resigned, or otherwise no longer at Penn State. Even the innocent football players on Joe Pa's teams at the time have moved on to their various walks of life. In other words, nobody is there now that was there when whatever happened -- happened.

Therefore, it only made sense for the "powers that be" to remove the sanctions that had been put in place. Continuing them would smack of nothing short of misguided vengeance visited upon totally innocent people.

And they just did. The post-season ban has been lifted. The scholarships restored. There still remains the matter of where that $60 million will wind up (it's been tied up in litigation). But hey, while $60M is a pretty fair amount of money, it's hardly a back-breaking sum for a major university like Penn State to cough up, and they already did. But throw that same chunk of change into the water and watch the lawyers and politicians swarm like a school of ravenous pirhannas. And they are. But that's their fight to fight. They deserve each other.

What's truly head-slapping is the whole business of "vacated wins". Before the Sandusky affair exploded, Joe Paterno was the winningest college football coach of all time. But as mentioned above, part of the Penn State punishment was taking away every win going back to 1998, 111 in all. That dropped him to fourth place.

But now all those wins have been restored. Joe Pa's back in 1st, by quite a wide margin.

That raises another interesting question. First they take wins away, only to give them back later? So what was the point? And it's not like they didn't happen on the gridiron, with or without the likes of Sandusky and Co. To alter such records in the first place due to the personal misbehavior of people that had NOTHING to do with how the teams fared on the field against their competition over the years was the epitome of folly. Only bureaucrats could come up with such nonsense.

Here's wishing the best to Penn State. Yes, they had a very dark chapter in their history, but so have various others, including entire countries who have perpetrated far worse atrocities. With few exceptions, eventually all was forgiven. Former enemies even became allies. So if they could do it --

It's time to move on regarding the whole Penn State snafu. It happened, people were held accountable, and it's been over for years. In fairness to the current innocents on campus, let us turn the page. It certainly wasn't their fault.