Tag: Jerry Sandusky

Out of the shadows, a new team rises

Penn State

A dark cloud hangs over the region known affectionately as Happy Valley. It’s mostly just stayed there, rumbling in the sky, but now that the NCAA has issued its ruling, it’s started to produce a torrential downpour that is flooding the region and sent lighting bolts that are eliminating all the power.

Nobody knows how long this cloud will linger because nobody has ever seen anything like this before. The scandal has affected everyone — people attending and working for the university, living in State College, in Pennsylvania, and across the United States.

Continue reading “Out of the shadows, a new team rises”

On Graham James, Jerry Sandusky, and their vile legacy

Locker RoomVile, disturbing, disgusting …

As more and more facts arose last week from the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, those words kept reverberating through my mind.

How could a monster like Jerry Sandusky be allowed to prey on some of the weakest and most vulnerable in our society in the middle of an institution of higher learning? How could a graduate assistant coach not intervene and simply leave the scene of such a galling crime? How could a administrative structure and culture of silence – “Omerta”-like in its nature – exist in a major university which in turn allowed them to cover up such heinous behavior?

And how could someone like Joe Paterno – previously recognized as a paragon of virtue in the all-too-often un-virtuous world of intercollegiate athletics – essentially turn a blind eye to the point of complicity of his former assistant coach’s behavior?

And yet, sadly, I’d heard it all before. Continue reading “On Graham James, Jerry Sandusky, and their vile legacy”