This morning, I was dismayed, but amused, by some of the Sunday morning TV news talking heads’ takes on whether Penn State football merits the “death penalty” being levied at the behest of the NCAA.
“Suspending Penn State football is really a dumb idea!” —James Carville
Speaking from the London Olympics site on Meet the Press, Bob Costas of NBC Sports was strongly in favor of Penn State giving up its football program either voluntarily or at the behest of the NCAA. Thanks, Bob. We appreciate the support.
George Stephanopolous asked his panelists on ABC’s This Week whether they thought that the NAACP [sic] should come in and shut down Penn State’s football program with the “death penalty.” Only after the panelists had all taken their turns did Wee George correct his initial faux pas.
First around the panel was milk chocolate toned Democratic adviser Donna Brazile, the only non-pasty skinned panelist this week. She was too kind to correct Stephanopolous about the mouthpo (which is a typo of the mouth), but she entered a sea of controversy by likening the situation at Penn State to that of the Catholic church in the wake of its long-term child molesting issues. As such, she believed that a suspension in order. ???? ??????? ????????
Conservative baseball überfanatic George Will believes strongly that not only should Penn State shut down its football program — for good — but so should every other institution of higher learning that has a big-time football program. He believes that academics and football are at best strange bedfellows, and the combination easily lends itself to corruption.
ABC political analyst Matthew Dowd, a Catholic, made an analogy that will send him to the confessional. Like Donna Brazile, he went papal on the PSU situation.
“If you took Jerry Sandusky and substituted Jerry Sandusky and put the word ‘priest,’ and then you put Joe Paterno and substitute the word ‘bishop,’ it’s the exact same thing,” Dowd said. “What you have is an institutional corrupt[ion] problem, that basically the ends of the institution become more important than the people involved.”
Dowd added something that hit at what this Turkey has been harping on all along: if you think that Penn State is alone in shielding the public and the legal authorities from its transgressions, think again. Just about all major universities have skeletons in their closets.
Meanwhile, Democratic strategist, cue-ball headed LSU junkie James Carville, said that it would be a “really dumb idea” to suspend Penn State football, as it would penalize people not even remotely responsible for Penn State’s recent scandal. In this Turkey’s opinion, Carville is right. ????? ?????? This is one of the rare occasions on which I’ve agreed with James, so please note it well.
Carville’s wife, Republican strategist Mary Matalin, said that she’s not a football fan, but understands that there’s quite a football culture in Baton Rouge. So her opinion doesn’t count.
Everybody’s got an opinion. We’ll take this beyond the Sunday morning TV stage to look around at some of the other media stories addressing the dreaded death penalty for Penn State.
* * * * *
Bryan Fischer, the football recruiting blogger for Eye on College Football, a CBS site, addresses the subject by trying to convince the reader that Penn State should get the death penalty “in order to move on.”
* * * * *
Some players’ reactions to the death penalty rumors were reported by Audrey Snyder for USA Today.
* * * * *
Mike Greger of Metro Philly believes that Penn State won’t get the death penalty.
* * * * *
According to Michael Sedor of PennLive.com, the Nashville Tennessean, the Birmingham Alabaman, and the Orlando Sentinel all want the death penalty for Penn State. He gives links to their articles. All southern papers, all in SEC country. Whoda thunk it?
* * * * *
The Patriot News, as usual, is full of the best material on the subject. You can access a page of links to a Sunday morning’s worth of interesting and intriguing stories here.
* * * * *
Bob Flounders writes that “Maybe we didn’t know Joe Paterno after all.”
* * * * *
On a more positive note, Adam Rittenberg of ESPN writes about the community starting the healing process.
* * * * *
Unfortunately, vaunted SI sports writer Rick Reilly feels differently about the whole thing, which he strongly condemns in his piece for ESPN.
* * * * *
Also for ESPN, Howard Bryant writes that Penn State should drop football.
* * * * *
More ESPN: The unpronounceable Gene Wojciechowski writes that Paterno empowered a predator. This includes a video of Mark May’s perception of Joe Paterno and Penn State.
* * * * *
Casey McDermott of the Daily Collegian addresses Penn State’s failure to comply with the Clery Act.
* * * * *
That should give you plenty to chew on for a peaceful Sunday evening. As always, comments are welcome.
Share this:
Share this:
Discover more from The Nittany Turkey
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Joe says
Thanks for the references, but after a quick scan of the authors, I frankly could care less what these individuals opinions are in this matter or in most other subjects they choose to write about in their weekly 800 word columns.
No, imposing the death penalty is the easy way out in their minds. Cancel football or better yet close the school for a year-that will show them you can’t cover this up. And the next time something like this surfaces (and it will) what then?
Right now, this is the sexy, sanctimonious thing to say. It also produces an inordinate amount of hits or clicks and that’s $$ in the bank for their pages if your singing the right song. I remember right after the GJ presentment came out how the Harrisburg Patriot News was bragging about how many hits their sites were getting as they wrote article after article as this story unfolded. Add the ability to comment on an article or column and watch those counters fly!
I’m not a frequent reader of his column, but if you haven’t read Jason Whitlock’s latest give it a go-I think he makes some excellent points:
http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/jerry-sandusky-penn-state-louis-freeh-report-nothing-changes-big-money-ncaa-athletics-playoff-system-071112
Keeping that in mind and the pundits mantra that football ruled PS, how many of these individuals wrote glowing articles about the upcoming big-buck football playoffs, the conference jumping so a team could be in with the “haves” and not the “have nots”, the value of a the new conference TV contracts and individual networks, and the quality of a school’s recruiting class and what it means to a team’s potential to win a National Championship just to name a few topics. Seems a tad hypocritical to me, when they are feeding and nurturing the same dragon they want to slay!
So why don’t they editorialize how to fix this issue-are the Freeh recommendations worthwhile or just another bureaucratic check box? How are other schools handling Clery Act reporting? (Bet I know the answer to that one!) What’s different or similar about PS and Bill Conlan, USA Swimming, The Boy Scouts, The Catholic Church, Bernie Fine and the Red Sox and what actions from those abuse cases can we take that perhaps improve the Freeh recommendations.
No let’s just cancel PS football for a year-that will fix everything! No one would read the other topics.
As with anything in the 24 hour news cycle, coverage and “thought provoking opinions will begin to peter out by the end of the upcoming week. All of these “journalists” will be off on some other topic and will remain that way until the Curley/Schultz trials begin in a few months and then bang-back to the front page.
Everyone will have an opinion and solution (some knee-jerk, some carefully thought through), but I think for now I’ll just use the cranial matter that my creator gave me and form my own opinions rather than relying on Bob Costas, Jemelle Hill, Howard Bryant or Bob Flounders to influence how I put this all together.
The Nittany Turkey says
As far as Whitlock goes in his piece, I have to agree with him. In essence, George Will pontificated the same tune, as have I from time to time. College football has become too big for its britches, which is precisely why Paterno was able to become as powerful as he did, allowing the culture of corruption to burgeon at Penn State.
Whitlock’s statement: “We need college presidents courageous enough to believe sports are actually about the young-adult participants and not blowhards in the media or blowhard fans” was particularly consistent with some of my former posts from years ago. His conclusion, as was mine when I addressed the same issue, was that he was pissing in the wind. But we all can dream about the days when so-called student athletes might actually be a non-hypocritical representation of that term. Most of Whitlock’s commentary was directed at the hypocrisy surrounding the forthcoming playoff system, but I thought he did a reasonably good job, unlike some of the positive stuff he used to write about LJ, Jr.
I won’t apologize for including Costas, Will, Carville, et. al. in my post. They entertained me with their diatribe and the pseudo-debate on This Week. They don’t have a say in which the NCAA (or NAACP) does, but they sure don’t mind the bragging rights that accrue to the one with the best prediction. (I’ve always thought James Carville was hilarious — and a brilliant strategist. Obama ought to dump David Axelrod and engage Carville.)
Jamele Hill? Hell, she was a sports writer for the home town rag here, where her followers seemed to divide themselves along racial lines. That wasn’t fair to her, but I felt that she was essentially a cub sports reporter, and I never could understand what ESPN saw in her.
You didn’t mention David Jones. Your take on him would have been entertaining.
I agree with you (or vice versa) about dwelling on feelgood fixes and not on the cure. Setting PSU’s football program down for a year does not heal the wounded victims, and it does not serve to teach a dead man a lesson. It seems to be driven by Penn State envy. Other schools have much more latitude for being forgiven.
This reminds me of the disproportionate media reaction when a Republican official is condemned for some form of moral turpitude versus a Democrat in the same predicament, all other things being equal. When asked for an explanation, the typical response is “Republicans are always crowing about family values, so they’re a bunch of hypocrites.” In the same manner, people affiliated with other universities keep their ears constantly tuned to any ground rumblings from Penn State. With all of our bragging about how clean our football program is, they cannot wait to give us an even stronger dose of what others have received for lesser transgressions.
I don’t think this will fade away as fast as you suggest. Yesterday’s New York Times article about Joe’s contract renegotiation tells me that reporters are still out there digging for anything they can fine. Hell, one already won a Pulitzer for her work; others are looking for a cheaper fare on that same train.
—TNT
Joe says
I didn’t mention David Jones from the Patriot News, because well I don’t really think there is much to mention. In my mind, he is a hack writer who changes his stories to fit the direction the wind is blowing at that time and has not had a clear, independent or coherent idea to present in his columns since he started writing. He is great at regurgitating old news and comes across at least to me as smarmy and self-serving. Hope you’re not a member of his fan club, but you asked the question. Flounders and Jones-what a team!
The Nittany Turkey says
I watch Flounders and Jones’ post-game videos just to piss me off. That’s what I think of those guys.
You got it right. While Jones takes a lot of heat for being an OSU homey, that’s not his real problem. He’s a small town hack sports writer going nowhere.
—TNT