Better late than never?

This is a good start to me blogging again. I'm three days late on this blog. My bad.

For starters, I want to say my thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the terrible shooting in Aurora, Colo. It reminds us that there are things far more important in this world than sports. Luckily, we still have sports to escape from terrible events like that.

After watching the video where media members try to ask questions to the shooter's dad, I remember one of the big reasons why I chose to be a sports journalists rather than another kind of journalist. Sports journalists (almost) never have to ask the tough questions in the terrible situations

Anyway, this week I'm taking it a little lighter due to my tardiness and Internet problems, so here are my thoughts on the Penn State sanctions.

Penn State Sanctions Levied 

So it appears the Freeh Report was not the last bit of news to come out of Penn State. The NCAA levied its penalties against Penn State today, and the university finally made a decision about Joe Paterno's statue ... before changing its mind a couple days later.


The NCAA hit Penn State with a $60 million sanction, a four-year postseason ban, the nullification of all wins dating to 1998 (when the Freeh Report said JoePa first knew about Sandusky's assaults) and a large reduction in scholarships. The $60 million is said to be equivalent to the average annual revenue from the football program, and the money is to go to an endowment for the prevention of child sexual abuse and protection of victims. The vacated wins move Paterno from the No. 1 spot on the Division 1-A all-time wins list to No. 8.

I think the NCAA did a good job with these penalties. This was a completely unprecedented case with "lack of institutional control," and the world needed to be shown that football cannot be more important than people, especially children.

To the people saying these penalties are too harsh and are unfair to the players involved, you need to get your priorities straight. You care more about the players than the children assaulted. I hear people saying, "once again the NCAA ignores the players," and I am so sick of hearing that. As someone who just graduated college, I have no sympathy for players who get a full ride, free tutoring, and stipends. The players also have the ability to transfer away from Penn State without the one-year penalty.

And had the death penalty been levied, there would be no program for the players to participate in. So get over yourselves. 

As for the statue, originally Penn State administrators said the statue would stay. Threats of vandalism quickly came in, and finally this morning the statue was moved. It's good to know you can eventually do the right thing, Penn State.