Life Will Go On

I’m trying to write a deep, profound blog-post in one of my coffee shops, but the television behind me is blearing the recent news about the NCAA sanction of Penn State. It is a lot of whining and crying about how it isn’t fair, how we don’t know the whole story, etc., etc. I am also hearing a lot of crying about how this is going to drastically hurt the football program at Penn State.

What about the people who were abused – I’m sure it will take more than four years for them to recover, if they ever do.

I just heard that they really “destroyed” the program. Again, think of the victims and how they have been destroyed.

What I think we are finding out is that we are dealing with humans who have been made more than human. I don’t mean only Paterno although he had his own part to play in this mess. I mean the institution itself. The mighty Penn State institution screwed up and needs to be responsible for that mess. The NCAA screwed up and needs to be responsible for that mess. Our society has screwed up and needs to take some responsibility for that mess. Unfortunately I don’t think we will make any progress on the fault of society – we will continue to idolize the sports franchise and create a culture where such atrocities can occur.

The reaction speaks to the lack of progress that we will have as a society. The NCAA and Penn State are trying to do what they can to change things so such a scandal will never happen again, but people are crying out that their beloved ritual and religion will be hurt, scarred, and “destroyed.” Come on, people, it is only a game.