The mockery is complete, Joe Paterno's wins restored | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

The mockery is complete, Joe Paterno's wins restored

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Penn State's football team is getting back 112 wins wiped out during the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal and the late Joe Paterno has been restored as the winningest coach in major college football history.

The NCAA announced the new settlement with the school weeks before a scheduled trial on the legality of the 2012 consent decree it will replace.

The new deal also directs a $60 million fine to address child abuse be spent within Pennsylvania and resolves that lawsuit...

NCAA president Mark Emmert said the settlement did not serve to acknowledge any error on the part of the NCAA or signal victory for Penn State.


"We are not at all admitting that we didn't have the authority to impose the penalties," he said.

He said the NCAA acted in an unprecedented manner because of the severity of the situation.

"This was," Emmert said, "in all ways, an extraordinary circumstance. We all hope that we never find ourselves in a position like this."

Emmert declined to comment on a potential settlement with the Paterno family.


http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12179571/joe-paterno-111-wins-were-vacated-restored

Yes, because when the goal is to never repeat something that has happened, its best to just void all of the punishment and pretend like it never occurred in the first place. I can't see how this will backfire whatsoever!

It amazes me, just absolutely amazes me, that people can say with a straight face that Joe Paterno did absolutely nothing wrong after he himself admitted that he knew children were being fondled in showers. To say nothing of the emails showing his complete involvement with the decade long cover-up.

The only thing that makes this somewhat tolerable is that 1) everyone with a conscience will remember his true legacy, and 2) he died before the wins were restored.

 
Complete and utter ****ing disgrace. Just disgusting.
 
What were the original punishments for the team? I mean besides wiping out the wins?

Disgustingly enough, the sanctions imposed against Pedo State were lifted 2 years early on the afternoon of Sept, 8 2014.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ncaa-lifts-penn-states-bowl-ban-restoring-scholarships-in-2015/

The significance of the date: That morning the public was introduced to the Ray Rice story. The NCAA took that moment to slide under the radar and reinstate PSU that afternoon as the sports nation focused it's attention to Ray Rice and the NFL. Grimy lil' ****s.
 
What were the original punishments for the team? I mean besides wiping out the wins?

Couldnt play in bowl games or playoff games for a few years.
Couldnt get a full compliment of scholarships for a few years.
They had to donate $60 million dollars to child abuse prevention programs.
Wins voided. Specifically any wins that took place during the years they covered up Sandusky's crimes('98-'11).

Basically, they got a slap on the wrist for the crimes that occurred. Yet, the first two penalties were voided years earlier than their ending date and now the wins were restored. Because, according to Penn State and the NCAA, football is more important than children being raped. You know, the exact logic that led to this situation in the first place.

Also, the $60 million has to be spent in Pennsylvania not nationwide like they were originally penalized. I can't really slam the NCAA for that, as it fell under a state law(for whatever reason). Plus, given how strongly Penn State fans have decried the penalties and how hard they have worked to justify the crimes committed, i dont think spending that money to raise awareness of how awful these situations are in Pennsylvania is the worst idea ever.
 
Couldnt play in bowl games or playoff games for a few years.
Couldnt get a full compliment of scholarships for a few years.
They had to donate $60 million dollars to child abuse prevention programs.
Wins voided. Specifically any wins that took place during the years they covered up Sandusky's crimes('98-'11).

Basically, they got a slap on the wrist for the crimes that occurred. Yet, the first two penalties were voided years earlier than their ending date and now the wins were restored. Because, according to Penn State and the NCAA, football is more important than children being raped. You know, the exact logic that led to this situation in the first place.

Also, the $60 million has to be spent in Pennsylvania not nationwide like they were originally penalized. I can't really slam the NCAA for that, as it fell under a state law(for whatever reason). Plus, given how strongly Penn State fans have decried the penalties and how hard they have worked to justify the crimes committed, i dont think spending that money to raise awareness of how awful these situations are in Pennsylvania is the worst idea ever.
To be honest all those penalties make sense to me except voiding the wins. To be fair, and I know I will get some heat for saying, but what happened didn't effect how the team won all those games. Now if the entire team was all on steroids or something then that makes sense to void those wins because they were cheating to get them. Like I said the rest makes sense because it hit them in the pocket and enrollment. The two things that matter most to a school.
 
To be honest all those penalties make sense to me except voiding the wins. To be fair, and I know I will get some heat for saying, but what happened didn't effect how the team won all those games. Now if the entire team was all on steroids or something then that makes sense to void those wins because they were cheating to get them. Like I said the rest makes sense because it hit them in the pocket and enrollment. The two things that matter most to a school.

Had Paterno's cover-up been discovered 1 year after it began, he would have been fired and probably jailed, thus his team might not have won as many games. As well, voiding those wins sends a message to the rest of the coaches out there: break the law and your accomplishments are destroyed.
The NCAA has a standing practice of voiding accomplishments when it comes to their athletes and coaches, violate the rules and they take your Heisman and National Championship trophy. Bobby Bowden had a number of his wins voided because FSU was caught in a cheating scandal. Many in Tallahassee argued he shouldnt be blamed because he couldn't have known(for myself, i thought Bobby should be punished, if you get credit for doing things right then you get blame when things go wrong). While child rape and cover-ups should absolutely be punished more harshly then some of your students cheating, i dont think applying that penalty to those involved is out of line...and its relatively minor, especially compared to the prison sentence that will be coming.

There is one underlying point that i think is important to this particular case: when announcing these sanctions the NCAA claimed they were trying to kill a culture in that school and community. A culture that leads people to deifying coaches and will do anything to maintain that reverence. That attitude directly lead to the cover-up and enabling of Sandusky's crimes. Look at how many Penn State fans freaked out over Paterno being punished instead of what Paterno actually did? I cant tell you how many times i heard a Penn State fan plead "you dont know how hard this is for us!" while they completely ignored how hard it was for the victims.
That reverence for a football team hasnt diminished in anyway. People still put the football priorities above common decency. And with these penalties being voided, the NCAA is giving them the stamp of approval that nothing need change. They will, and are, latching onto these decisions to justify their previous feelings: that the school did nothing wrong. And because of that, its not difficult to imagine Penn State letting something awful happen again in the future. The only lesson Penn State learned is they need to do a better job when covering up crimes.
 
Said then and I'll say now (and a lot of people won't like this) that the sanctions were made out of raw emotion and by people who were out for blood due to the disgusting crimes of Jerry Sandusky.

Now don't take this the wrong way, what happened was awful, and how the entire University handled stuff based on what they knew was pathetic. But I also went to school up near Penn State, and I saw how a variety of different people were effected from the organization Sandusky worked for, to some of the victims (one played on my college's football team)

The whole thing was a giant cluster**** for sure, and the Penn State administration should not come out looking clean (and everybody involved as not, including the school president, Chancelor, and AD at the time facing jail time) but you also have to know that all those who were involved have been punished
 
Let me guess where the $60 million is coming from. Future students of Penn State will end up paying for it. This is such a failure
 
I would also add that I've got friends that went to Penn State or are still going. The whole issue ended up hurting a lot more than just football players I'll tell you that much.
 
Said then and I'll say now (and a lot of people won't like this) that the sanctions were made out of raw emotion and by people who were out for blood due to the disgusting crimes of Jerry Sandusky.

Now don't take this the wrong way, what happened was awful, and how the entire University handled stuff based on what they knew was pathetic. But I also went to school up near Penn State, and I saw how a variety of different people were effected from the organization Sandusky worked for, to some of the victims (one played on my college's football team)

The whole thing was a giant cluster**** for sure, and the Penn State administration should not come out looking clean (and everybody involved as not, including the school president, Chancelor, and AD at the time facing jail time) but you also have to know that all those who were involved have been punished

I would also add that I've got friends that went to Penn State or are still going. The whole issue ended up hurting a lot more than just football players I'll tell you that much.

There is one underlying point that i think is important to this particular case: when announcing these sanctions the NCAA claimed they were trying to kill a culture in that school and community. A culture that leads people to deifying coaches and will do anything to maintain that reverence. That attitude directly lead to the cover-up and enabling of Sandusky's crimes. Look at how many Penn State fans freaked out over Paterno being punished instead of what Paterno actually did? I cant tell you how many times i heard a Penn State fan plead "you dont know how hard this is for us!" while they completely ignored how hard it was for the victims.
That reverence for a football team hasnt diminished in anyway. People still put the football priorities above common decency. And with these penalties being voided, the NCAA is giving them the stamp of approval that nothing need change. They will, and are, latching onto these decisions to justify their previous feelings: that the school did nothing wrong. And because of that, its not difficult to imagine Penn State letting something awful happen again in the future. The only lesson Penn State learned is they need to do a better job when covering up crimes.

Case in point. This is exactly why the NCAA should have manned up and killed the program.

Also: Penn State sanctions didn't last but a blink of the eye, the Athletic directors have not been thrown in jail, and Joe Paterno wasn't punished in the least. So i take it when you say "those involved have been punished" you are saying Penn State wasn't involved and your only referring to Sandusky's prison sentence, correct?
 
Had Paterno's cover-up been discovered 1 year after it began, he would have been fired and probably jailed, thus his team might not have won as many games.
That entire line is a what if scenario. I'll give you an example. Had Paterno called the cops when he first found out about it, instead of telling his superiors, Sandusky would have been arrested and Penn State still would have gotten all those wins. However neither of those scenarios played out. Those players, despite all that, still played their asses off over the years and in my opinion don't deserve to be punished for what was going on. By voiding those wins you are punishing those that has nothing to do with it. Like I said voiding all the wins, as Chambers put it, was a raw emotional reaction to the whole situation. Especially since this went up the chain of command. It is better to hit the college where it would hurt the most, the wallet. Which is exactly what they did.
 
That entire line is a what if scenario. I'll give you an example. Had Paterno called the cops when he first found out about it, instead of telling his superiors, Sandusky would have been arrested and Penn State still would have gotten all those wins. However neither of those scenarios played out. Those players, despite all that, still played their asses off over the years and in my opinion don't deserve to be punished for what was going on. By voiding those wins you are punishing those that has nothing to do with it. Like I said voiding all the wins, as Chambers put it, was a raw emotional reaction to the whole situation. Especially since this went up the chain of command. It is better to hit the college where it would hurt the most, the wallet. Which is exactly what they did.

First off, and i know this is a bit outside your point but i feel its worth pointing out: any student that was there when Paterno got busted for being an absolute horrible person had the ability transfer with no penalty. The NCAA wouldnt have slapped them down with their arbitrary, and often ridiculous, rules. They had a free pass. I wanted to make that clear just to show they did try to throw the students a bone.

Now that thats out of the way, i cant think of a business that doesn't have a behavioral and morality clause. I know the NCAA has those clauses as the players get busted for academic impropriety all the time. The players understand that if they sign up with a coach who is doing underhanded things, they might "suffer". Look no further then all the coaches and programs that have been busted for "pay for play" schemes. Regardless of that, the players agreed to sign the legal work and play football for Penn State and, more to the point, the NCAA.
And how much did they suffer from this by the way? The NCAA voided a record book, a record specifically targeted to the school's and coaches records. They snatched some trophies(and i dont recall them doing it in this case). I just did a quick google search and couldnt find a situation in which the league took the athletes rings(i am a bit drunk, so i might have missed it). The athletes "harm" is fairly minor...especially compared to the stomach turning disgust the victims must be feeling at the reversal of these rulings.

And voiding wins is a relatively standard NCAA penalty. I brought up FSU to point that out. Its not my rule, its not a rule they made up, its relatively standard procedure. Pete Carroll, USC, and Reggie Bush is another example. If a coach gets wins voided because of academic cheating(which, theoretically, is on the teachers and faculty), why shouldnt a coach get them voided for intentionally covering up violent child rape that happened repeatedly on campus?

What your arguing is that off the field actions shouldnt effect on the field results. That unless it directly effects what happens in a game it shouldnt count towards the results. And we both know that is wrong. Cam Newton went to the University of Florida, but can you remember him in a Gators jersey? I tend to doubt it, as he was suspended for stealing laptops. Off the field behavior can directly effect the in-game scenarios. Had Penn State really wanted those wins(and wanted to remain human beings and not monsters) they would have called the cops.

LaVar Arrington, a Penn State alum who had some of his wins voided, wrote an article during the trial of Jerry Sundusky(Arrington joined the media after his career ended). Like many, his immediately reaction was to defend Paterno...until the trial started:

It’s hard to believe I could feel any worse about the horrific situation at Penn State and the allegations against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. But when the trial opened yesterday, to my dismay, matters became even more personal.

One witness, identified as Victim 4 by the grand jury, mentioned me multiple times. He spoke of wearing my jersey and having his photo taken with me. It again brought to mind his name, which originally had come to me when news of this scandal first broke.

Everything that has happened has aged me a few years, as I’m sure it has many others. But now my sadness and disappointment are growing as I realize that I knew this young man fairly well but didn’t grasp the full extent of what he was going through.

He’s 28 now, but I can recall seeing him around all the time when he was a kid, and I built a relationship with him. I always enjoyed interacting with kids. As time went on, I knew he looked up to me and was a big fan, and I made a point of stopping to talk with him. I’d ask him the usual questions: ‘How are you?’ ‘How’s school?’ He always seemed mad or kind of distant. I remember distinctly asking him: “Why are you always walking around all mad, like a tough guy?”

My preconceived notion was that he was part of Sandusky’s Second Mile foundation, so he must live in a troubled home, and I chalked it up to that. I would just tell him to smile every once in a while or laugh, that it would make him feel better. I guess with everything that I had going on, it certainly wasn’t a priority for me to try to figure him out. I saw him at the 1999 Alamo Bowl and shared a couple laughs. I left school for the draft and that was that.

I can’t believe after all these years I’d feel so bad about a kid that I hadn’t thought about since I left school. But of course I do.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ung-mans-pain/2012/06/12/gJQAkgviXV_blog.html

Theres more in the link, but while these athletes might want the wins, they are still human beings. If Paterno walked up to them and asked if they wanted wins at the expense of children being raped i doubt many would have agreed. Granted im being generous there, as ive seen the reaction of the Penn State athletes and alum...but im still choosing to believe they wouldnt intentionally play as kids were being raped(...right?).
Joe Paterno preached about doing the right thing. Obviously, he couldnt practice that. But his players could. Fighting for some wins in a records book kept by a corrupt institution seems like a very minor thing in the grand scheme of things. And, by and large, it seems like the former Penn State players agreed with that. The only people ive seen fighting are Penn State, the fans, school/state officials, and the scumbag's family. I suspect athletes will be fine, is it too much to ask that we worry about the actual victims?
 
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