This past winter Ohio State had a huge shake up. A group of our football players were accused of receiving improper benefits which resulted in Terrelle Pryor leaving and going to the NFL, the other players served their suspensions (except for Posey who is suspended until next week), and Jim Tressel resigned from his head coaching position.
Then over the summer the University of Miami football scandal broke out. Former Miami booster Nevin Sharpio, who is now serving 20 years in prison for running a $930 million Ponzi scheme, paid for parties for football players and hired prostitutes and strippers to have sex with numerous players. Now the University of Miami is facing some of the most severe sanctions that the NCAA can impose on a school's football program.
And now just in the last week the scandal at Penn State broke out. Supposedly the former Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused multiple boys that he brought to visit Penn State through his charity work. This resulted in Sandusky being arrested, the President of the University was fired and arrested, and the Board of Trustees fired Joe Paterno after his 46 years as the head football coach at Penn State.
So what I'm wondering is if any school is running a completely legit football program. All schools want to have the best football team because it generates so much money for the university. And to be the best you have to have the best players, so that's where improper recruiting benefits come in. What do you think about these scandals? Did Joe Paterno do enough by only reporting the allegations to the Athletic Director at Penn State, or did he deserve to get fired?
It’s quite ridiculous how many of these scandals involving college football programs have been coming to the surface recently in the past year. It’s a very serious issue for a football program and university to get linked with these scandals.
ReplyDeleteThe saying that “Once reputation is lost, it’s hard to gain back”, is very valid is these situations. Universities need to keep their high standards in order to maintain respect. I think that is why universities fire and punish anyone that was at all or even slightly connected to the scandal, no matter how important they once were to the program. I agree that this should be done, but it is terrible that so many successful careers have to come to these unfortunate ends.
Along with the large amounts of money that football programs generate comes large amounts of crimes and scandals. Hopefully people will learn from the mistakes of others and these crimes will stop.
Hearing about the Penn State incident this week has definitely been shocking. It seems like there are no honest programs anymore. Better football programs mean more money for the university so they are going to bigger extremes to assemble the best teams. I believe that most teams have been violating some NCAA code. The teams we see in the news are merely the teams that happen to be caught red handed. The rest get off without punishment. What’s worse is that it gives the entire university a bad name. As a college football fan, if I heard that Tennessee State (arbitrarily picked school) had violated rules and was being punished, I would gain a negative view toward the entire school, not just the football team. The only thing I have to judge this school by is the incident, which makes my opinions about the school negative.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Penn State, it is extremely unfortunate what took place. As human beings, when you witness/know about actions taking place such as these, the only right thing to do is do everything in your power to stop it, which in this case, was not done. They should have done more to stop the crimes being committed. As a football coach, Joe Pa was one of the best we have ever seen, but as a regular guy, one must wonder what made him not do more to help the kids.
College football is a very important event in Americans’ lives. Even though I am not an American, I can feel the passion people have toward college football. When I spent a year with my host family in high school, they would watch college football every Saturday. At the beginning, I know nothing about college football. Because of my host parents’ passion, I become interested in watching football.
ReplyDeleteKnowing all the scandals, I think it is very disappointing for such a cultural thing become violated by people. Every time, scandals bring negative influence to the school. Scandals not only hurt the school but also hurt the fans’ feelings.
Regardless of the person is an athletes or not, being a teacher or coach should direct the students to the right path. Joe should have stopped and corrected. I think it is not worth to tolerate the actions just because the athletes will make the team better. Bad reputation makes the team worse off. And there are many talented athletes out there.
It’s terrible that all these scandals are happening and just now coming to the surface. I agree that these negative actions reflect the whole school not just the football team. A football team is a college’s pride and joy, when something goes wrong or tarnishes that, the whole school feels let down and people end up looking down upon that school. I know over the summer when I went home and went back to work I received the same question over and over, “So what do you think about the OSU football team?” These scandals affect the students, faculty and fans and I just wish that people could think before they act. Having a respectable team is just as important as having a good team and I would hope that coaches and football players felt the same way.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened at Penn State is just disgusting. I don’t know why no one tried to stop what was going on. Joe Pa could’ve done so much more to help those children and I think it was right for him to leave/get fired since he didn’t do everything in his power to do the right thing.
Its a very strange situation. I think Paterno did do enough by reporting the situation to the Athletic Director but I also do see the fact that such thing has to be reported to authorities too. This continuous college football scandals involving major universities are all very different from the PSU one that does not involve improper benifits to players. The scandal is a very big one but we cannot say too much about it untill Jerry Sandusky is actually charged and proven guilty.
ReplyDeleteThough I'm sure that there are quite a few colleges out there running completely "legit" football programs, I don't think that any of the big, successful schools are among them. This is truly unfortunate, but it's the sad truth.
ReplyDeleteI think the scandals range from ridiculous to terrible. For example, I couldn't care less if football players want to sell their stuff or if their fame ends up granting them unforeseen benefits. Who is that hurting? On the other hand, financially scamming people in order to pay for parties and sexual benefits for players is just wrong.
Even further down on the moral totem pole, we have the Penn State situation. Being aware of child molestation and reacting with anything less than anger and swift action is unbelievable and pathetic. Yes, I think that Joe Paterno deserved to be fired. I was in disbelief that there were riots protesting that decision. What about the children who were abused? What about their families? Did the rioters believe that a coaching career justified inaction? They were basically proclaiming that what happened was alright by protesting the consequences. Something like child molestation should be met with nothing but relentless intolerance.
I hope that all these scandals being revealed causes some people to make better decisions, and that football programs start shaping up, because right now, it's just unacceptable.
I think it's kind of ridiculous that these scandals keep happening. What ever happened to honest football players, coaches, and universities? Why is it so hard for them to understand that the activities that they do are constantly being watched and they should know better. It's so disheartening to hear of these scandals and how can people still be fans? I am still a fan of OSU because getting tattoos is nothing compared to abusing kids and paying for prostitution. It makes me disgusted that these people are looked at as heros and awesome people and great athletes when really they are engaging in illegal activities.
ReplyDeleteYou would think that the players would learn their lessons and the coaches would learn their lessons after one school got accused and the NCAA punished them so severely that they lost players, coaches, money, and practically everything for a couple hundred dollars. But those other schools haven't learned their lessons and continue to make mistakes. It's hard to be a fan when scandals like these are going on.