The College Fix

Did you know that the Joe Paterno family is suing the NCAA in order to get the sanctions against the football team revoked? Sanctions that resulted from the horrific Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case?

It’s really unbelievable. Kids were abused, lives were forever damaged, and all these people care about his how hard it might be for Penn State to win football games this year.

ESPN reports:

The NCAA asked a Pennsylvania court Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the family of the late coach Joe Paterno that seeks to overturn the sanctions against Penn State for the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Some trustees, former players and coaches and current faculty members are also taking part in the same lawsuit, which the NCAA said was flawed and contained “various significant legal deficiencies.”

I can’t believe the tone-deafness of the Paterno family and their allies in this idiotic lawsuit. Do they actually believe that football is more important than the lives and well-being of innocent kids? How could they possibly have the nerve to sue the NCAA?

Enough! I say.

The deceased Joe Paterno was a caring and decent person by most accounts. But this project of legacy redemption by his family is doing nothing but reinforcing the worst aspects of Penn State culture that were originally brought to light by this scandal. Specifically, it was a culture that put football and the reputation of Penn State ahead of everything else–even ahead of the safety of little kids. According to the official investigation conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh, there was a cover-up.

Joe Paterno did not do all that he should have done to stop Jerry Sandusky from using Penn State to access kids. That’s a fact. He and other senior administrators–all the way up to ousted president Graham Spainer–were responsible for allowing that ongoing abuse to take place on Penn State property. They knew Sandusky’s history and they knew about the eye-witness allegations. Still, they allowed him to freely access kids on Penn State property for years. A few temporary recruitment sanctions against Penn State’s football team seems like mild penalty.

I’d like to know when all of these Penn State/Paterno partisans will have the decency and tact to just shut up, take their penalties, and let this disgraceful chapter in the school’s history finally die away. Neither Joe Paterno, nor the fans or coaches or players or staff were the victims of this scandal. It was the many boys who were abused year-after-year who were the victims–let’s not forget that. Many of them became victims, in part, because those in authority at the university turned a blind eye or did the bare minimum at best to protect the kids from a known predator.

Now they want the penalties against the university to be revoked? It’s utterly shameless. Speaking for myself, I couldn’t care less if they never played another game.

Nathan Harden is editor of The College Fix and author of the book SEX & GOD AT YALE: Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad.

Like The College Fix on Facebook.  / Follow Nathan on Twitter @NathanHarden