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"Have you no sense of decency, sir?"

With every bit of breaking news about NCAA sanctions against the Penn State football program, it becomes evident that football is a lot more important than the young boys who were raped by a football coach.  Joe Paterno's fault was that, when the facts became known, he did not rise above the level of football to deal with it.  He, and several administrators, kept it "in house" in order not to tarnish "the program".  And, at Penn State, as at lots of other universities, there was no level above the football program.  It was the most important thing.


One can sympathize with the students who play football at Penn State, insofar as they did not rape those kids:  Jerry Sandusky did.  But playing at Penn State gave those students--insofar as they were students, and not just let's-pretend students, picking up credits for swimming and illiterate papers--a pretty good shot at professional football careers.  Temporarily crippling the football program, which is what the NCAA did, does hurt them, just as Joe Paterno's coverup helped them.  They cannot have it just one way.  


Penn State's coverup of the sex scandal by its coach necessarily brings to mind the coverup of the sex scandals of the Catholic Church.  At another level, it makes sense, because big-time sports has become a kind of religion.  "We are Penn State!"  "We are born-again Christians!"  "We are true believers, worshippers, winners!"


Football might be Penn State, but if it is, it is a damned shame.  "Touchdown Jesus" at Notre Dame is an unintended clue to what has happened almost everywhere.  Sports has gotten bigger than the University itself.  Sports is a kind of mindless religion.  The "mindless" part might make the transition easier.  Big-time coaches are paid more than big-time University presidents:  that ought to be a clue.  


Too many of those photos of Penn State students reacting in dismay at the punishment handed out by the NCAA suggest that somebody has forgotten how many little boys were violated, humiliated, raped, and sometimes ruined.  One could say similar things about priests who are pedophiles.  


It isn't about football.  It is about human decency, or the lack of it.  It is what happens when football becomes more important than a university.  It is what happens when preserving the priesthood becomes more important than human decency.  


Joseph Welch got it right in the Army-McCarthy hearings.  Thus the title to this blog entry.

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