Worst sports scandal ever?

[DCCuse]

Is there any sports scandal, not just college sports, worse than this?

Jim Tressel got fired over some tattoos.

As another aside... Zach Spence, who a PSU colleague of mine said was their top recruit, tweeted he didn't want to be involved with that program. So, I guess there is already some recruiting fall out.

Not going to debate "worse," but another major scandal not mentioned that goes to CTO's point of longstanding impact and also had a lot of innocent victims is the East German Olympic doping scandal. Many athletes never knew they were even being doped. One woman shot putter got so many male hormones given to her that she ultimately had a sex change.

 

[Scooch]

Oh.

So, a middle aged guy who has not coached football at PSU in four years rapes a ten year old kid is a "sports" story?

I guess I don't see the distinction you see.

Yeah, Chip got what I was saying. OJ was a figure famous largely because of sports (and Hertz commercials and Naked Gun movies), but the crime and coverage had nothing to do with sports. This is about a guy who had access to rape kids due to his position as a football coach. He was traveling to football events with these kids that he was molesting, on PSU's athletic dime. He was protected by the head coach of the program, and maintained an office down the hall from him, while he was allowed to rape kids.

So that's why I drew the distinction.

 

[Cadillac]

Biggest ever.

Sports and winning above all and the inherent tribalism that goes along with it - it has become a disease. It's rabies.

It's easy to preach as an SU fan where football Saturdays aren't a way of life, but the idea of putting the PROGRAM first caused a lot of sensible, capable, and good people to look the other way.

I'd like to think every one of the 106,572 people watching a game at Happy Valley would have called the feds on Sandusky if they were McQueary.

But knowing that the PROGRAM they worship (and I don't think worship is too strong a word) would be in jeopardy, that number goes down... by a lot.

For Penn State to say JoePa is only taking questions on BEATING NEBRASKA and Senior Day - disgusting.

 

[OrangePA]

Yeah, Chip got what I was saying. OJ was a figure famous largely because of sports (and Hertz commercials and Naked Gun movies), but the crime and coverage had nothing to do with sports. This is about a guy who had access to rape kids due to his position as a football coach. He was traveling to football events with these kids that he was molesting, on PSU's athletic dime. He was protected by the head coach of the program, and maintained an office down the hall from him, while he was allowed to rape kids.

So that's why I drew the distinction.

I see the two situations as similar.

The PSU coach was very prominent because of his work as a football coach in State College.

He was given access, had privelages and was absolved of questionable behavior because of his association with a very high profile football program.

OJ was news because of his days as a football player. He was given access, had privelages and was absolved of questionable behavior because of his football successes.

It's true that OJ did not commit the murder on USC or Buffalo Bills property, but he was allowed to get away with past abuses that led to the operative charges by virtue of his football prominence.

I see the procedural differences but I don't see a substantive distinction.

 

[Scooch]

I see the two situations as similar.

The PSU coach was very prominent because of his work as a football coach in State College.

He was given access, had privelages and was absolved of questionable behavior because of his association with a very high profile football program.

OJ was news because of his days as a football player. He was given access, had privelages and was absolved of questionable behavior because of his football successes.

It's true that OJ did not commit the murder on USC or Buffalo Bills property, but he was allowed to get away with past abuses that led to the operative charges by virtue of his football prominence.

I see the procedural differences but I don't see a substantive distinction.

I completely disagree, but whatever, it doesn't really matter.

 

[Cadillac]

The day the AD steps down, ESPN's Big Ten blog has a lengthy post titled "How does PSU scandal affect recruiting?"

PSU fans are saying, well now maybe we can beat OSU to Urban Meyer.

This is rabies.