Amid the nation’s soul-searching over the alleged child sex abuses committed by Pennsylvania State University Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky, some have argued that the culture of college football at large state universities is a co-belligerent in the scandal.

The child sex abuse charges were known about at the highest levels within Penn State. The Athletic Director, University President Graham Spanier, and Head Coach Joe Paterno were aware of the allegations, yet no one contacted the police.

After the Board of Regents fired Spanier and Paterno Wednesday night, some students
were rioting in the streets, suggesting that saving the football season was more important than the victims of child molestation.

Penn State Assistant Coach Mike McQueary told Paterno in 2002 that he had witnessed Sandusky sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy. Rather than reporting the incident to police, McQueary went to Paterno who then reported the incident to the Athletic Director.

“In this world of college football, Joe Paterno is bigger than the police. They live in an
entirely different world than you or I,” USA Today sportswiter Christine Brennan said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “I believe that [McQueary] thought he was going above and beyond by going to Joe Paterno’s house the day of, to tell the coach. I think that tells us all we need to know about how out-of-control college football programs are.”

Conservative columnist George Will agreed. “When you graft a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry anonymously onto higher education, you produce a bubble of entitlements and exemptions and eventually, simple moral derangement.”

Franco Harris, a Penn State alum and former NFL player, criticized Pennsylvania’s Board of Regents for firing Paterno, arguing that Paterno is innocent in the matter. The Grand Jury investigation that led to the arrest of Sandusky did not file charges against Paterno, Harris noted on “Fox News Sunday.”

“It is unfair how people were treating Joe with this issue because Joe is a highly moral person, great moral character,” Harris said.
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