Penn State Football Program

On occasion I drift away from running to address other topics. This post just happens to be on one those times.

Since the NCAA handed down their punishment on the Penn State Football program, most of the radio and tv analysis has centered around what it means to the program today and in the future. Clearly, the punishment will leave a stinging mark on the program the egregious offences that occurred. There is no way to justify overlooking them.

But I want to focus on one particular point of the penalty. This is Penn State's vacating of all their wins since 1998. While I confess to not understanding all the reasons behind this punishment, I suspect it has something do with removing Joe Paterno's position as the winningest coach in college foot ball as a way of punishing his legacy for his role in this entire dreadful affair. On some level, this makes sense to me. He should have made better decisions.

However, those losses don't just punish his legacy. Those losses whether wins during the regular season, conference championships, or bowl games means the legacy of the players on those teams also have losses attributed to their names. The old saying "Guilty by associate" just doesn't seem to fit in this case. I am sure these players shared a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and hard work to earn those wins. Sadly, the history books will write a different story now. That's why I feel for the players from those teams.


 

Sharing one thought at time,

The Cool Down Runner


 

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