Penn State shitstorm

[veronica_rich]

I know exactly as much about organized sports as you would expect me to know, which is to say not a whole lot. The news about Penn State has made me wonder several things, to wit:

1. I'm guessing the ostensible reason for "erasing" the football team's victories under the former coach was to send a message to other universities that covering up crimes should not take precedence over a winning season. (I did say "ostensible;" you're all free to have your darker "follow the money" theories since they may be more correct, but I don't know what they are.) As to why this is the end of the world for former players ... I admit I don't understand the hair-pulling quite like I should. I would presume that anyone who was going to use their college record to play pro ball is already doing so, and isn't going to lose their job over this - and anyone else, who just has the record as a point of pride, can tell others, "Look, I did play for them, we had this record - it was in the news, remember That Thing That Erased It? Yeah, it sucks, but my playing and those wins DID HAPPEN, they did exist, it's easily provable."

2. I'm really not trying to bait anyone or play the Oppression Olympics, but I honestly wonder: Would the smackdown have come as hard on Sandusky and Penn State if it had been adult women, or even little girls, who had been molested/raped? Or is it that it was little boys, and this case speaks to the horrified homophobe who is convinced that "gay = pedophile" in our culture? I suppose I'm allowed to wonder, but I do feel bad about wondering such a thing, since it makes me look even more cynical than I know I am.

3. I wonder if any of these people who covered for Sandusky are truly sorry they did it, even now. (I refuse to believe any of them felt THAT bad at the time they were doing it. If they felt THAT bad, they wouldn't have participated in covering it up.)


Off-topic, but speaking of abused children: There have been at least four news stories in the past month in my area about small children or babies found in smoking-hot enclosed vehicles while the parent was gone, or shopping, or off sticking their thumbs up their asses somewhere (i.e., all the same thing). The answer is always either "I didn't intend to be that long" or "I forgot they were in there."

WOULD SOMEONE TELL ME HOW IN THE BLUE FUCK YOU FORGET YOU LEFT A BABY IN THE CAR? It isn't possible. It just isn't. I've babysat several children in the past 20-some years, and there hasn't been one yet that was forgettable or quiet enough to be fucking FORGOTTEN in the car when I parked it. I don't even really like kids and I can't forget they're there. HOW STUPID ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BE TO BELIEVE THIS EXCUSE?

I've said it before, so I'll repeat it now - having a child does not mean you want to keep it or take care of it. Adoption and its processes and expenses surely provides more incentive to keep the kid and presumably weeds out the vast majority of neglectful parents, so I won't harp on that; I'm talking about squirting out some sperm or the infant itself from your nether regions. Women who get abortions or men who finance them are seen as evil by a lot of people, but this somehow suggests that everyone who chooses to have and keep a baby is a good person and by extension, a good parent. It isn't always so, and among the bad apples, you just know there HAVE to be those looking for ways to permanently get rid of the kid (since it's not legal to outright kill it once it's past a certain developmental stage - but if they can engineer something that looks merely like an accident or forgetfulness, well ...).

Comments

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

1. Winning IS about money. Having talked to my son who is a sports fanatic, I think that wiping the record of wins will do nothing to those people who think that this is a tempest in a tea cup. Those wins will always be part of the collective history. They happened. People know they happened. And wiping them out is essentially lip service.

2. I can't even go there because it really doesn't matter. Abuse of children is abuse of children.

3.. I doubt it. Note the riots after the scandal broke. The most important thing about these sanctions is that it puts a crimp in that culture that overwhelms the college. It's doesn't kill it, but it doesn't give them many opportunities to kneel and genuflect. I've been to Penn State and the stadium there is so big it overshadows the town completely. It's no surprise what was king there.

Seriously, ver, until you've had a kid and dealt with the day in and day out, then, well, there but for the grace of God went I. My son had some serious intestinal issues until he was 18 months old and I finally went to a doctor and said that I was going to kill him if I didn't get a good night's sleep. I walked around on three hours of sleep a night for over a year. I was a zombie. I could see doing that. I can actually see it happening really easily. I once lost my car keys in the hospital and had everyone frantically looking for them. Two hours later I realized that the hospital had valet parking and my car keys were with them. THAT'S what exhaustion does to you. That year half the time I was wearing my shirts inside out. So yeah. I don't blame them or judge those parents or assume that they feel these kids are a burden and unwanted. They may just be bone-dead exhausted. I've been there.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

For me, it's less a matter of lacking empathy and more of a practical issue, on the last part. HOW DO YOU FORGET YOU LEFT A HUMAN BEING IN THE CAR. A kid is not a set of car keys. I don't really believe anyone when they say "oh, I forgot the kid in the car." Maybe it was a snap judgment based on temporary insanity or no sleep - a wayward punishment gone horribly wrong. But it just sounds stupid when they say "oh, I forgot the kid in the car." Tell the truth; say "the little savage was driving me out of my tree and I only intended to leave him in there for five minutes while I calmed down, but I was tired and fell asleep on the chair." I do not see how that truth sounds worse than "oh, I forgot the kid in the car" or more legally liable, and it's surely something most people would recognize as at least a marginally better explanation.

Pretty much the only situation I can see forgetting you left a human being in a vehicle is if you're driving a bus and someone fell asleep in the back behind a tall seat back and you weren't keeping track of getting on/getting off as well as you should have for many riders.

(But yes, I am convinced there are a small percentage of parents who don't want to be parents who would take opportunities to rid themselves of that burden, don't you think? That's easily proven, in fact, by the parents who are caught killing their children deliberately, or abusing them often and well beyond reasonable punishment.)

[heartofslash.livejournal.com]

Been there too, babe. Haven't locked a kid in a car, or an animal either, but was late to pick them up a few times... ALMOST forgot one of them one time. Almost. I was sooooo close. There was some kind of subconscious thing going on there. Heh.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you forget the kid somewhere where there's a breathable atmosphere and they're not going to cook, just because you haven't seen them all day, at least someone is probably already looking after them and it's a matter of making a call or breaking speed limit laws to get there. But you know, you put them in the car, take them somewhere, and the heat is so horrid that YOU want to get out of that glass-and-metal environment ... I mean, how can you forget they're in there next to or behind you? That's my point.

[(Anonymous)]

i agree, but then, I don't think I ever left my kids in a car, not longer than it took to walk around the vehicle and open the door for them. It's hard to imagine.

[heartofslash.livejournal.com]

Oops, I didn't realize I was signed out.

facepalm

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

This is a reply to downstairs about fan culture, so you'll actually see it - I am definitely not convinced that fan culture going mainstream has been a good thing. For instance, I've been a diehard fan of something or other most of my life at various points. I guess the first time I ever talked about it and told stories about something began in 1986 with Back to the Future; my friends got sick of me talking about it, my parents hated me for it, and so I found exactly one other person I could discuss it with, this guy I ended up dating for a couple of years.

But, if you want to talk about participating in a wider fandom in some way, that would have to be about the last 20 years. I was into Trek for a while, and the vast portion of my years in that was restricted to going to cons, paper 'zines, phone calls, and only actually knowing one or two real life people I could talk about it with. I don't remember drama in the fandom, though maybe there had to be some? I don't know. We were all nerds and respected each other's oddities without encouraging the worst ones (i.e., I remember a listserv for an actor I used to be on, where we would do "gutter talk" for fun back and forth on the private list, but once we had someone in our midst who outed herself as an actual stalker of the guy, we shunned her HARD and criticized her behavior. But that's beside my point).

I like to point to POTC fandom as an example of mainstream coming into fandom, or vice versa. It has been my humble hypothesis for years that a lot of the bullies that arose in the fandom after a while were probably "normal," popular or semi-popular mainstream girls in school with "normal" interests and favorable peer interactions, who never really dealt much with their school nerds or understood how someone could have an opinion they and their friends didn't all share and still be just as right as they were. And so they wander into fandom, look around at all the 'ships that would seem weird to the "outside world" (i.e., mainstream), and declare "ewww, you guys are sick! Here's a hot guy and a hot girl? Why don't you like them instead? THERE MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU, OMG." And so they just expect their opinions ought to be adopted and followed and incorporated as the good opinions, and are puzzled when people try to debate with them or disagree. At least that's what I envision.

[heartofslash.livejournal.com]

I see your point about fandom going to hell when non-nerds get involved. They tend to be less tolerant of outliers and more close-minded.

At the same time, nonfandom people look at my one ring tattoo and say, "Cool, Lord of the Rings" now, and 15-20 years ago they called me a freak for having Tank Girl hair. I enjoy the greater acceptance of fandom in some ways.

[heartofslash.livejournal.com]

I will never understand sports culture. I have a front row seat, now that my brother is living with me. Fanatical fan, he is. Considers the fans to be part of the team. but I cannot quite wrap my head around the concept. (I'm sure he would find my fanfic horrifying ;)

There was a piece on this on the CBC this morning. I was, frankly, quite shocked when they read out the broad range of punishments. Not like I would cry is the Penn State stadium was swallowed up by a black hole tomorrow and never seen again. But revoking past wins? That seems to me like childish lashing out. And really not solving the problem. Also, kinda preemptive. I mean, has the justice system sorted all this stuff out yet? It may be a slow process, but it's slow for a reason. No, I don't have full faith in it, either, but these are massive, bizarrely comprehensive punishments that seem calculated to assure the general public that SOMETHING IS BEING DONE, SERIOUSLY. when nothing is actually being done.

(Though the money for the programs fighting abuse? Always a good thing.)

Cynical me - I think women are raped by sports guys all the time and no one does a damn thing about it. (I should know. I was one of them.)

No, I do not think there would be so much horror if it were girls getting raped, of any age. (Her fault, slut shaming and all that bullshit.)

We live in an evil world, and I'm in a bad mood, so I'm being perhaps unnecessarily blunt about this.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I've often wanted someone scholarly to do a comparative essay about sports culture and fan culture, and how going overboard for sports is vaunted and encouraged and good and patriotic and Christian and acceptable and all that jazz, while at the same time if you admit you're a Star Trek fan, people immediately get this image of you in a dirty t-shirt breathing through your mouth and scratching your crotch in your mother's basement. Or look at those women who lined up for the Twilight movies - no, I don't have any interest in the books, yeah I think they're kind of vapid, but what you read for fun is your business. And if you and your friends want to spend one night a year being goofy and giggling over guys you think are hot (though the ones drooling over that Lautner kid kind of scared me when he was still underage), how is that any worse or "less" than a bunch of half-naked men painting their bodies and sitting in -10 weather screaming at a bunch of guys on a gridiron who don't give a fuck what they're saying? LOL

[(Anonymous)]

Fan culture is so much more accepted now than it once was. Not sure if that means the world is improving or we're going to hell in a handbasket...

[bayliss.livejournal.com]

WOULD SOMEONE TELL ME HOW IN THE BLUE FUCK YOU FORGET YOU LEFT A BABY IN THE CAR?

My mother never left us in the car... EVER. I don't understand it either.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Dad used to leave me in the car when we went places, but the window was down and I was about 8 years old and could read a book. Plus, I was within eyesight of him - he was usually talking with the mechanics down at the shop or at the local car lot.

[elibad.livejournal.com]

I'm a sports fan (watching football right now actually, Canadian Football, which is a completely different animal than the NCAA or NFL, and way more awesome for it).

When it comes right down to it, Paterno and the rest of these yahoos weren't covering for Sandusky, they were protecting their precious football program and their respective legacies (and fortunes). And those sanctions? They were basically the NCAA trying to protect and distance itself from this mess. Not that they're blameless, the rewards for a successful team are enormous, cash, the ability to recruit top talent, prestige. Those are pretty big incentives to make sure your program has no black marks. If they had just done the right thing right away, they could have salvaged the fall out. They deserve everything they get and more importantly, everything they lose.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Paterno and the rest of these yahoos weren't covering for Sandusky, they were protecting their precious football program and their respective legacies (and fortunes).

I agree completely. College sports are all about the bottom line (well - male college sports, that is. There are very few female college sports that could attain that status; maybe the UT women's basketball team).

[elibad.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere once that the NCAA is the richest sports organization in the world, with revenues in the billions! ($10.6B in 2008-2009 in fact, $10.6B!!!!) And they net a shitton because they don't pay their athletes (full ride scholarships average out to something like $50K per year totalling something like $1.5B per year, 1% of revenues, while the NBA, and NFL each pay out about 50% to the talent, the NHL is higher, closer to 55%).

What I know about the situation. The $60M sanction, that is to go to charity, is the average annual revenue of the Penn State football program.

Joe Paterno, not Sandusky, was the winning-est coach in NCAA history, at least until they vacated something like 175 wins between '98 to 2011 (dropped him to 12th). Sandusky was a assistant who was being groomed to take over when JoePa retired. In 1998 the first public charges against Sandusky came to light when a mother questioned why her son was showering with a grown man, apparently there was a hard push to charge Sandusky but the DA said nay.

After the investigation 'went away', Sandusky 'retired' with a big package and carte blanche of the campus. But JoePa and the other officials knew what was what, but still did nothing and then did a little more nothing after the 2002 incident of the grad student/assistant coach catching Sandusky raping a boy in the shower (I have some sympathy for this kid, word is JoePa ruled with an iron fist, controlling all aspects of the football program (some even say the whole campus) everything went through him, or else...)

But long story short (holy shit!) this is why the games from 1998 to 2011 were vacated, because that is when they can comfortably trace JoePa's knowledge of Sandusky's assaults and the beginnings of the cover ups. Although there have been more men coming forward saying they were assaulted in the 70's and 80's and if JoePa was the man they say he was (relentless control freak), he probably knew before that, he just didn't care.

This whole thing, and other incidents like it, may make me a bit ragey. I remember when this was first hitting the fan last fall, CNN was calling it the 'Penn State sex scandal'. How is this is sex scandal? How is rape and abuse ever a sex scandal? It's fucking rape, not sex, not the same thing at all, but 'men' don't like the word rape, it makes them uncomfortable. But people still defending JoePa and the other Penn State weenies don't understand how harmful it is, also stuff like this. Like I said, ragey.

[a-silver-rose.livejournal.com]

Me, I have a little trouble with people painting Paterno as some sort of saintly scapegoat. Yes, the man passed away not long after the scandal broke, and very probably the stress of did his health no favors, and I also believe the Freeh report put too much of the blame on him possibly because he's not alive to defend himself, but in no way, shape, or form is he a *bleep* saint. If he were still alive today, he'd be facing charges related to covering Sandusky's actions, just like the now-fired Penn State president.

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

Near as I can tell, Sandusky was the winningest coach of ever, and so wiping those wins was a way of effectively revoking that title and saying, "Neither you nor your school get to count these wins on your official record since the cost of them was apparently children getting raped. Fuck your priorities."

Considering that the core problem here was that people involved with the football program didn't care enough about child rape to be willing to damage their football program over it, I think that's an effective punishment--especially if you consider that the football players who attended Penn State with the goal of joining their Winningest Football Program have all been offered complimentary transfers to schools that are less likely to be raping little kids so that they can still put great numbers on their resumes.

The only reason I have even heard these things is because a friend of mine is a big football fan and we were talking about it Monday night. Considering that this is all second-hand knowledge, if someone comes along who actually personally knows these things, their account is probably more trustworthy than mine. Just relaying what I was told.

As for a pervasive environment of men raping women with accompanying cover-up and whether anyone would care? No, nobody would care. No one on a larger scale really cares what happens to women; people do, however, care about how icky and grody and predatory they (want to) think gay men are, even if rape isn't really a pressing concern for them otherwise.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

That's enlightening - I don't know much about it, so some insight is always very good.

[johnnypenn.livejournal.com]

I don't think the penn state thing would be as band if it were adult women. But I think it'd be just like this if it were little girls. Whenever something involves children things get ugly.
Otherwise I think all this...whatever they're doing...is just reacting to what happened, because they didn't do the right things in the beginning. Like that other coach who saw and reported it but it didn't go any further than that. I would have put a stop to it and called the police. Fuck the job.

I remember a few years ago during a hot summer when one lady left her baby in the car and the baby died. I think a parent who does that ought to be getting a babysitter if they don't want to run errands with their kids just to leave them in the car.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Well, I would have stopped it too, but that's why I don't have a job like that, I suppose ...