Buzz Bissinger has written one righteous condemnation of the Penn State football program and Penn State administration in this week’s Daily Beast. He suggests the NCAA impose a 5 year ban for Penn State’s football program — something that would certainly be meaningful to Penn State as a punishment.
From the article (and you should read the whole thing:
When I heard the words “accountability” and “responsibility,” the words entitled people use to act as if they will do something when they won’t, I sank, once again like many of you, into a funk of deflation and disappointment. Writing about Penn State football has never been about me. It has been about the fact that college football, as admittedly exciting as it is, serves no academic purpose and in the end, can destroy a school’s reputation.
The board should have announced yesterday that the upcoming season of football at Penn State will be cancelled. It would have been a sincere and needed message to the world that the football culture will no longer be sustained. For the innocent players caught up in this monstrosity, the answer is easy—release them from their scholarship commitments to Penn State and let them go elsewhere without the normal period of having to sit out a year. That way they would not be punished for the sins of others.
In addition, Joe Paterno’s family wants to start its own investigation. Which seems like a cynical way to play this business — get your own official story to compete with the Freeh report. In other words, blow off any pretense for accountability or responsibility to those who were hurt in this scandal and go about the business of creating your own He Say She Say narrative.
So what do you think? Should Penn State Football get the death penalty?