When the Penn State story broke in 2012 it made global news. It certainly made headlines in Scotland and was covered on all news channels and in all the papers. A summary from lifted from wiki states…
“The Penn State child sex abuse scandal started with Jerry Sandusky, an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team, engaging in sexual abuse of children over a period of at least 15 years. Sandusky had located and groomed victims through his charity organization, The Second Mile. The scandal broke in early November 2011 when Sandusky was indicted on 52 counts of child molestation.
Although Sandusky’s abuse may have begun in the 1970s, he was charged with abuse that occurred between 1994 and 2009. Additionally, three Penn State school officials (school president Graham Spanier, vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley) were charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, failure to report suspected child abuse, and related charges. Shortly after the scandal broke, Spanier resigned. The Penn State Board of Trustees terminated the contracts of Curley and of the longtime head football coach, Joe Paterno.
Of the 52 charges, 4 charges were initially dropped, leaving 48. On June 22, 2012, Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse.Sandusky was sentenced on October 9, 2012, to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison.
The Board of Trustees commissioned an independent investigation by former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Louis Freeh and his law firm. The Freeh Report stated that Spanier and Paterno, along with Curley and Schultz, had known about allegations of child abuse on Sandusky’s part as early as 1998, and were complicit in failing to disclose them. Freeh found a “total and consistent disregard by the most senior leaders at Penn State for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims”, which “empowered” Sandusky to continue his abuse.”
It’s shocking stuff. The abuse, the denials and the cover-up. Now anyone in Scotland would admit a lot of it sounds very familiar. The setting, scale, crimes and the behaviour all eerily mirror the celtic fc scandal currently breaking in Scotland. Although most of it is now just being released from the courtroom a lot of the information on celtic fc was available in 2012. A peculiar thing is that I cannot recall the rather obvious parallels being drawn with the celtic fc scandal (not just conjecture but information factually in the public domain from Jim Torbetts original trial in the 90s). In my experience major stories are usually cross-referenced and judged relative to other incidents?
I’m fairly happy in stating an observation (and often do) that the Scottish sports media is ran by and for celtic fc. Almost all celtic stories get presented in the most favourable light and conversely rivals, Rangers, get the opposite treatment. Rangers financial problems and tax case stuff was dissected to a molecular level by the Scottish media – to a degree that was understandable as it was a big story; however, other aspects were dwelt on and negative narratives undoubtedly forced on the public.
So perhaps there’s the reason why our press didn’t draw the obvious link to Penn State and discuss celtics sordid story in full. Because to discuss it, to reason through potential outcomes and laws would be to raise the public awareness to precedents and with it awareness of how other nations sports and media people have dealt with it. It would push responsibility onto the club and force them to own their part in it. It would also compel governing bodies to step up and act. They did not (and still do not) want that. Why? There’s a clue in the initial sanctions handed out to Penn State…
He (NCAA President Mark Emmert) also hinted that he had not ruled out issuing the so-called “death penalty“, which would have forced Penn State to cancel at least the 2012 season.
Shortly after the release of the Freeh report, the NCAA Board gave Emmert the power to take corrective and punitive action relative to Penn State, forgoing the NCAA’s normal investigative protocol. On July 22, 2012, the NCAA announced that it would impose “corrective and punitive” sanctions against both the Penn State football program and the institution as a whole the next morning.
On July 23, 2012, Emmert announced the following sanctions against Penn State, including…
- Five years probation.
- A four-year postseason ban.
- Vacating of all wins from 1998 to 2011–112 wins in all. This had the effect of stripping the Nittany Lions of their shared Big Ten titles in 2005 and 2008. It also removed 111 wins from Paterno’s record, dropping him from first to 12th on the NCAA’s all-time wins list.
- A $60 million fine, the proceeds of which were to go toward an endowment for preventing child abuse. According to the NCAA, this was the equivalent of a typical year’s gross revenue from the football program.”
That’s a bit more than a slap on the wrist. And with good reason, it was intended to send a message that this was a very serious subject and that it would not be tolerated in their sport.
Upon challenge some of these sanctions were rescinded. The argument being the NCAA had over-stretched on some points and that Penn States acceptance and implementation of corrective actions was to be viewed more favourably. Even with that, the original message had been clear.
Upping the output 