Big-time College Sports--a sick culture

Excellent article in the Wall Street Journal about Penn State (excerpts below):

What Penn State Should Tear Down - WSJ.com: "It's not about the statue (of Joe Paterno) . . . Better to bicker over bronze than look into the soul of a scandal—what created a climate on campus in which principles were suspended, leaders declined to lead, and more victims suffered. So much easier to focus tightly on a sculpture than to zoom out and consider the full canvas. Because the full canvas is wider than a coach or a handful of officials or even Penn State. It's an athletic culture gone sick, as college sports has grown into a multibillion-dollar business, distorting standards that bind together healthy societies, and pushing imperfect people atop pedestals. . . . But how did Penn State get to that point?

"Freeh's report found an entire ecosystem built up around the protection of football. It cited Penn State's "excessive focus on athletics" and showed how under Paterno, a football-mad university created its own insular, reality distortion field, one in which to "avoid the consequences of bad publicity," facts were brushed away and concealed. "A culture of reverence for the football program…ingrained at all levels of the campus community," is how the Freeh report described it. . . .  Deep in Freeh's report, there's a road map. "One of the most challenging tasks confronting the University community...is an open, honest, and thorough examination of the culture that underlies the failure of Penn State's most powerful leaders to respond appropriately to Sandusky's crimes." . . . . Let's ask real questions about the human cost of big-time college sports and the submersions of common sense that have to occur to gain entrance to the party. Let's ask if it's all really worth it. That's the hard, uncomfortable work, and it can't just happen at Penn State. . . . "

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