Without a doubt, the news story of the year in 2011 was Penn State. Joe Paterno went from all time leader in college football victories to enabler of child rape in less than a week.
Has there ever been a fall from grace this far, this fast?
Has there ever been such a disgusting monster to hold a higher position in sports than Jerry Sandusky?
Has there ever been a more clueless set of narrow-minded idiots than the myopic subset of PSU fans who rioted/still neglect to face the truth today?
Have you ever seen a greater failure in chain of command/crisis management than Penn State University?
These questions obviously don’t have an exact answer, but the news stories that followed: more child molestation at Syracuse with Jim Boeheim’s right hand man Bernie Fine, a former clubhouse manager for the Boston Red Sox, the Citadel, and a Hall of Fame baseball writer.
Yes, the child molester in sports scoreboard is now at FIVE since early November: Penn State, Syracuse, The Citadel, Boston Red Sox, and MLB writer Bill Conlin.
What we’ve learned about sports in the past six weeks is this: your kids are no more safe there than they are in scouts or the Catholic church. Truthfully, there really is no extra-curricular activity where your kids are 100% safe.
I’m predicting that the next news story of this sort will break from the world of high school sports.
Other than the McDonald’s All-American basketball game, I don’t really have much experience covering Preps, but my media friends who do told me all about this world. There’s a lot of grown adults who spend a lot of time and attention on other people’s kids. And a lot of these people sound like really creepy freak shows.
And really, unless it’s your own kids, or your brother’s/sister’s/children’s kids, why do you have any time for this anyway? Even if you don’t have kids of your own, you really should have something more going on in your life than someone else’s kids.
Remember parents, your kids are exactly like your fantasy football team, it’s the most interesting subject in the world to you (and it should be), but it’s far from interesting to other people.
I’m guessing there’s a lot of excessive media coverage high school sports stories ready to break, and they won’t be like real life versions of “Coach Carter” or “Finding Forrester;” instead they’ll revolve around guys who look like Steve Buscemi should play them in a movie.
Let’s hope that reporting and writing about sports doesn’t involve many more child molesting stories. I’m sick of them.
That’s my Christmas wish, and New Year’s hope: that there aren’t any more of these demented sickos left out there.
And that’s really all I have to say in this post- I think child rape is disgusting and morally repugnant. What’s shocking is that some people from the PSU and Central Pennsylvania communities don’t share this belief.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site that generates millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio shows all across the world. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too.