They say that character is what you do when nobody is watching.
I totally agree.
I also know that your brand is defined by what you do when everybody is watching. Congratulations Penn State football, you have arrived once again, back at the top of the college football world as you were once before. The journey back from the NCAA slap-on-the-wrist (the governing body even reduced the sanctions, walking back from the original punitive measures) is now complete.
You’re now headed to the paradise of college football, the iconic Rose Bowl, a Shangri-L.A. without parallel.
The eyes of the nation are now upon you, so what will you do with all that added publicity and extra attention?
Are you going to use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the outside perception that the rest of the country has of you?
Will you take ownership what happened in Happy Valley, show remorse and contrition, apologize the victims and the victims families and then move forward? To those members of Nittany Nation hunkered down in their central Pennsylvania bubble, will you expand you mind and listen to what outside voices have to say?
Will you help show the rest of the country that Penn State football is not the JoeBOTs even though they are the subset which often, and sometimes unfairly gets a lot of media attention?
I was there, at ground zero, when Penn State football celebrated their moment of glory Saturday night in Indianapolis, upsetting a very good Wisconsin team to complete their upstart, against the odds run to the B1G title. I saw sophomore tailback Saquon Barkley, the B1G offensive player of the year, put in a dominant performance, as he develops into the next big thing.
I was also up and close and personal with QB Trace McSorley, a first year starter who has Nittany Nation saying Christian Hackenwho? as he broke the PSU single season passing yardage mark. He’s on his way to superstardom.
I went to the press conferences of B1G Coach of the Year James Franklin, and I listened to him enjoy the moment, as he’s restored the program to the level of national title contender.
I walked among Penn State football fans screaming “WE ARE!…” and hashtagging #PSUnrivaled on their smart phones as they posted B1G Title selfies and group shots in Nap Town.
We’ve seen the program ascend on the field, now it’s time to match that off-the-field.
After all, off-the-field is what matters a whole lot more.
You may not want to realize this, and that’s perfectly understandable as it’s as ugly as the truth can get, but the rest of the country still thinks of the monster that is Jerry Sandusky first and foremost when Penn State football is mentioned. That’s just reality, but now when everybody is paying attention, now is time to try and make amends.
You can change that if you’re ready to do the right thing. In the preseason, the Penn State football headlines were dominated by stories of what Joe Paterno knew and when did he know it. The case is closed- Paterno was complicit to, and an enabler of, Sandusky’s atrocities for decades.
Accepting this inconvenient truth is the first step required in order to “move on.”
That’s what the Penn State football community wants, right? For the rest of the country to move on and look toward the future? The program’s leadership can start trying to make that happen right now by looking out for the victims and the victims families.
It’s the holiday season, a season of giving, and now is the time to give to those who were egregiously wronged by Sandusky.
There’s no time like the present, when we have a whole month of pre-Rose Bowl media coverage to come and no actual football being played to fill in the demand for content. How about stories covering how PSU is donating to the victims and the victims families, and prioritizing their needs above all else? Both USC and the Penn State football program will receive a payout of $18 million, how about a slice of that goes to the victims?
According to USA Today, James Franklin has already made $550,00 in bonuses from this season. It breaks down as follows:
$250,000 for playing in the Big Ten Championship, $200,000 for playing in ANY bowl game, $100,000 WIN Big Ten Championship.
Tell me he wouldn’t become one of the best guys in the coaching fraternity if he donated a significant portion of that? That’s just on an individual, micro level.
On the general, macro-level, how about all that energy that went into honoring Paterno this fall and fighting the NCAA on vacated wins goes towards trying to ease the pain of those who suffered?
Tell me that wouldn’t be a win-win for everybody and help grow the Penn State football community by re-branding the program as showing contrition, then being proactive to rectify it?
None of this, of course, will undo the atrocities that Sandusky committed and Paterno was complicit to. Not by a longshot. However, the past cannot be changed, so this is all we can do to move forward. You can only change the present and then hopefully the future, so that nothing as deplorable as this ever happens again.
Now’s the time to complete the “WE ARE” chant with “benevolent” and “forward-thinking.”
Here’s an opportunity to show that PSU is unrivaled in philanthropy, realizing that winning in life is more important than winning on the field. In 2013, Penn State agreed to pay $59.7 million to 26 sexual abuse victims as part of a legal settlement.
That is completely different from the concept of donation.
Yes, there has been fund-raising on campus to stop child abuse. A candlelight vigil was held at the school for the victims once. Most people forgot about that. Now it’s time to go bigger and bolder and make a positive impact that everybody remembers.
PSU, you have not had an opportunity like this in the post-Paterno era to change the national narrative and lead the general conversation. Do good works, and do them in such a tremendous scale that everyone will have no choice but to focus on it.
It’s your move Nittany Nation, show us who you really are and who you can be.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.