Do you think the sex abuse scandal at Penn State will make anyone in the US reconsider the idea that "Foot Ball is KING"?

Did it change the power of the Catholic Church?

I don’t think it will change football. Football is not the culprit. Maybe football gives pedophiles easier access to young boys, but I don’t think so. All the other sports can also facilitate older men getting naked with younger boys. I’m sure the other sports have their skeletons in the closet, too.

Football is a great game. I think people can separate the pedophile from the game. Most people are perfectly decent. Only a few are bad, and we don’t even know how many of them there are in football.

No, what does it have to do with football? The man was a pedophile. Does it make people reconsider being catholic that there was widespread acceptance of and covering up of pedophilia?

Our whole society covers it up.

Oops. I didn’t read your response, Wundy! Jinx. Cokes all around.

Nope.

Nope

Won’t change a thing. And it’s my opinion it has less to do with football and more to do with the revenue it brings in – which pays for a lot of things.

Foot ball is just another religion to these people. So imagine the audacity of religious foot ball fans…..They won’t change.

I think this incident shook up a lot of Universities, mine included. The only good things that may come of this are that he won’t be able to touch another child and parents will hopefully talk to their children.
I would love for everyone involved to get tried equally. The way I see it, every single one of them were in that locker room that day.

I’m afraid that I agree with you, @Blackberry . People are too attuned to venerating foot ball to ever really look at how foot ball controls so many people, so many schools, so many cities, & so much media. It is like ancient Rome & their gladiatorial circuses.

I don’t think that the incident has any connection with football specifically. It is just another case of a person covering something up to save their reputation. This has happened countless times before in countless different situations, but the end result is always the same: the person’s reputation is destroyed even more than what would have happened if they had not covered it up in the first place.

Although nothing has been determined in a court of law, this has nothing to do with football. It has everything to do with the character of Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, Mike McQueary, Gary Schultz, Tim Curly, Ray Gricar and others. If these men had been part of the Eberly College of Science at Penn State or the Penn State School of Theartre, would their actions have been different?

Nope, no way. It is true that the sanctity of football protected the coaches from investigation and interference. But there will be “policies” set up to “prevent” this, and it will all be considered an aberration.

The biggest threat to the sanctity of college football and basketball are the demands that players get compensated by the schools.

@bkcunningham Students rioted because Paterno was fired. They lauded him for what he did for sports and the college. They ignored what he did (well, didn’t do) because of his status, and because they were cultist sports fans.

@Blackberry, I don’t agree with the OPer’s statement, “It has become clear that the sex abuse of children was allowed to continue for years because of the ingrained ‘foot ball is king’ attitude that reigns supreme in the US.”

I read a very good op-ed piece in the Centre Daily newspaper. The Centre Daily is the local newspaper where Penn State is located. It is well written and very insightful on the group-think mentality and the shroud that Paterno is cloaked in by the University community. It was more than football, in my opinion.

Here it is if you are interested. http://www.centredaily.com/2011/11/15/2987205/we-are-penn-state-evokes-a-range.html

@bkcunningham So, instead of the religion of sports, it was the religion of Penn State….I guess you were right in that aspect. It wasn’t just about football, it was about a single University.

Doesn’t make it any better.

No, it doesn’t make it any better, @Blackberry. I’ve tried to emphasize with those involved from every angle I can conjure up from my imagination, experiences and just life in general and put myself in their shoes. I can’t imagine how I would sleep at night if I had witnessed or even heard rumors about a co-worker doing these things. It is honestly beyond my comprehension.

Judging from the Penn state riots, no. However, this could be applied to any institution besides football – so it’s a little absurd to argue that football is intrinsically bad because PEDOPHILES! Anyone who feels their way of life is threatened might turn a blind eye to this kind of situation. Which is bad. Don’t do that.