Penn State Is the Tip of the Iceburg (My Prediction)

[NashVegas]

There's a reason all those locker-room shower jokes are out there.

I think we're going to see this go very much like it's gone for the Church.

[HopeHoops]

1. Oh no - Shippensburg next?

[Dorian Gray]

3. SHippensburg...

that made me laugh.

[madinmaryland]

2. Notre Dame????

[Eddie Haskell]

4. Center to quarterback exchange under investigation.

Happy Valley under a cloud.

[Eddie Haskell]

5. self delete

[Fuzz]

6. Paterno will announce he's running for the Republican nomination and get Fox and right wing

radio to defend him for free.

[dtexdem]

7. Except that football coaches will never forgive one another.

;-)

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. you're probably right about it being the tip of the iceberg - but I wouldn't expect an explosion

of revelations like there was with the Roman Catholic Church. Sports culture is wrapped up in far more macho culture of male bonding - "it's just boys clowning around." From what I have known of many jock types - they are not as a generalization a very self-reflective group. Even when it came to adult consensual homosexuality - they didn't even seem to consciously realize the implications of their behavior.

[Ex Lurker]

9. as one who played sports from grade school up through college

I never saw anything remotely similar to what allegedly went on at Penn State. You'd be naive to think this is the only time it ever happened. But I don't know about it being the tip of any iceberg.

[Spike89]

10. Maybe not, the circumstances aren't that common

We aren't talking about coaches and their players. This was a college coach who also had a foundation for young boys. A coach of young boys isn't nearly as likely to have this fly under the radar--elementary, middle and even high schools are much more attuned to child molestation issues. Additionally, a college coach abusing young college-age men and HS recruits isn't going to be common.

I am not defending any of the people at Penn State in any manner or making any excuses for them and if this is occurring elsewhere, hopefully the light from this incident will illuminate and stop that. However, it does seem like a relatively rare situation for a college athletic department to find itself in. Not many 10 year old boys are regularly in contact with major college athletic departments.

[NashVegas]

13. I Don't Think It's Going to Be Like There's One In Every Department

Maybe more like 1 in every 30 and, like Penn, not necessarily the top coach. But the lawsuits will be devastating.

[Blue_Tires]

11. As I've said in another thread, I do think this case will make the public

take a long, hard look at their slavish devotion to big-time college sports (this along with the billion-dollar conference re-shufflings and NCAA corruption)...

The ingrained culture of "always protect the program's image" has gone way too far...Most casual and die-hard fans laugh it off, ignore or treat it with a wink and a nod for the petty and even semi-serious crimes, but this story is beyond the pale...I honestly hope there is a re-evaluation of priorities and how much fans, students, boosters and alumni indirectly enable these actions from athletic departments...

[Spike89]

14. Hope so, but I'm not optimistic

I don't see much if any difference between the aura of celebrity in college sports and the rest of the entertainment and political worlds. Way too many people attach their own self-image to the star or persona they admire from that person's public image. Then, when it turns out the celebrity is flawed (or surprises them with opinions at odds with the image), the fans feel personally attacked.
This isn't just about football or the NCAA, it is much bigger. It strikes directly at the culture of celebrity and entitlement. Being famous is actually contraindicative to being accountable and for many many humans, not being accountable for their actions unleashes their worst behaviors. Add in that those who seek stardom are at least in general more likely to be somewhat narcissistic and you have a recipe for rampant celebrity misbehavior.
Of course not all celebs are out of control and there are certainly many worthy of admiration. But connecting your self image to a media packaged and edited celebrity profile is a bad bet. You don't really know that person and they don't likely have as much in common with you as you imagine.
If two good things come out of this, I hope they are that everyone is reminded that it is the responsibility of everyone to protect children even if you're afraid of what it might cost you and that somehow the culture of celebrity worship gets dented a bit.

[Taverner]

12. Totally. With the amounts of hookers and coke they throw at star players...

How could it not?