[/caption]Carol Forsloff - Gerald “Jerry” Sandusky of Penn State University has been the hero to many football fans as one of the college’s coaches, but the tragedy about his alleged sexual abuse of young boys comes not just from a single individual but a warrior culture of football supported by religion.
Trevor Roper, a famous scholar known for his writings on Germany, paralleled the German culture and that of the United States in a presentation at the University of Washington in the 1960’s. In observing the similarities of these two cultures, he maintained that both have a love of the military and its trappings, the symbolism, the rhetoric and the uniforms, all of which are woven through the fabric of people’s behavior.
That love of the military, that fondness for symbols related to courage, honor, and aggression and to win at any cost can be seen in the advancement of football in the nation’s universities.
The value of the sport can be seen in the downsizing of staff and curriculum at some of the country’s colleges. Dr. Randall Webb, President of Northwestern University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, said not long ago in response to the status of the athletics department vs academics in Louisiana’s budget, that the sports department virtually maintains the school and the programs associated with it at the University while engineering and technical departments were reduced. He said, “The fans support the University. We have to make sure we keep sports in place because that’s where much of our money comes.”
In every college town in America where there’s a football field, there’s a crowd of people waiting for a game. It is, however, the way it is held up as the strength, the pinnacle, the foundation and the very hope of the educational institutions that worries many people following the recent stories of alleged sexual abuse in Penn State’s football culture authorities ignored.
After the revelation of alleged sexual molestation by one of Penn State’s popular coaches, at first the students, and many townspeople, went to the home of coach, Joe Paterno, proclaiming their allegiance to him as one of their sports heroes, one of those commanders on the football field that help promote the game. Acknowledgment for the victims came in second to the protection of the royal figures who make the football king.
At the first game following the news of alleged sexual abuse by a key sports administrator at Penn State, a prayer was said for the victims, and then the game began. It is the prayer players and fans turn to before many games with the hope the team might win. The support of the game, like the gladiator performances in ancient Rome, is the honor of the gods in a ritual that emulates those hastening to death. In this case the death is not the physical but the spiritual and ethical life of education, founded upon a warrior class that maintains the sports kingdom in its grandeur, glory and the heroes that prevail. And while the game was lost that day, many loyal fans remained steadfast to their leadership in spite of all the news. A quote from the New York Daily News reflected feelings from folks that preceded the first game. “Mixed emotions greeted all comers at the first Penn State game without Paterno, who was dismissed in light of the Sandusky revelations, leading the Nittany Lions in 46 years. His statue, outside the stadium's east entrance, was surrounded by state troopers and visited by fans wrapping their arms around the bronzed figure of the bespectacled coach who was fired as a result of the widening sexual abuse scandal.”
On December 7 the nation’s news reported Sandusky’s arrest after the revelation from two additional victims about sexual abuse involving the famous coach. At the same time, USA Today reported how the new Penn State University President Rodney Erickson is hoping to change the university’s image from a “football school” to a “world class research institution.”
May that be the clarion call for other schools to put learning above the warrior culture and real honor before shame.
