In the wake of the recent Free investigation that revealed that Joe Paterno covered up for Jerry Sandusky, many people are calling for Penn State’s football program to receive the death penalty. Instances of child sex abuse went on for years at Penn State and a number of university employees — including Paterno — swept them under the rug to protect the football program’s image. Rather than punish the program itself, Nick Saban has proposed an alternative.
“Maybe they ought to tax all the tickets that they sell on athletics and give the proceeds to some child abuse organization,” Saban said. “Or something like that, rather than worrying about some punishment that is really going to have no positive affect on anything.”
Saban also described the situation as “criminal” and said it reflects poorly on a lot of people. His point is that rather than reprimanding the program just for the sake of punishment, they should try to make something good come from a bad situation. Obviously you could argue that a tax would be unfair to fans who have to pay more money, but it’s their choice to continue supporting the football program.
Regardless of what punishment is handed down to the university, there are going to be people affected who did nothing wrong. Players who knew absolutely nothing about the Penn State scandal have already had to deal with the consequences of the horrible actions of a handful of people. By tearing down statues and renaming organizations, people are simply proving that they no longer support Paterno. Saban’s point is that they need to find a way to give back, and in my opinion it’s a pretty good one.
