Quote:
Originally Posted by nfotiu
Actually, it seems everyone involved put the reputation of the football team above all those, and above the welfare of the children.
The motive of everyone involved in the cover up appears to have been to protect the football program. Severely punishing the football team is entirely appropriate.
The message it sends is that if you cover up something like this the damage to the football progam is going to be much worse than if they had done the right thing in the first place.
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But what beyond vacating the wins has any affect on the people involved? So now as I football coach or AD, I know if I cover something up here are the repercussions if it breaks out:
- get fired
- go to jail (depending on the incident)
- have wins vacated
- school gets fined (who cares - I'm already fired)
- school loses scholarships (who cares - I'm already fired)
- school receives bowl ban (who cares - I'm already fired)
You could argue that Paterno is the special case where he would care what happens to the school after he's dismissed and in prison, but in the modern world of leap-frogging coaches the harsher parts of the penalties the NCAA handed out are irrelevant to the people involved. As from vacating wins (which absolutely no one takes seriously), the punishment falls on their replacements.