Tag Archives: sports

Penn State Cover Up

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It comes as no surprise to anyone who has been following the story that Penn State administrators were well aware of and participated in a cover up of former coach Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children. Sandusky is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of 45 criminal counts for abusing 10 boys.

A just released report includes a series of emails among school administrators following two accusations against Sandusky in 1998 and 2001. The emails make it perfectly clear that top administrators knew about the abuse, yet were more worried about negative publicity for the college and a possible scandal than the abuse suffered by the victims.

The emails also indicate that head coach Joe Paterno was aware of a 1998 case in which Sandusky was confronted about showering with another boy. The Hall of Fame coach died of lung cancer in January at age 85, without presenting his side of the story.

The report follows an eight-month inquiry by former FBI director Louis Freeh, who was hired by university trustees. Freeh concluded that Paterno, president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley, and vice president Gary Schultz “failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade.”

Had Penn State administrators acted on the information and banned Sandusky from bringing young boys onto the campus after the 1998 incident, they might have prevented more sexual abuse. Freeh called the officials’ disregard for child victims “callous and shocking.”

The NCAA is considering penalties against Penn State, and the Department of Education is examining whether the school violated the Clery Act, which requires reporting of certain crimes on campus, including ones of a sexual nature.

While the scandal has rocked the university and cost administrators their jobs, are penalties or sanctions against the university enough to change a culture that is out of control? When is society going to gain some perspective on the relative insignificance of sports?

The monetary rewards for collegiate athletes and their universities––and for professional athletes and the billionaire owners who pay them extraordinary sums of money to play a game––far exceed their value and contribution to society. Until we address these issues, we’re going to continue to see deplorable behavior surrounding athletes, coaches, and sports.

Barry Bonds

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Yesterday, a federal jury convicted former baseball star Barry Bonds of obstructing justice. Prosecutors accused Bonds of being overly evasive regarding whether he had been injected with anything by anyone other than a doctor. According to prosecutors, Bonds evasiveness hindered the grand jury’s 2003 sport’s investigation of BALCO, which is accused of supplying steroids to major league ballplayers. The jury nearly convicted Bonds on one of three perjury counts of lying about whether he had been injected by his former personal trainer, but deadlocked 11-1. Bonds also was accused of lying about using steroids and a human growth hormone.

Prosecutors are deciding whether to retry Bonds on the three deadlocked counts of perjury. Whether or not Major League Baseball’s all-time home runs leader faces jail time or a second trial is open to conjecture. But what isn’t open to conjecture is his use of human growth hormone.

I’ve lifted weights ever since I was a kid, first, to build muscle mass for sports, and second, just to stay in condition. I can tell you that no matter how many weights you lift or how many times you lift, your head size and foot size won’t increase. But human growth hormone can increase both head and foot size. The hormone, which is produced by the pituitary gland, normally stimulates bone and tissue growth throughout the body. However, if there’s too much of it, the body starts to develop an abnormal amount of flesh and bone. In an adult, very large doses of HGH can cause the skull to thicken and the forehead and eyebrow ridge to become especially prominent. Hands and feet also grow out of proportion with the rest of the body. When this glandular disorder occurs, it’s called acromegaly.

In their 2007 book “Game of Shadows,” authors Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada write about Bonds’ massive growth since he joined the San Francisco Giants prior to the 1993 season. Over the course of 14 seasons, Bonds’ jersey size increased from (42 to 52), cleat size (10 1/2 to 13), cap size (7 1/8 to 7 1/4), and shoe size (10½ to 13).

Those incredible––and abnormal––increases in size lead inevitably to the conclusion that Bonds used a growth hormone to enhance his performance. Thus, should his 762 home runs, and his 2001 single-season major league record for home runs of 73, be permanently expunged from the record books?

I, for one, certainly think so.

Athletes and Crime

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From Michael Vick who ruined his career and lost a $130 million contract after pleading guilty to federal dog fighting conspiracy charges, to Plaxico Burress who accidentally shot himself in the leg while carrying an illegally concealed gun into a New York nightclub, to Adam “Pacman” Jones who has been arrested 10 times since his 2005 draft day and was recently “released” by the Dallas Cowboys, crimes committed by athletes appear to be on the rise. While sports apologists claim that it only seems like athletes commit more crimes because they are widely reported due to the athlete’s fame, an ESPN Sports Zone poll, reported that 83% of the public believes that college and pro athletes are committing more criminal acts now compared to 25 years ago.

So exactly how prevalent is the incidence of crimes among athletes?

According to published reports, a new incident of athlete crime emerges once every two days. Domestic violence surpasses all other athlete crimes in a number of reports. The Benedict-Crosset Study of sexual assaults at thirty major Division I universities reported that athletes commit one in three college sexual assaults. The three-year study concluded that while male student-athletes comprise 3.3% of the college population, they represent 19% of sexual assault perpetrators and 35% of domestic violence perpetrators.

A Georgetown study found that although varsity student-athletes made up just over 11 percent of Georgetown’s undergraduate population, they were arrested and charged with violent assaults by D.C. prosecutors at a rate more than double that of the general student body. But even when these athletes were charged with crimes, court records revealed that the charges were dismissed every time. National statistics reflect a similar trend. When athletes are charged with crimes, their conviction rate is only 38% compared to 80% of the general population.

Some experts suggest that athletes commit a higher number of crimes because they are taught aggression at an early age, along with the need to win. With expensive scholarships and huge salaries, many athletes see themselves as “special” and expect to get their way. Athletes often believe they are immune to the rules and laws the rest of us live by.

I participated in team sports from the time I was a child until I graduated from college. I remember repeatedly hearing that sports build character. In hindsight, perhaps it isn’t the sports themselves that build character, but the adults who coach the teams and mentor athletes. Young athletes often model the behavior and attitudes of their coaches and of the athletes they idolize. I watch fewer sports now in large part because I’ve grown tired of the showboating, the high-fives, the trash talking and the fights. A routine tackle today elicits a “celebration” that rivals the winning team’s Super Bowl celebration.

Whatever the cause in the increase of crimes perpetuated by athletes, one thing is certain. Athletes are not above the law. This is a message that should be taught and enforced at an early age. And it is incumbent upon our judicial system to ensure that student and professional athletes are treated no differently than anyone else.