Penn State and the Privilege of Being an Athlete

It's not at all a new story.  We've been talking about it for over over a decade, the privilege of being an athlete.  When an ordinary student on campus brawls anywhere-- on campus or off-- breaks a bar stool over a head, perhaps,  that student is suspended or disciplined, maybe expelled.  There might even be civil charges.

To meet the same disciplinary standards, an athlete on campus, a hero, has to kill someone. Think University of Virginia lacrosse star George Huguely,  who is accused of shaking his girlfriend Yeardley Love, bashing her head against the wall.  Yeardley, a young woman with so much goodness, so much potential, died in an early morning conflict in her apartment; it's been said to have been a quarrel about breaking up. 

Huguely had been disciplined previously by the school, and ordered to alcohol rehab, but none of it sunk in, and he kept playing, we're pretty sure. He's in jail now, awaiting trial for beating Yeardley, for leaving her to die.

That story, and many stories about interpersonal violence, is very much about alcohol abuse, a transgenerational problem.  George Huguely's father, George Wesley Huguely IV, is currently charged with a DUI.  Alcohol abuse is the enemy when it comes to relationship violence, it's worth noting.  It is invariably associated with accidental death in group statistics.

The latest is that Joe Paterno protected his ball players from academic disciplinary measures and suspension. In 2007, two dozen football players broke into an apartment and violently bashed heads with broken bottles.  Dr. Triponi, Vice President of Student Affairs, complained that the players weren't cooperating in the investigation. In a meeting with Paterno, University President Spanier, and others, she was told that it would ruin team cohesion if the players testified against each other.

No one missed a game.  Paterno's version of discipline for head bashing? The team takes responsibility for cleaning the football stadium after a game.

Any one of us would be tried, fined, jailed. Something. Accused of other campus rule infractions in the past, Mr. Paterno forced players to train to exhaustion, run.  It is a military model.  A hundred and fifty pushups for scowling, more for smarting off.

Ms. Triponey resigned, couldn't be a part of an institution that relegated privilege to student athletes.

Obviously the sex abuse scandal that put Penn in the spot light, the cover-up, the very thought of Jerry Sandusky raping young children in campus locker rooms, disgusts and appalls.  That investigation will go back to 1975, as it should. Assuming Sandusky is found guilty, the 1.7 billion dollar Penn State endowment, a haul to the credit of football supportive alumni, will feel the pinch, much as the Catholic church is feeling the pinch for sexual assaulting clergy.

But it is just a pinch.  The only good thing about the scandal is that the other issues, this one about privilege, are in the public consciousness.

It is a privilege to represent a university or a college in any capacity.  Despite the thinking, each and everyone of us is replaceable.  When the behavior of one, especially the behavior many, demeans the honor of an institution, it can't be tolerated, can't be swept under the rug. One thing about the Internet. There are no rugs big enough anymore.

We impeach presidents in this country for lesser crimes. Let's see if team cohesiveness, if team performance, actually does suffer when teammates, even coaches, are held accountable for breaking the law. It's not a proven hypothesis by any means.

Linda Freedman, PhD, LCSW, LMFT