Thursday, July 12, 2012

Violating The Public Trust

A Few years ago, a member of the Baylor basketball team was murdered.  It really hit home with me, because I just didn't think anything worse in college sports could happen.  My youngest son played with Lawrence Roberts, John Lucas III and Kenny Taylor.  Plus, I knew most of the players parents.  To make matters worse, and more personal, I was recruited back in the dark ages by Coach Dave Bliss when he was an assistant at Army under Bob Knight, and my son was also being recruited by Coach Bliss.  I always thought he was a nice guy when I was a kid and later when he was recruiting my son.  I just thought that was about the lowest point in sports, a murder and a cover up.  I remember thinking more than once, "can you believe this is happening?"

Okay, lets role play.  I live in Pennsylvania.  It's somerwhere between 1990 and 2000 AD. We have this great university, Penn State, and an iconic coach, Joe Paterno, who "wins the right way."  I am football crazy and I have some kids who are also football crazy, and our team is Penn State...we bleed blue.  I am told about an overnight camp at Penn State hosted by the football coaches and featuring Coach Jerry Sandusky, the All American linebacker coach and guru.  Of course I'm going to send my kids there.  I trust these people.  They preach the American Way, they are the good guys.  Joe Paterno is a national icon and has been for many years.  He will even make an inspirational speech to the campers and they get to do drills in Happy Valley at the big stadium.  What could be better?

Actually, our worst sporting nightmare has occurred.  A predator of the sexual variety parlayed parents deepest trusts into a nightmare.  There is no telling how many children this man Sandusky violated...violated their innocence, their bodies and their souls.  These kids, these victims, not only had to live with this nightmare, but who knows how many children were violated?  The bad thing we may never know is that predators produce other predators, because they twist these young minds at an impressionable age.

If this isn't bad enough this sick pedophile was shielded by his cronies, Paterno, the AD, and the University Chancellor....shielded to protect the Paterno legend and a football program that ran the town and netted 50 million a year.  What a crock.  Where was the compassion.  I don't like to pass judgement, but where was just a small ounce of empathy for these poor kids...children like you and I have...children like you and I were...children of a common creator that we love more than anything, that have exuberance and a soul and unconditional love...and the blind eye of cronyism is turned, acting like these terrible acts never happened. 

(As an aside, I never bought into the Penn State bs as a kid.  My dad brainwashed me into being a Frank Kush fan at Arizona State.  We had a sanctuary for the African American athlete and some kick ass teams in the 60-70s period.  They had to start the Fiesta Bowl so we could play and beat these kind of teams.  Also as a recruited athlete and as a parent of 3 scholarship athletes, I know what recruiters from these schools say including the Penn States that think they "win the right way".  In the end its a big money biz.)

I tried not to follow this story when it was on the news.  It sickened me.  I really wish it was not true.  I know good people attend Penn State and this is not an indictment on those good folks, just the leaders of their football program.
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I don't want to end this on a downer.  Last night I happened to watch quite by accident, Lombardi, on HBO.   What a refreshing show.  Instead of the normal cliches you hear from a Lombardi film, this showed an imperfect man who strived for perfection.  It blew me away when he said they never got the "winning is the only thing" comment right.  He said it all came out wrong, that he meant if you gave 100%, whether you won or lost, that was all you could ask for in any endeavor.  He was so introspective that he thought the original comment was shallow and misinterpreted.

The black and white photography stood out.  Also, the total team work and humility was very cool.  There was no thumping on the chest that I am the man by the athletes, just a real love of each other.  What a motivator he was on the sidelines.  You have to watch this film. 

This film will make you cry for joy and in the end cry for a man who died way before his time.  Frank Gifford was crying telling of his last visit to his hospital bed when Lombardi said "it hurts so much" speaking of his intestinal cancer.  You could see his players loved him.  They were crying hard at his funeral. 

One part that I thought was great was when a visiting sportswriter came into town and went to mass.  Guess who the altar boy way...Coach Lombardi.  He would help with mass in the morning, beat you on the gridiron on Sunday, give a great interview and have you over to his house after the game for a cocktail party.  Sorry, but when I go to bed tonight I will remember Lombardi, an imperfect man like all of us, but a man who strived for greatness and achieved it while doing the right thing.