Listening to NPR this morning and all of the coverage about the Penn State scandal with the accompanying firing of long-time head football coach Joe Paterno, my husband commented that maybe this would provide a wake-up call to other programs, especially athletic programs, whose administrators at various levels turn their heads when a successful or even potentially successful program stumbles. I don’t know.
Now mind you, this is a bit more than your average stumble. This is more along the lines of drive off the cliff at Mach speed.
But this is also one of those situations which often provide not the wake-up call they should but rather a point for dangerous comparison. I can hear it now. “Why yes, we did have prostitutes for our point guards and linebackers and sprinters BUT they were not underage and there was no trust situation being violated.”; “Well no, we don’t ever have many athletes who actually graduate BUT we aren’t molesting anyone.”.
This is where relativist thinking gets us in trouble. While we can be thankful that our program isn’t dealing with this kind of a tragedy, we simply cannot use it to justify the wrongs we do need to deal with because ours are not as bad as Penn State.
Whatever is on your desk to fix or clean up or make better, is still your responsibility regardless of what is on anyone else’s desk. No excuses.
Just Sayin' 