Football is an institution in America. Believe it or not, university coaches are idols in the U.S.A. They are life coaches. You are a hero especially when you are the coach who has won the most through the States and your name is: Joe Paterno. One morning you wake up as an eighty-four years old hero, the next one you wake up as an ugly beast.
Joe Paterno, coach of the Penn State University football team since 1966 represents the decay of an institution that rules American universities. Joe is now involved in a sex scandal that apparently lasted for 15 years and the scandal is on the first pages of most of the American newspapers. My personal, modest opinion is that the authority and fame that football coaches and staff gain (once they are in charge of an American University Football team) is ridiculously out of control. How is it possible that university officials and Joe Paterno let the assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky sexually abuse eight young boys for over 15 years? How can these officials be in charge of a world known university? How can they represent a positive model for their students? Furthermore, I look at these terrible events from an european point of view and I find ridiculous the fact that the college football industry is a multibillion-dollar industry . How can you guarantee a meritocratic, healthy environment if some of your students could make you win billions of dollars by winning the college league? How can these students be treated as the rest of the students? I come from Italy, a country that has often been criticized for its lack of meritocracy, but now that I’m in the American continent, my point of view has changed on my country. My point of view has changed not because of the scandal, but because of the scholastic system that I experience in first person. Mike McQueary, then-graduate assistant reported seeing Mr. Sandusky allegedly raping a 10-year old boy. All this was happening under the eyes of one of the most famous and loved american coaches.
I strongly believe that American universities should continue promoting athletics at college, but I now believe that some parts of college athletics should be re-dimensioned together with the roles of football coaches and staff. Too much money and fame have led to a sick environment. I hope this scandal is going to help the States realize the oversized influence of college athletics on American universities. Although I understand that behind all of this there is profit, it is profit that kills what was once called “sport”. U.S.A probably won’t consider a change within the structure of its universities and football’s role since the show must go on, but the ruined life of the young victims and the poor attention given to them after the scandal should make us realize that it is time for the States to re-define from the beginning this rotten structure. Priorities such as education, ethic and values have been blown away by profit…
Aldo Visibelli
Il cacciatore Blog
email: festone.vj@hotmail.it