Why does chirping about a scandal that broke more than 13 years ago still give fans of Penn State’s football opponents such glee?
A grand jury indictment in November 2011 accused former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky of sexually abusing young boys in his care. In 2012, he was convicted on 44 counts of child sexual abuse, and has been in a state prison ever since.
The scandal cost legendary coach Joe Paterno his job, and he died in early 2012. The resulting NCAA sanctions — some eventually lifted — set back the Penn State football program for years.
But not forever, which might be the impetus for the steady stream of sickening comments.
Penn State officials in 2012 took necessary steps to improve safeguards for children on the University Park campus and elsewhere across the system, to support and compensate those who alleged that they had been abused by Sandusky, and to allow for justice to play out in local courtrooms.
Despite all of that, the snide remarks continue — many voiced by people too young themselves to have any memory of what took place in 2011 and 2012.
Those traveling to Arizona for the Nittany Lions’ Fiesta Bowl game against Boise State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal on New Year’s Eve can expect to be targeted by insults that have nothing to do with the current Nittany Lions team or its play — flippant comments that instead bring further insult to victims of abuse everywhere.
Penn State backers should expect to experience moments similar to these that I have personally witnessed just this season:
• A man decked out in Southern Methodist University colors at Beaver Stadium Dec. 21, with a photograph of Paterno on the back of his shirt with the words “I knew” — a common refrain about the former Nittany Lions coach’s role in Sandusky’s actions.
• With his team trailing 28-0 at halftime, another Southern Methodist fan emboldened enough to shout at a group of college-age Penn State backers about Sandusky: “How did Jerry’s (expletive) feel?”
• At the season opener in Morgantown, W.Va., during a long rain delay that forced all in attendance down ramps and under the bleachers at halftime — and with the Mountaineers trailing 20-6 — a young West Virginia backer telling people passing by, “I guess these aren’t the kinds of showers you all are used to” — a reference to former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary’s statements about possibly hearing Sandusky in a shower with a young boy in the 1990s.
• Another West Virginia fan leaning out of an sports utility vehicle and shouting “Joe knew” to a group of Penn State fans exiting the stadium.
You might think opposing fans would have some actual football-related taunting at their disposal, given Penn State’s recent struggles in meaningful contests.
Or they could just stop the Sandusky chatter and move on.
Rod Erickson helped Penn State move forward — addressing its serious problems but not forgetting what happened — when he was university president from 2011-14.
Erickson was at the helm through the NCAA sanctions period, helping the school make difficult decisions that drew the ire of some alumni and long-time football backers, but those moves paved the way for a better culture and safer future — which should make folks at West Virginia, Southern Methodist and elsewhere proud of Penn State.
When we talked in 2021, before the 10th anniversary of the Sandusky scandal, Erickson told me the victims were Penn State’s first priority throughout the process.
“We tried to create an environment in which we could come to a fair settlement and recognize what victims had already been through without the specter of going through additional abuse, as it were, reliving and going through every aspect of what had happened in their lives,” Erickson said then.
He said the mission was to “do the right thing and follow through and see it through, believing that the university was such a strong institution that it would continue to move along, to move forward.”
Erickson cited several specific developments among the many on his watch:
• Penn State hosting a national conference on recognizing and stopping child abuse;
• A review of all policies and many changes in terms of reporting possible abuse and other crimes;
• Addressing of policies for how minors were protected while they were on campus;
• The closing of many facilities on campus to the public.
The buy-in was nearly universal across Penn State, he said.
“We felt early on — the administration, the board (of trustees), the faculty, the students — that it was important to show our genuine concern for the victims,” Erickson said. “You could see that taking place in a number of ways, and really in a rather organic fashion.
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“You may recall that the students organized a candlelight vigil that first week, and came together at the (next) football game to support the victims of child abuse. It was a theme that really carried on throughout the years of my presidency.”
Perhaps some have been disappointed to see Penn State rise from the scandal and win a Big Ten title in 2016, routinely reach New Year’s Six bowl games and then capture a college football playoff victory in 2024.
It is very appropriate for rival fans to root against coach James Franklin and the Nittany Lions — to chirp about play calls, occasional big-game losses and other on-field happenings.
But it’s well past time to put away the Sandusky rhetoric and find a more appropriate way to get under the skin of Penn State football followers.
Sandusky’s victims — all victims of sex crimes — deserve better than having the issue reduced to banter at a college football game.
Chip Minemyer is the publisher of The Tribune-Democrat; The Daily Item of Sunbury, Pa.; and The Times-News of Cumberland, Md.