@mclanea I wanted to say sorry about what I said, and an explanation.

I'm not sure that the person this is meant for will read it, but I wanted to say sorry. I took a cheap shot at one of the college teams that he roots for. I was angry for some things he said about Penn State, on Twitter a few days ago. Things I thought were unfair.

You see, as a Penn State alum, it feels like now the whole world, especially on the internet, is taking cheap shots at us. They blame the entire institution, students, faculty, and leadership that weren't involved in the scandal for something a few men did. It's not like this was some booster paying players or grade fixing, that would be rampant through out the university system, but bad decisions by a few people who should have known better. As it says in the last stanza of the PSU alma mater,

"May no act of ours bring shame
To one heart that loves thy name,
May our lives but swell thy fame,
Dear old State, dear old State."

Well, in hiding the sin of Jerry Sandusky, they brought down a football program, that from the time my dad was a student on campus, was about education first, and all the extracurricular activities second. I think it is quite funny, in a sad way, that the NCAA said they had to put "an academic integrity monitor," into a football program that graduates 87% of their players, while they let UNC off for faking classes and tests so that their players could continue.

So the University fired all that they could find who were involved. Jerry Sandusky is going to prison for the evil that he did. The former president of the university is fighting off allegations that he knew what was going on. The VP in charge of the University Park police is going to trial on perjury charges as is the athletic director. That leaves Joe Paterno...well, after the Freeh report, there is a little more evidence that he may have known what was going on, but we will never hear his side of it, he died, leaving his family with a lot of questions. Not to mention two or three generations of students and players who he taught that character and ethics were to be above reproach. This has left us with questions.

So when someone says that Penn State "shouldn't be playing football...ever." I understand the first part. Maybe we should have gotten the "death penalty" for a few years, but to then tack on the word ever, as if anyone outside of the 5 or so people who made those decisions, begins to go beyond, in my mind, punishment or justice, but revenge against an inanimate object. Penn State is more like a body that had a tumor in it. They cut out the bad parts, and are now doing chemotherapy, and anything else feels like kick in the ribs while we're getting the chemo.

Was football in control? I don't think any more than any other big time program. I often wonder what would happen at other schools with all the money, TV contracts, etc.

So again, I'm sorry. My anger at feeling like having a scarlet letter painted on me got the better of me. After my dad was told that he should turn in his degree, and what feels like the proverbial "kicking us when we are down" shows up on the internet, I didn't cool off. Sorry.

I've been trying to realign my life toward a "love your enemy" lifestyle anyway. So my first real test was a fail. (see my main blog for posts on that from the past year and a half). I'll try and do better next time.