A Casablanca moment leaves Americans “shocked, shocked” about gambling in the casino, even as Joe Paterno, in his last interview, claims to have been “shocked and saddened” by revelations of child abuse and cover-ups at Penn State.
At the same time, a scathing report details the university’s “slavish devotion” to its own needs that overrode “everything, including the law, basic human decency and the bedrock obligation we all have to protect defenseless children from harm.”
We can turn the page now on the Sandusky mess, cathartically comforted by the sight of all those guilty others to be flogged on the media square and forgotten. But a few questions about our own complicity may be in order.
Nowhere in the recriminations is any serious debate about why and how college sports under NCAA rules have turned institutions of higher learning into profit centers where student athletes, with no compensation or insurance, slave for the glory and financial gain of celebrity coaches and TV networks.
Saturday afternoon watchers will go back to enjoying games with little thought about those who labor now for future fame and wealth but with no protection against career-ending injuries.
MORE.