Since news of the Penn State scandal first broke and as the horrifying details of alleged sexual assaults and cover-ups unfolded over the next week and a half, there has been one question nagging at so many sports fans: Could it happen here?
It’s not something anyone wants to ask—could a monster like Jerry Sandusky be in a program you love? Could a coach you idolize, the way Penn State fans worship at the altar of Joe Paterno, fail to act when society demands he should? Could the organization you give your life to, as a sports fan and (in the case of college athletics) as a person, betray your trust in such a sickening way?
The troubling answer is that, yes, it could.
This isn’t to say that something like the Penn State cover-up is happening somewhere else, but we’d be blind to think that it couldn’t. That’s just how major sports programs, whether collegiate or professional, work: They want to protect their own and defend the brand over any “outsider,” even if that outsider is a vulnerable child.
It’s a point that has been made a lot since the scandal broke—institutions, sports and otherwise, collapse at the sight of danger, drawing inward to protect themselves when a problem arises. Self-preservation becomes the top priority, and conscience takes a back seat to loyalty.
There’s no way we can say that the kind of cover-up and moral bankruptcy that was on display in Penn State couldn’t happen somewhere else, because there are institutions just like that athletic department in every aspect of our society, sports and otherwise. Corporations hide bad accounting and harmful practices just like college sports programs hide recruiting violations and misbehaving athletes. There’s no incentive for being up-front and honest about something negative, other than the fact that it could blow up in your face, as Penn State has found out.
Rewind two weeks, before the whole world knew the name Jerry Sandusky, and ask if you could see any program turning in one of its own and admitting to something as horrible as what he allegedly did. Ask if a university would choose to bring that kind of shame upon itself for the sake of doing what’s right, rather than trying to cover it up and save the brand.
Would Michigan do what we’re all saying Penn State should have done? Would Minnesota? Would Wisconsin?
It’s not a pleasant thought, that the people we trust in our schools and our teams are capable of something like what we’ve seen happening in Penn State, but we have to confront the reality that Wisconsin is an institution like any other.
We believe our school is different, but when you strip off the colors and the mascots and the fight songs, the Badgers and the University of Wisconsin are institutions just like Penn State. They have the same forces pulling them to protect the program and, other than the moral pull to do what’s right, have the same lack of incentive to actually fix what happened.
Saying that what happened at Penn State could never happen at UW is like saying the scandals over recruiting violations and improper benefits at schools like Ohio State could never happen here. It takes either a foolish naivete about the nature of college athletics or a head buried deeply in the sand to honestly believe that this university is different from all the others.
We want to think Wisconsin is an exception because it’s our home, because we gave our lives to it and we’d never be dumb enough to go somewhere that wasn’t righteous. And maybe it is. I’ve loved every minute of my time at this place, and I have a fierce loyalty to my university, but I realize that when it comes to high-level college athletics, Wisconsin is just another program. Like Ohio State and like Penn State, it’s capable of being flawed.
The same thing could happen here. The only question is whether the people we trust are strong enough to do what’s right.
How would Wisconsin react to a scandal like the one at Penn State? E-mail Nico at nicosavidge@gmail.com.
