Penn St: Hell Freezes Over

Happy Valley. Who would have ever thought things would come to this. Is there a college football program more historic then Penn St? Historic highs come with historic lows. That’s an understatement. Would JoePa ever step down from coaching? Yeah, when hell freezes over.

 It has frozen over, and frozen in the most ugly and disgusting way one could imagine. And it doesn’t look like Nittanyville will be recovering any time soon. There are plenty of questions that have yet to be answered, but let’s start at the beginning. We Are..

..Penn St. shouted the crowd of students and supporters outside of Joe Paterno’s home the night he decided to step down from his throne as the coach with the most wins and bowl wins in college football history. Days before that, assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had been accused of sexually molesting 10 boys dating back to 1998 during his camp for underprivileged children, The Second Mile, which took place for years on the Penn. St. campus.

Many of the boys, now broken men, claimed that they were molested in the Penn St. showers, as Sandusky showered with them separately on several occasions, some said they were molested in the hotel rooms that Sandusky brought them to as they attended trips to away games with the Lions.

Hang on a minute, Sandusky was allowed to bring young boys on a trip, which is one thing, but actually got away with sleepovers? Did anyone question why Sandusky slept in the same room as the boys in the first place? Did anyone ever exercise any moral judgment? Or was moral judgment ignored as long as Paterno was the head coach. We are..

..Joe Paterno. The definition of Penn St. football. He was the program. Since becoming head coach in 1966, and hiring Sandusky in 1969 as assistant, they had accumulated two national championships, 409 wins and 24 bowl wins. A storied program that could never be touched from the ranks of greatness. A program where football took the place of a scandal. A coach that was willing to cover it all up, just for Penn St. football. In November it was decided that because of the coming scandal and health issues that Paterno would step down as head coach. Controversy ensued as many fans thought he was pushed out. In January, Paterno passed away. Leaving some to question where his legacy would go from here. We are..

..Accessories. According to Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI who did a separate internal investigation into the matter for Penn St. What he found seemed to stun some, and reassure others. University president Graham Spanier, vice president Gary Shultz, athletic director Tim Curley, and head coach Joe Paterno, all had known and covered up Sandusky’s crimes since 1998. Various disturbing e-mails and phone records proved this to be true.

Why is it that football is so much more than just a sport in Happy Valley? Why did it take precedence to a disgusting act on multiple young boys? Why did faculty and staff including the two time coach of the year Paterno feel the need to cover up something so vile? The answer may be simpler than one may think.

The obsession with football, the winning tradition, the respect amongst collegiate athletics. All of this has gone over Penn St.’s head. Think of it as the jock of your college or high school. They thought they could do anything and get away with it. Any trouble that ensued for Penn St., Paterno could get them out of it. The president could get them out of it. They were Penn St. football, they were legendary. They could not be touched. Until Sandusky’s touch proved to be too much.

Is this what college sports teams have come to? National powerhouses thinking they are too good for God? Did the four men mostly responsible for this concealing really think that this was okay to cover up, or are their heads almost as screwed up as Sandusky’s himself?

Legendary gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson wrote in an excerpt from his famous wave speech in his 1971 publication of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, “We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill, look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

Can you see that high water mark at Penn St? How far has the crest of the wave fallen and rolled back? Is there any more water even left in that ocean? We are..

..Torn. The feelings towards the University, the officials and even the athletes are varied, depending where and who you’re asking. The Joe Paterno statue is in jeopardy of being demolished. And now one question finally remains. Was it worth protecting a football program? Better yet, is it worth protecting a sports program? I suppose these kinds of questions may never be answered. Whatever comes of this will come and go with time. But they have surely surfaced over everyone’s mind that has an even remote idea about this tragedy.

Will this be a lesson in history? Will there be something learned from this? God can only hope- because the school that once thought they were as powerful as Him- has now frozen over.

We are. Penn St.

The Olympics: Witness Greatness-Again

Jordan. Ruth. Rice. Nicklaus. The list continues. The greatest players in each sport. Season after season, every year of pure dominance. There were no breaks for those athletes (well, except for Jordan.) Every end to the season meant another four months of fine tuning and they’d be competing again.

This is half the case for American swimmer Michael Phelps. Yes- there is a season he competes in every year. But there is also one clear goal that he uses those seasons to train for- Olympic gold. And although his “championship performance” comes out only every four years- it can still be argued that he is the greatest athlete of our time.

Phelps has set 39 world records in swimming. 29 being completely individual. Legend Babe Ruth only has three baseball records. And although Phelps only holds seven of those records still to this day- the bar has been set to any other challenger who would like to attempt to break 40 swimming records in a career.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps won a record breaking eight gold medals, five of them being individual and three of them being relays. All but one of those gold medals were world record breaking times. He won every event he swam in, and broke fellow swimmer Mark Spitz’s Olympic record of seven gold medals. That record had stood since 1972.

 Here’s the kicker though- he has even more Olympic gold’s.

In 2004, Phelps snagged six additional gold medals. Four of those were individual. That adds Phelps’ astonishing Olympic gold medal total to 14. Nine of which are individual, with five of them breaking the world record at the time. Add two bronze medal performances in 2004 to Phelps’ list and he has a grand total of 16 Olympic medals on his athletic resume. That’s probably the most Olympic medals all time right? Well, no. Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina has 18 Olympic medals total, nine of them being gold. But that was from 1956-1964, which means she is for sure not competing anymore. Well guess what. Phelps is competing again. This summer. Seven more times. That means there is a strong possibility he could shatter the Olympic medals record- and add to his record of most gold in Olympic history as well.

“Epic. It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time. He's the greatest racer who ever walked the planet.”- Mark Spitz (Phelps’ predecessor-on Phelps after his seventh gold medal in 2008. He added one more for the record after.)

Well what about the world’s greatest athlete Jim Thorpe? The man who won two gold medals and also played professional baseball and football? A short answer: Thorpe won gold in the pentathlon and decathlon in 1912. Both of those performances would be shattered by the 1950’s in time. Thorpe played baseball for six years with a .252 career batting average and a total of 186 hits in those years. Thorpe had a wonderful college football career, that’s about it.

Think this is a diss to Jordan? Even Lance Armstrong-who won six Tour de France’s in a row?  Nope- Jordan has set only 13 NBA records. Armstrong’s amazing six straight Tour de France’s have been somewhat blinded by his alleged steroid ousted career. Phelps has continuously set and broken his own and other swimming records, mostly by himself. No team to help him out.

In Phelps’ career of gold medal races, which comprises of his two Olympics, World Championships (every even year) and Pan Pacific Championships (every odd year), Phelps has won 52 gold medals. Need it in sports terms? Think of it as being comparable to Tiger winning 20-25 majors. (He has 14 currently.)

If Phelps can manage to win gold in three out of seven of his scheduled events starting in about a week and half at the 2012 Olympic games, he will set a new standard in athletic competition. He will hold the record for the most gold medals in a single Olympics, have the most medals, and add to his already enormous lead in total gold medals won in Olympic history. Three out of seven? That seems like a premonition, not a challenge.

In any case, the argument for Phelps being the greatest athlete ever is clearly plausible. Training day after day- just like the greats right now- Kobe, Tiger, Brady etc. Yet having something more distinguished then three super bowls or 14 major championships.

Every four years the Olympics come around, and for the past two times, the only name we’ve been hearing about is Michael Phelps. A record breaking Olympian. And still going strong.