Sports & Morality

I'm not quite sure why the lines are blurry when combining these two. I don't know why when one is associated with the other, it's the exception to the rule. 

I love sports. I love all sports. It's not because I get an ego boost from being the girl who can pick the best fantasy sleepers or because I loved the cool jocks growing up. It's because I love the atmosphere. I love the camaraderie that only a sports game can bring. I love that the under dogs can rise above and come out ahead. I love the athleticism involved. I love having something to route for. I love that sports can quite literally bring worlds together in a peaceful manner. And I truly believe that sports, no matter which, are more mental than most people give them credit for, and damnet if I don't love a good mental challenger as much or more than a physical one.

What I don't love, is the dark side of sports. And I don't understand it. I don't understand why at The "U", a "booster" was caught trying to pay a girl to have an abortion without telling the football player father. I don't understand the concept of paying players from Universities to play, along with the full ride scholarships that so many other students didn't get. I am baffled at the thought that Michael Vick can torture and kill animals, be convicted, get out, and still be not only hired but looked to as a role model "because he is a tremendous athlete." I don't understand these things. I hope I never will. They aren't right. They don't make sense. It's not ok. 

The recent happenings at Penn State sicken me. The whole thing. Why would a graduate student see a coach acting inappropriately with a child and not report it to the police? In what world does a student only report something so horrible to their direct supervisor and leave it? Why does that supervisor in turn only report it to the president? Why is it, in that entire chain of events, that not one single person thought the appropriate person to call was the authorities and how did each of those people sleep at night?

Can someone also explain why the students of Penn State rallied together to defend someone who potentially enabled the sexual abuse of young children for years? Because he's your beloved football coach? Because he won a lot of games? Where is your justification? It's disgusting. 

I have been thinking about blogging regarding this for a while now. I just honestly don't know what to say. Just  a few days ago I blogged about the dog Sparky that I couldn't help but foster (whom now has a permanent and wonderful home, just not with us). In that blog I wrote that I thought the world would be a better place if everyone just cared a little bit more. Less than a week later, students are gathering by the thousands to protest the firing of a man that allowed child abuse to continue, because he didn't want to report claims he wasn't sure of. It hurts my heart. I don't get it. 

I love sports. I do. But this part, the part where a game- because no matter how you look at a sport, the money, the fans, the people, in the end it really is just a game- is above the basic fundamental of humanity and morality, protecting our children, is incomprehensible. 

Penn State- You should be ashamed of yourself. The students who protested should be ashamed. The many, many people who did not report the behavior, no matter how "unsure" you were of what you heard or saw. And the program, for covering it up for so long. This wasn't about a game anymore, this was about people's lives. Children's lives. You are a disgrace not just to sports, but to the essence of what it is to be a human being in our society. Don't even try to get me to understand where you were coming from because I promise, I never will.