December 19, 2011
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The New Catholic Church
Recently there has been a sexual abuse scandal that has rocked a long standing institution complete with cover ups and strict denials and lack of accountability. Think I’m talking about the Catholic Church? Well of course they are guilty of all of the above, but sadly the sports world has been given the Catholic Church a run for it’s ill gotten money.
By now everybody knows about the case involving Penn State and their former coach Jerry Sandusky, who is quite possibly the only person who has had a worse year than Osama Bin Laden. But there is also the case involving former Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine. Also there is the case of the former Boston Red Sox clubhouse manager, the deceased Donald Fitzpatrick who has been accused of molesting boys in the 1990s. And the former NHL player who sexually abused by a junior coach in Canada when he was growing up. Seriously, what the fuck? It is not a stretch to believe that this is only the beginning of a sexual abuse epidemic that is about to hit the sports world. All the signs point to the potential for abuse; you’ve got a heavily male dominated culture (like the Catholic Church), a place in which nudity is prominent such as the locker room (or in the case of the Church, alter boys changing in the back of the church), people who want to cover things up and think only of the best interest of the program or the institution (exactly like the Catholic Church) and enablers who allow the abuse to continue or look away (sooo much like the fucking church that is is frightening).
The last two are the things that might be the most disturbing and shocking, you know as if the abuse wasn’t bad enough. Take the Penn State case. It certainly seems like all of the people involved were more concerned with how it made the program look than the actual victims. The motto, as is the case at pretty much every single major university in the country, seems to be protect the program. It happens with the numerous recruiting violations. Only this is not recruiting. It is child fucking rape and it destroys lives.
At the end of the day though, whether the Church of the world of sports, it is all about money and greed. Sure, the Pope, Joe Paterno, and any of the other people in charge may not be the ones abusing the children, but they all share in the blame of some of the atrocities that were carried out once they were made aware of the abuse. And they all made the decisions to find ways to cover it up and spare the institutions the embarrassment because essentially, it might eventually cost them money.
One has to wonder which sports team or league will be the next to deal with accusations of abuse. And more importantly, how they reacted to the abuse and what they will do in the future to prevent the abuse.
Comments (5)
It is amazing to me the number of people in these situations who cover stuff like this up. You walk into a shower and a grown man is bent over a young boy totally naked and you are convinced it is sexual. How do you not immediately call the police? You are a coach and it is reported to you. How do you not report that? It makes absolutely no sense. Why would you ever want to work in a situation with one of those people after that? I hope after all of this is over that we can here Joe Paterno interviewed and I just want him to answer the question “Why?” Just sit there and wait for him to answer. I want to hear that question answered.
I keep on hearing at the time the laws were different. But even if the laws were different about reporting abuse. How was it not illegal for them to avoid reporting the crime? That makes no sense to me. I personally think Joe Paterno deserves to be in jail. I don’t care how many wins he had. If the allegations are true and Joe Paterno knew, he should go to jail.
Evil flourishes when good men do nothing.
The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. Did you hear the Sandusky interview where he denied all allegations? It was sick and i can’t believe they would even let him do that. I heard that that interview triggered a lot of people who had been sexually abused. It brought back flashbacks and all that. So sad. While it might not have been illegal to not report, i think they all had a moral obligation to do something. I cannot believe they could all turn their heads and forget about it. How could you sleep at night? You’re right, there will be more scandals. It seems you hear more and more about boys being abused. It’s said that 1 in 4 girls is sexually abused and 1 in 8 boys. I bet the rate is higher for boys, it’s just less known.
I’d like to think that I would have stopped the abuse happening right then as soon as I saw it, but I can’t honestly say how I would react so therefore I can’t blame Mike McQueary for not doing something immediately. I’m sure there was a moment of great shock and disbelief at what he saw, but he certainly should have called the cops and done more.
As for Paterno, I don’t think we are ever going to get that interview because his health seems to be failing and I would not be shocked if he were dead soon. But, I do believe he knew far more than he claims. After all, Paterno was a god there, for Penn State, he was The Pope, I find it hard to believe that he wasn’t involved in the conversation as to how to handle the whole thing.
yeah and he answered the question with “am I sexually attracted to young boys?” usually when somebody responds with a question like that they are guilty as fuck and trying to search for an answer. And I think the macho guy way prevents more guys from talking about it. It’s sad.
It’s horrible. I would like to hope, like you, that I would’ve done something that instant, but if not, I’m SURE I would’ve reported it to someone who was going to DO something about it. I wouldn’t have been able to look at myself if I hadn’t.
Another thing that popped into my head while reading this, is how sometimes when kids report that they are being abused, those that are supposed to be protecting them actually wave them away… accuse them of lying, or over reacting, or something else… my daughter has a friend who’s stepdad did something that made her VERY uncomfortable, and so she told her mom. Her mom said she was over reacting and making up something when there wasn’t anything to make up… but the step dad did get involved in the discuss eventually, and swore he had no idea that his action made her uncomfortable so he would stop….
Now.. what did he do? The girl (17) woke up a few different times on a few separate occasions to find him standing by her bed. Not doing anything, not missing any clothing… just standing. He said he was just checking on them (her sister shares a room)… I think that is weird as FUCK… but her mom just brushed it off…