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Couch: Memo to Penn State - MSU's Nassar scandal doesn't lessen sins tied to Sandusky
Graham Couch, Lansing State JournalPublished 1:58 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2017 | Updated 2:38 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2017
A once healthy little rivalry between Penn State and Michigan State turned ugly last winter.
A segment of Penn State fans — and one son of
disgraced coach Joe Paterno — began attacking MSU president Lou Anna Simon on social media, in letters to the editor and on message boards. They saw her as a hypocrite for condemning Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse revelations while she was serving as the NCAA’s executive committee chairperson, and then allowing another monster, former MSU and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, to exist under her watch.
It was Penn State’s populace trying its to best to live up to its reputation as an insular, isolated and football-crazed community that can’t see its own sins or the faults of its heroes.
I don’t believe that to be a fair collective characterization.
I spent a day interviewing people on the streets of State College, Pennsylvania, in January of 2013 — 14 months after Sandusky, Penn State’s long-time defensive coordinator,
was indicted, and a year after the death of Paterno. I found the responses from folks to be measured and mostly appropriate. Some full of regret, many feeling beaten down and unfairly under siege. Others wanted answers.
This is the Penn State community I’d like to think prevails. Sometimes they make it so damn hard on themselves, though.
“Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon had an alleged child molester hiding in plain sight on her campus while she sat in judgment of Penn State,” Wendy Silverwood of West Chester, Pennsylvania,
wrote as the lead to a letter to the editor published in the Centre Daily Times on Jan. 10. “The hypocrisy by the representative from the Big Ten in 2012, who is currently embroiled in a rampant sex abuse scandal, should be pointed out.”
What happened at Michigan State, whatever culpability for culture or oversight Simon had, does not make her condemnation of what took place at Penn State any less justified. If your anger is directed at Simon, Penn State, you’re proving her point.
Here are Simon’s words from September 2012 that so irked some Penn Staters:
“Nobody's perfect. People make mistakes, and some of those are purposeful and premeditated, and if you just take the Penn State experience, pretty pervasive.”
This was five years before 140 women came forward to accuse Nassar of sexual abuse that had taken place over two decades, while he was employed as a physician at MSU. Nassar faces 22 charges of criminal sexual assault and the possibility of life in prison. Nassar has pleaded guilty to three federal charges related to child pornography and awaits sentencing next month.
MSU is paying dearly, both in reputation and financially. The university faces 10 lawsuits from women and girls who allege Nassar assaulted them, the price of which, by the time this is all over, could perhaps otherwise have funded tuition for a small country.
The scope of Nassar’s alleged crimes makes it a scandal as horrifying as Sandusky preying on children at Penn State. Beyond anyone who’s directly culpable at MSU, the university has plenty of difficult questions to ask itself, a culture to reassess and victims who deserve a sincere response, emotionally, financially and with whatever justice can be done.
Nassar will tarnish Simon’s previously sterling legacy.
But she’s not part of your story, Penn State.
“How does @michiganstatu president Simon keep her job? She used the “it happened on your watch” standard to condemn PSU,”
Scott Paterno, son of Joe Paterno, tweeted last February.
Any venom from the Paterno kids is somewhat understandable. They are the children of a man who was killed by the death of his reputation, because of Sandusky.
The obsession with MSU and Lou Anna Simon from other parts of the Penn State community isn’t hard to find online.
“What's not gonna happen, Lou Anna, is that anyone here is going to let you forget this,” one message board poster wrote on Feb. 2.
Their anger stems from the sanctions placed on their football program and the tarnishing of Paterno’s name. And that folks placed blame on the people of Penn Sate for creating a culture that allowed Sandusky to operate unquestioned for decades.
Perhaps no one knows both Penn State and Michigan State and football-first culture better than retired MSU vice president of university relations Terry Denbow, who before spending 30 years as a spokesperson at MSU, spent time at Alabama and eight years in student public relations at Penn State.
“There was, at Penn State my whole eight years, a culture of ‘We Are’ and you’re not,’” Denbow said, referring to Penn State’s fan slogan. “And the ‘We Are’ and you’re not, no matter if you’re talking about politics or anything, really gets you into trouble. It blinds you and it distorts your thinking.
“There’s a sociological impact of somebody who stays too long in a valley. Penn State to me was a place that stayed too long in the valley. Hubris and insularity were the two sins that I assigned to Penn State. And I think hubris and insularity proved to be mortal sins, not just venial sins.
“When I moved from Penn State to Alabama, people (at Penn State) said, ‘Whoa, football is a religion down there.’ And that’s not seeing that football was a religion at Penn State, as well. That’s the halo over Paterno, the shrine and all that stuff.
“That’s coming from the ‘We Are’ part. We can’t be stereotyping. Because I know a lot of Penn Staters who say the same thing Lou Anna Simon says and more.”
I’ll keep trying to believe they’re the real Penn State.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.
