The toppling of sports idols

Lance Armstrong 2010, wikimedia commons.

Our capitalistic culture elevates the values of competition over those offered by cooperation. We’ve long accorded celebrity status to leading sports figures, giving them million dollar salaries while our teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police officers oftentimes struggle to make ends meet. So, how did it happen that football coaches, baseball greats, and bicyclists are held up as heroes and role models for our children; whereas, those who are dedicated to peaceful pursuits are relegated to a lower level?

The year 2012 may go down in history as the era of revealing the flawed characters of our athletic idols. In a column titled, Lance Armstrong, the hero deficit, and the unhappening, the Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri explores the meaning of the several exposés that have occurred recently in the world of sports:

The yellow wristbands were everywhere, not long ago. You could not walk down the street or turn on the TV without several glimpses of charitable rubber hanging out at someone’s cuff. Livestrong. If Lance Armstrong could battle cancer and win seven 

Tours de France, we had no excuses.

Well, Lance Armstrong’s seven Tour de France titles are no more. So we have all sorts of excuses. 

So why don’t I feel better?

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On Sandusky’s conviction: victim’s mother, “Nobody wins. We’ve all lost”

As with the Catholic Church, the trial of Jerry Sandusky has revealed how the reputation of an institution too often takes  precedence over the protection of young children from sexual abuse. (Penn State Logo on right.)

Jerry Sandusky’s conviction and possible life imprisonment does not alleviate the harm his victims have suffered. The mother of Victim 6 knew this when she responded to the guilty verdict concluding Sandusky’s trial: “Nobody wins. We’ve all lost.”

The AP reports:

Jerry Sandusky was convicted Friday of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years, accusations that shattered the Happy Valley image of Penn State football and led to the firing of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno.

Sandusky showed little emotion as the verdict was read. The judge ordered him to be taken to the county jail to await sentencing in about three months. He faces the possibility of life in prison.

IN PICTURES: Fallout from the Penn State scandal

The judge revoked Sandusky's bail and ordered him jailed. In court, Sandusky half-waved toward family as the sheriff led him away. Outside, he calmly walked to a sheriff's car with his hands cuffed in front of him.

As he was placed in the car, someone yelled at him to "rot in hell." Others hurled insults and he shook his head no in response.

The accuser known in court papers as Victim 6 broke down in tears upon hearing the verdicts in the courtroom. Afterward, a prosecutor embraced him and said, "Did I ever lie to you?"

The man, now 25, testified that Sandusky called himself the "tickle monster" in a shower assault. He declined to comment to a reporter afterward.

His mother said: "Nobody wins. We've all lost."

Almost immediately after the judge adjourned, loud cheers could be heard from a couple hundred people gathered outside the courthouse as word quickly spread that Sandusky had been convicted. The group included victim advocates and local residents with their kids. Many held up their smartphones to take pictures as people filtered out of the building.

Eight young men testified in a central Pennsylvania courtroom about a range of abuse, from kissing and massages to groping, oral sex and anal rape. For two other alleged victims, prosecutors relied on testimony from a university janitor and then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary, whose account of a sexual encounter between Sandusky and a boy of about 10 ultimately led to the Paterno's dismissal and the university president's ouster.

Sandusky did not take the stand in his own defense.

After the verdict was announced, defense attorney Karl Rominger said it was "a tough case" with a lot of charges and that an appeal was certain. He said the defense team "didn't exactly have a lot of time to prepare."

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