'It's crippling to the football program. That's a beautiful thing'
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EUGENE, Ore. - The statue of Joe Paterno outside Penn State's stadium came down Sunday morning - and 24 hours later, the NCAA announced penalties against the school that include voiding dozens of wins and banning the team from Bowl games for years to come.
The news is a bombshell that Eugene sports talk show host Steve Tannen calls a drop in he bucket compared to the bigger issue.
"It's crippling to the football program, and to me that's a beautiful thing," he told KVAL News. "As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing too severe that could have been levied against Penn State, and finally I think we are starting to move into a direction where we are making it all about the victims."
Tannen has covered sports for nearly 20 years. He hosts a talk radio program on Eugene radio.
He said the NCAA is right to punish the Penn State administration for failing to act on reports of child sexual abuse.
"They all had options," he said. "They all had decisions or other choices to make. The victims, those young boys, had no choices."
Tannen thinks the repurcussions sends a message to other colleges.
"Hopefully it's that you can maintain a quality program and you can do it within not only the NCAA guidelines, within the law, but within the sense of decency," he said.
Nothing is more annoying than the Jerry's commercials. They are just plain stupid.....
Steve is right, the least thing that can happen is that the football program is hit hard. Penn State was involved in a criminal conspiracy, all the way to the Board of Trustees. That being the case, they should lose their accreditation. Pure and simple, no more state or federal money should go to that institution and that would mean the doors would close. The student body and alumni did nothing to reign in their football program, even with over 100 football players being arrested over the past decade. All that mattered was a winning program, the nonsense of winning with honor just a hollow pr campaign. Football doesn't come before the integrity of the school, and both students and the alums are going to have to come to terms with their own corruption.....
Tannen has the most annoying voice I've ever heard.