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Is Penn State the biggest sports scandal/tragedy/drama of our time?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by 21, Nov 14, 2011.

  1. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Got involved in an unwinnable debate on this topic, thought I'd throw it out for discussion.

    Other 'nominees' included OJ, Tiger, MLB steroids, SMU death penalty, Magic/HIV, the murder of the Munich athletes, Pete Rose gambling....plenty others to choose from.

    To me, OJ isn't a 'sports' story, it was a crime involving a former athlete but didn't impact sports per se.

    Seems like only Munich and Penn State (from what we know right now) are the only stories that can't be softened or justified or 'accepted' over time.

    Anyway, just something to argue about. Have at it.
     
  2. Piotr Rasputin

    Piotr Rasputin New Member

    Re: How does PSU rank among biggest sports scandals/tragedies/dramas?

    Cue the "How could you RANK these things?!?!?!!?!?" bellyaching.

    Munich is worse. They really wanted a Shiny Happy Olympics to counteract the memories of Berlin, and their lax security opened the door to tragedy.

    Baylor basketball was horrific (including the blacklisting of the whistle blower assistant coach), but they didn't have close to the supposed squeaky clean reputation of a JoePa and his program.
     
  3. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Re: How does PSU rank among biggest sports scandals/tragedies/dramas?

    Yeah, rank is the wrong word, I had something else there but it didn't fit in the headline space. Give me a minute, I can handle this.
     
  4. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    Re: How does PSU rank among biggest sports scandals/tragedies/dramas?

    Munich, by a mile.
     
  5. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    I would say Munich, but damn, this is pretty brutal.
     
  6. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    Since I wasn't born until 1976, I'm saying this. Since technically Munich isn't "my time."

    But yeah. It's baaaaaaaaaaad.
     
  7. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    Well, I would agree that the death toll makes Munich worse, but there may be a death toll in this one, too, once it's all said and done. If that's the case, and given that the allegations involve children, this scandal/tragedy will be right up there.
     
  8. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    It's on the short list, but once you expand outside the US it gets tough. Munich is obviously up there. They're not familiar to the vast majority of Americans, but the Hillsborough and Heysel stadium disasters were horrifying.

    In the US, Baylor is up there with Penn State, with just a big difference in the prestige levels of the universities involved.
     
  9. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    The Baylor scandal in 2003 was pretty jaw-dropping too. A player actually did die and the stuff Dave Bliss was up to was pretty sickening, but nothing like Penn State.
     
  10. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    I'd second the thought that Munich doesn't qualify as "our time."

    It was definitely in a different era.
     
  11. Clerk Typist

    Clerk Typist Guest

    Here's another scandal that hit a football team of national reputation, exactly 60 years ago. It might be the most comparable scandal, though it had to do with cheating, rather than sexual abuse.
    The U.S. Military Academy "cribbing" scandal of 1951 involved 90 Cadets, 37 of them on the football team. The same tests were administered to different groups of Cadets on back-to-back days. The first-day test takers told the second-day men what they would face, verboten under the school's "Honor Code." There were banner headlines across the country.
    Coach Red Blaik said later that the charges would have been dealt with differently if football players, one of them his son, hadn't been involved. He remained as coach, and two years later, Army was winning again, going 7-1-1, including a win over Navy.
     
  12. Clerk Typist

    Clerk Typist Guest

    Actually, it ushered in the era of global terrorism, and was played out on worldwide live television. (In the U.S., ABC covered it all day, right though Jim McKay saying, "They're all gone.") That's as current as today's headlines.
     
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