Pa.’s ill-founded claim to Sandusky victimhood

IN JULY, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) urged Penn State University to accept the NCAA’s tough and appropriate punishment stemming from former football coach Jerry Sandusky’s serial rape of children. Now the governor has turned unrepentant. In a rash lawsuit filed last week against the NCAA, Mr. Corbett and the state seek to reverse the sanctions, suggesting that the real victims in the Sandusky case are Penn State and its football-loving fans, students and merchants. What a disgrace.

At the core of the NCAA’s penalties — which include a $60 million fine; a four-year ban on postseason play and the voiding of victories from 1998 through 2011 — is the recognition that top officials at Penn State ignored and enabled criminality because of a culture that venerated football above all else. In such a culture, crime, morality and basic decency were swept aside in the name of protecting an idolized program.

Washington Post Editorials

Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the editorial board. News reporters and editors never contribute to editorial board discussions, and editorial board members don’t have any role in news coverage.

Read more

Latest Editorials

‘Super’ wages

Editorial Board

A federal ruling could cost the District and developers $20 million.

Questions in an Alexandria homicide

Editorial Board

Did an off-duty sheriff’s deputy act in self-defense when he shot a man?

The freedom to investigate

Editorial Board

The FBI went too far in calling a journalist a co-conspirator.

The university, which did not join the governor’s lawsuit, acknowledged as much by accepting the NCAA’s judgment. Apparently the lesson was lost on Mr. Corbett in what he calls his “evolved” thinking since the sanctions were imposed.

Mr. Corbett, who also sits on Penn State’s board of trustees, barely nods in his lawsuit at the children who were raped by Mr. Sandusky over a period of 14 years. Instead, the suit charges that the NCAA exceeded its authority and did the state wrong by imposing sanctions that would cripple the football program and thereby “harm the citizens and the general economy” of Pennsylvania.

The lawsuit and Mr. Corbett’s newfound objections to the NCAA’s sanctions have the whiff of political desperation. The governor faces an uphill race for reelection next year, and he has been the target of wrath from Penn State alumni, a significant constituency in Pennsylvania. Tellingly, the suit was filed without the input of the state’s incoming attorney general, Kathleen Kane (D). Ms. Kane ran on a promise to examine Mr. Corbett’s handling of the Sandusky case, which he began investigating as attorney general in 2008.

Intentionally or not, Mr. Corbett’s suit makes the very case that former FBI director Louis Freeh made in his report on the Sandusky case, which was commissioned by the university. The suit argues that students and families make a commitment to the school partly because of “the prominence of the football program” — thereby acknowledging that football is the tail wagging Penn State’s dog. That’s precisely why the university itself, and not just Mr. Sandusky or the higher-ups charged with covering up for him, must be held accountable.

Mr. Sandusky, 68, is serving a sentence of 30 to 60 years. The late Joe Paterno, the head football coach who failed to prevent his subordinate’s assaults on children, died in disgrace. Other top Penn State officials, including former president Graham Spanier, face criminal charges related to covering up Mr. Sandusky’s crimes.

Slowly, Penn State has been forced to reckon with the outrages made possible by a football program regarded as beyond reproach. Mr. Corbett, in bringing his imprudent lawsuit, subverts that process of reckoning.

Read more from Opinions:

Jennifer Rubin: Gov. Tom Corbett disgraces himself

Rodney A. Erickson: The way forward for Penn State

Eugene Robinson: Joe Paterno’s shame

The Post’s View: Penn State’s awful truths

LaVar Arrington: The good from discussing the Sandusky mess