Penn State Gave Bogus Reason for Making Right Call to Discontinue Sweet Caroline

Penn State had no choice but to stop playing the Neil Diamond classic "Sweet Caroline," and they should have just come out and said as much. 

Instead they handed the public an insanely transparent excuse. ESPN's Josh Moyer reported the news of the cancellation and passed along this quote by university spokesman David La Torre:  

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Absolutely no song changes were made based on lyrics. The song has come up on the list in recent years because it happens to be played in so many other professional and collegiate venues and has no real origination here at Penn State.

"

What a slap in the face to the public this comment is! Come on, David—it is wildly obvious why this song is being removed. 

As they should be, Penn State is trying to move on from the Jerry Sandusky scandal. This is not going to be an easy task. The sports world has seldom seen a scandal so disturbing, entangled and terrible. 

The shadow cast by this tragic time is going to be long and wide. The last thing they need is to be blasting "Sweet Caroline" before games. 

Who in their right minds would want to sit in that stadium and sing along or even hear the epic build in that song as Diamond croons "Hands, touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching you?"

Check out the lyrics if you have forgotten them, but needless to say, this song is wildly inappropriate given what has transpired. There was no way they could continue to play this song. 

So why not just say that? At the very least, why not subtly avoid it? Instead, they came out and denied it! What a joke. 

For the life of me, I can't decipher why they went this route. All I know is that is a laughable farce and it only serves to push me towards the conclusion that the university continues to manipulate their image and intent. 

And that is the exact thing they should try to be fighting.