Jerry Sandusky Sex Scandal: Parents Should Have More Power on Coaching Staffs

In light of the Penn State and Jerry Sandusky sex scandal, there needs to be more in-depth face-to-face conversations between parents and every coach on the staff.

The recruiting process has devolved so much in recent years that all teams have to do is show players their national TV schedule to get them to sign a letter of intent. 

Since the NCAA probably has no legal jurisdiction to punish the Penn State program for Sandusky's indiscretions, it can revamp the way that recruiting is done across the country. 

Every coach on the staff needs to be present for at least one interview with the player and parents. I don't care if the player is a quarterback and the coach is an assistant to the assistant special teams coach.

If he is on the payroll as a coach for the football team, he needs to be in the room to talk with the parents and player face-to-face. 

Perhaps this will not make that big of a difference, because how much can you really get to know someone in a one-hour interview? 

Even Sandusky seemed like the nicest guy in the world. Sports Illustrated's Jack McCallum wrote an article about how he was fooled by the former Penn State defensive coordinator and a story he did on him in 1999. 

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I have combed through my remaining brain cells to conjure up memories about that story and can't come up with much. I met Sandusky and his wife. The story wasn't long. It was written in a hurry and has a mailed-it-in feel to it. It wasn't very good.

More to the point and most obviously, I had no suspicions about anything untoward going on with Sandusky or Second Mile. I remember that I didn't particularly like the man (he seemed a little strange and detached and not at all joyful about what he was doing) but none of that tipped my cynical believe-the-worst-about-anyone-until-proven-otherwise journalistic dial toward high alert.

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Anybody can fool anybody, especially in such a limited amount of time, but to think that there are coaches who come into contact with the players that their parents have never met is troubling. 

I know that Sandusky's incident involved younger boys and that college-age students can take care of themselves, but they don't have the ability to decipher who is a bad person. 

When you are 16 or 17 years old, you know it all and can take care of yourself. You don't need your parents telling you what to do. 

Wrong. 

That age is when you need your parents the most because they can guide you and help you make the right decisions, but they have to be able to talk to the people that will be working with you. 

Even before you get to college, since most of us aren't good enough to play sports at that level, high school, middle school, it doesn't matter, anytime you have a child who is going to be taught by someone that you don't know, you deserve time to get to know them and be involved with the team. 

If I am ever lucky enough to have a child and he or she wants to play sports, there is no way I just drop them off and pick them up without having several conversations with the people that will be watching him or her.