Penn State Scandal: Loss to Nebraska Only a Brief Respite from Sandusky Scandal

The result may not have been what folks in Happy Valley had hoped for, but Penn State's 17-14 loss to Nebraska, in the team's first game without Joe Paterno on the sidelines since 1949, gave the community a much needed opportunity to band together in the wake of the damage wrought by the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

Granted, no outcome from the game could possibly have assuaged any of the lingering pain and anguish amongst Sandusky's alleged victims or even cut through the confusing cloud of emotions hanging over the campus and its student body, especially after the disgraceful way some of the kids behaved after hearing of JoePa's firing.

But it was a step, a small step but a necessary one, out of the inertia of the initial shock and onto what is sure to be a long and winding road of grief and rebuilding on the way back to normalcy and credibility.

There were some who called for the game to be cancelled, that to play football under these circumstances would be both unfair to the visiting Cornhuskers and, more importantly, disrespectful to the boys, most of whom are now men, that Sandusky allegedly violated during his secret "Reign of Terror" from the sidelines.

The sentiment was understandable, to be sure, but misguided in its punishment. Don't get me wrong, football matters not amidst a tragedy of this magnitude, serving as little more than a distraction from the more important matters at hand.

But, perhaps, that's just the sort of distraction that the students, both in the stands and on the football field, needed. After all, the scandal was the failure of adults in the administration, not kids in the classrooms and the practice facilities. Should the students have been punished for a crime that, horrific as it was and remains, was not at all their doing?

And realistically, what good would it have done anyone—the victims, the students, the athletes, the faculty—to cancel such an event? Would justice have been served any better by disallowing the Nittany Lions from playing in their Senior Day game?

If anything, the students did what they could to make the best of a bad situation, using the game as an opportunity to raise funds and awareness in support of Prevent Child Abuse Pennsylvania with a Beaver Stadium-wide "Blue Out."

In the end, though, these points are all moot, since the game was played anyway. For a short while, at least, the entire community, rocked by scandal all week, had but a brief few hours to grasp at some sense of normalcy.

And though a three-point loss and the resulting setback in the Big Ten standings was hardly ideal, well, what about Saturday was?

Now, the folks of Happy Valley must return to the business of picking up the pieces, with the end of the JoePa regime now a firm, if wholly unusual, reality. Perhaps it's a good thing, then, that the Nittany Lions won't play another game in State College this season.

That way, the business of separating football from real life won't be quite so difficult, even if the reason for doing so remains as harrowing as ever.