BY GARY JOHNSON
Reprinted from Loose Change at TCBMag.com

A young man I know visited a college campus with some friends this past weekend. For very good reason, he’s not inclined to whoop it up much. While on campus he was confronted by a college wrestler who used a homosexual slur to try to start a fight. Sensing considerable danger, the young man wisely chose to leave. The wrestler followed him to his car and proceeded to cold cock him in the face five or six times, knocking him senseless as he sat buckled up in his car seat. His friends drove to an emergency room where it was determined he had a severe concussion.

The wrestler will hopefully be prosecuted. We know who he is. His wrestling coach has a responsibility, once he’s found guilty, to kick the bully off the team. Beating campus visitors senseless can’t possibly be the type of behavior the school administration or the wrestling team at a Division 1 school espouses.

At least that’s what the school spokesperson would insist if asked. But frankly, the goings on at Penn State make me wonder if even the most respected universities give a damn, until of course they’re caught holding the bag.

Who could argue that the resistance inside college sports to regulate and discipline athletes and coaches is laughable. Athletes and coaches are rarely held under the same microscope most of us are, particularly those of us in business and management.

Sports and high ethical standards have become something of an oxymoron, with the emphasis on morons. Consider the latest from Happy Valley. The suggestion that Nittany Lions’ former coach Joe Paterno wasn’t aware of the aggressive pedophilic habits of his former, long-time defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, is as disingenuous as the denials of Catholic bishops and church management over the past decade. It defies any measure of believability.

Penn State knew Sandusky was being investigated as far back as 1999, yet he was given access to campus facilities for years after. Amazingly, he was accused again in 2002. But only when it all became public did the university do the right thing.

Sports operate under a different moral and ethical standard. Yet we sports fans happily hot tub in the hypocrisy. We scream and grunt when brutal force is applied on the field. We high-five and laugh as our heroes strut like apes competing for the top spot in a dominance hierarchy. And we cheer steroid-laced, out-of-control wrestlers whose animal instincts compel them to crush not only their opponents on the mat but also innocent young men out for a good time. Our bad, yes. Their bad, big time.

As long as we’re trying to turn our big economic ship around, we should try it with sports. The answer is making sure we put principled people, with guts, in positions of power to lead us back to a better place. Tom Osborne, where are you when we need you?

Gary Johnson is President of MSP Communications in Minneapolis, MN.