When I first heard about the Jerry Sandusky scandal I thought to myself, ” damnnnnnn.” I also remembering feeling a wave of different emotions: sad, scared, frustrated, disgusted etc. Growing up an athlete and playing various different sports, it was always my coaches I felt I could to if I was ever having problems outside of the sport. To think that a coach would take advantage of his players and sexually abuse them really made me sad, but also very angry. Also some of these boys were very young, which I find to be even more disgusting.
I can’t remember much else about what I thought about this case after the heat of it kind of died down, I know I was a junior in high school when it happened though. I will note that I didn’t think much of it until about a year or two ago I was watching Law & Order: SVU and there was an episode where a college coach was sexually abusing his players and even some of the high school recruits. This episode was definitely made after and about Sandusky. I also think there was another episode (maybe Law & Order: SVU) where another kind of coach was molesting his summer camp campers and they finally spoke up after about it years later.
What I find to be the most interesting and gut wrenching is how when Sandusky was first reported to having touched a player inappropriately, DiNunzio didn’t even speak to the child’s mother. It just blows my mind how schools will do anything to brush something under the rug, especially if it could hurt a sports team or their reputation. It’s also insane how long this was going on and no one did anything about it.