Column: With Penn State, football doesn't seem to matter as much

As I flipped the channel on my television to CNN, I could feel the blood rush to my head as the nearly indescribable feelings of animosity began to course through my veins.

On the screen appeared former Penn State Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit with his attorney, Joseph Amendola, at his side as he awaited the final verdict from Judge John Cleland.

Then, slowly and deliberately, one of the 12 jurors read each guilty charge: involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children, among a slew of other charges, each creating in me a mixed sense of conniption and anguish. In total, Sandusky was found guilty on 45 charges.

Listening to and processing each charge was troublesome, but watching as Sandusky’s victims in attendance burst into tears was the most agonizing aspect of watching the scene at the Bellefonte, Pa., courthouse.

Four months later, Sandusky was formally sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, and at 68 years of age, he’s unlikely to survive, effectively making it a life sentence.

The fact that Sandusky will spend the rest of his life in prison doesn’t make the lives of his victims any less arduous. They are forced to live with the paralyzing memories of their attacker that are incomprehensible to those who have never suffered such calamitous experiences.

No penalties, jail sentences or any other form of punishment to anyone involved in Sandusky’s crimes will ever heal the wounds of his victims. Any person who believes otherwise is a fool.

It doesn’t matter that Penn State was forced to vacate all of the football team’s victories between the 1998 and 2011 seasons. It doesn’t matter the football team will be forced to play with only 65 scholarship players for four years beginning in 2014, compared to the typical 85.

Penn State was also levied with a $60 million fine that will be used to benefit abused children and may even go as far as to take the first step in putting an end to child sexual abuse altogether.

Yet the foremost matter is for Sandusky’s victims to be recognized, both those who have come forward and those who haven’t.

While the game of football is the least important matter in these circumstances, its grand stage can be utilized to raise awareness of child sexual abuse. Indiana’s contest  against Penn State at Beaver Stadium on Nov. 17 will be one of the innumerable games into the future in which the victims of such heinous crimes will have a silent, yet effectually symbolic, collective voice.

Penn State Coach Bill O’Brien’s players will wear a blue ribbon sticker representing child sexual abuse awareness on their classic white helmets, as they have done all season.

On Nov. 17, One Heart, a group of Penn State students against the sexual abuse of children, will continue its heartwarming efforts to raise money and awareness.

The astonishing efficacy of the human spirit will continue to glow as bright as it ever has.

­— ckillore@indiana.edu