Of all the punishments that have been handed down at Penn State, you will get my full support.
- Firing Joe Paterno? Yes. He was given an option to retire gracefully and refused.- Four-year ban? Yes. the culture of football was always the top priority, and it needed to change.- 60 million dollar fine? Of course. The money goes to children's charities.- Tear down Paterno's statue? Absolutely! Statues are supposed to be reserved for true heroes, not enablers.
The list goes on and on. Until now.
Penn State has announced that they will no longer play the Neil Diamond classic "Sweet Caroline" at football games anymore. Fans used to love this tradition and would sing the song at the top of their lungs.
The reason behind this decision?
The lyric "touching me, touching you".
Yeah, this is where I get off the agreement train. There's a point when you are trying TOO hard to distance yourself from your past. Penn State has just reached that point.
Embrace what happened at Penn State by apologizing for it and making atonement for it. You've been doing a good job of that so far (most of you have - a lot of the fan base is still in the denial phase, but that's a different story). But don't over-do it.
This move has all the makings of a colossal failure. Somebody in a position of authority is reaching way over the line in order to appear to be sensitive to the issues. Odds are about even that they're going to try and replace it with a Gary Glitter song and not notice the intense irony of that choice.
Neil Diamond should stay.
- Jeff Seemann
