President Barack Obama hasn’t really spoken about the Penn State scandal, but while doing some campaigning in Ohio, the Prez stopped by the sports radio station “The Fan” and said the NCAA penalties imposed on the University were the “appropriate” punishment.
STORY: Penn State Receives The Hammer By The NCAA
According to Reuters, Obama told Ohio sports radio station:
“I think it was appropriate to send a message …We have to make sure we’re always looking after our kids and we have an affirmative responsibility to make sure we’re preventing predators from taking advantage of them,”
Asked whether the punishment for Penn State “fit the crime,” Obama said: “I think it does.”
“Obviously Joe Paterno was a great football coach…But some things are just more important than sports. Making sure our kids are safe is more important than sports.”
The NCAA fined Penn State $60 million and voided its football victories for the past 14 seasons after the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
Former head coach Joe Paterno also had many of his career wins removed from the record books.
Penn State was not given the so-called death penalty, but they were banned from post-season games for four years and had the number of scholarships available to players reduced from 25 to 15.
Penn State officials were accused of not taking action after being alerted that Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, was sexually abusing children.
