Penn State football returns

(CBS News) STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - More than 80,000 fans watched Penn State's football team lose Saturday, 24-14. It was an emotional kick-off to the season, one that followed the turmoil of a sex abuse scandal and the firing of its legendary coach, Joe Paterno.

For Penn State, this was no ordinary game. This was a chance to signal a new beginning with a new head coach, Bill O'Brien.

"It means so much to be here to support all the team," said a Penn State fan.

As Penn State works to rebuild its reputation, it is also dealing with the financial fallout. The school was hit with unprecedented NCAA sanctions, including a four-year ban on bowl games, and a $60 million fine.

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"The football players are getting punished," said a Penn State student. "We have to sit back and take it. We're innocent bystanders. "

As of late last year, Penn State's football program was worth an estimated $100 million, the third most valuable college football program behind Texas and Notre Dame.

Patrick Rishe teaches sports economics at Webster University. "If parents don't want to send their kids to Penn State," he said, "if sponsors don't want to put their signage on the stadium, you're talking about anywhere from $5 million to $20 million a season loss because people do not want to be associated with the brand."

Already State Farm insurance has announced it's pulling ads from Penn State's home games.

For its part, the university has launched a campaign to change perceptions. That includes a new local TV show about the football program called "The Next Chapter."

Players Saturday wore blue ribbons on the backs of their helmets as a sign of support for victims of child abuse.

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"The football players are getting punished," said a Penn State student. "We have to sit back and take it. We're innocent bystanders. "

No. More than the football players are punished. The students as I recall, rioted and turned over a Local News vehicle because they wanted to believe a lie rather than hold a peaceful assembly and recognize the seriousness of the situation. Instead they chose to react like the people had reacted during the Salem witch trial era, and threaten anyone and anybody with violence if it meant preserving the "Heritage of the Lie." Canceling bowl games and financial penalties does not excuse that type of behavior. If you forget about the past, you will repeat the mistakes for the future.

Supporting athletics, and enjoying the pride of your school is one thing - and its fun and invigorating and inspirational and all those lovely aspects, but when becomes corrupted and doesn't reflect all those aspects any longer, and like a cancer grows inside of the University itself, and derails individuals from following perhaps a career in singing for the Opera or learning how plumbing systems work in order to re-design more efficient infrastructure - when religious dogma and ideologies rooted in fear and intimidation claim full reign - then it becomes a serious detriment to all healthy and thriving educational institutions and their athletic programs.

Let's enjoy the spirit of fairness and respect, and lets enjoy sharing that with everyone, no matter what their faith, gender, or race. I know that's what Penn St. is really about. So the football players are not the only ones hurt, its repercussions have spread out and beyond where the imitated from.

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I wanted to post a correction to my comment which was due to the spell check mis-spelling some of the words and subsequently changed what I originally wanted to say: The sentence at the end of the comment should read:

So the football players are not the only ones hurt, its repercussions have spread out and beyond where "THEY EMANATED" from and not where "the imitated from" which makes no sense Spell check devices for computers today can chose the wrong words which can affect the meaning of the sentence.

Its rather prophetic at the same time.