A letter to Penn State Media Relations

Good Afternoon,

My wife and I are proud Penn State Alumni (2004) and as all alumni feel, we are heartbroken by everything going on. We are saddened and infuriated by the harsh words being written about our Alma Mater, and our football program.

Moving forward, I believe football needs to be part of the healing and image restoration process. We all understand the impact that Penn State football has on the local economy. We all know the charity work our players participate in, like Lift For Life, which would suffer as well should heavy sanctions come down.

With that said, we need to act preemptively before the NCAA can attempt to make a statement in this case. We need to step out in the coming weeks and say we will self-impose a 2 year bowl ban. We need to say that we will donate proceeds (from certain games like maybe the Temple Blue Out Game) toward charities like RAINN. We need to hold events with players to raise awareness and money for the cause. Use the program to heal and be a voice!

We need to allow families and children to come watch our practices and be open to all, which I know Bill O’Brien does. We need to dedicate the entire 2012 season to the cause (ie. place blue ribbons on the back of the helmet) and state that we regret what happened in the past with our former leadership, but this is a new chapter and we are a voice for the cause. We need to be the loudest voice the cause ever could have dreamed they would get!

We need to make it more well known that the university is creating the Penn State Hershey Center for The Protection of Children that will be located within Penn State Hershey Children Hospital, which has benefited from the largest student run philanthropy in the world in THON!

Living in Northern New Jersey, I am shocked at how many have never heard of THON given the magnitude of its impact through the years. We need to speak louder about all of the positive impacts that Penn State has made when our representatives make public statements.

We need to be in front of the news here and not let all the noise dictate our actions as it has in the past.

We need to come out before August practices start and make these statements and self-impose these punishments in order to prevent larger, more drastic ones. If Penn State dedicates the season and money to the cause, cancelling the season would only hinder our ability to shed light on and support the cause.

We are not all guilty, but as a Penn State family, we understand that it is our responsibility to take accountability for what happened under our former leadership and make sure we restore faith, restore trust, restore our image and restore the roar!

Thank you for your time,
Proud Penn State Alum – 2004