USA Today Columnist Calls Return of Big Ten Football “Darkest Day”; Forgets Jerry Sandusky & Larry Nassar Exist

The return of Big Ten Football has gotten Jerry Sandusky trending on Twitter which means either something not so great happened or somebody said something stupid. Fortunately, it was just because somebody said something stupid. Feast your eyes on this column by USA Today columnist Christine Brennan who calls the return of Big Ten Football the “darkest day in Big Ten history.”

Note the date: 9/16/20, the day the vaunted Big Ten became the SEC. It choked. It got scared. It sold its soul for football. My @usatodaysports column on the darkest day in Big Ten history: https://t.co/uaWfgpgSqO

— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) September 16, 2020

Huh, is that so?

Twitter users were quick to point out that Jerry Sandusky & Larry Nassar both exist as people on this planet. You know, convicted sexual offenders who sexually abused children at Penn State and Michigan State respectively.

Darker days in the Big Ten than today.

– Jerry Sandusky story and cover-up
– Larry Nassar story and cover-up
– DJ Durkin basically kills a kid at practice
– Ohio State wrestlers allege years of sexual abuse

But yeah, deciding to come back and play football is really dark. https://t.co/zyyNQFFrNx

— Todd Lisenbee (@ToddOnFranchise) September 16, 2020

Darkest day?? Jerry Sandusky ring a bell? Larry Nassar? https://t.co/cWyVOe3T1z

— Matt Barrie (@MattBarrie) September 16, 2020

Jerry Sandusky and Larry Nassar molesting kids was worse, but go off. pic.twitter.com/PGzOevQ0iW

— Isles Road Warrior 🎈 (@IslesRW) September 16, 2020

Brennan followed up by making it a point to note that she didn’t forget about Sandusky and Nassar among other sexual deviants in Big Ten history, but still backed up her “darkest day in Big Ten history” claim. I probably would’ve went with an “I may have overexaggarated by saying darkest, but still believe it’s a dark day for the Big Ten” stance, but to each their own.

Four of the worst sex abuse scandals in US history: Jerry Sandusky at PSU; Larry Nassar at MSU; Richard Strauss at OSU; Robert Anderson at Michigan. All that evil, all on Big Ten campuses. Chilling. Today is about an awful conference-wide sports decision. https://t.co/uaWfgpgSqO

— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) September 16, 2020

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Return of Big Ten Football “Darkest Day?”

Is returning to play football putting these kids’ safety at risk? Possibly. The long-term effects of COVID are largely unknown at this point and myocarditis (i.e. enlarged heart) has been found in some college football players who contracted COVID. That’s certainly something to keep an eye on considering that we have seen athletes drop dead on the court or field due to that condition.

A better and more realistic question should be, “Will preventing these kids from playing football slow the spread of COVID-19?” The answer to that is “probably not” unless they are all social distancing and wearing masks at all times (so “definitely not”).

I’m actually not even sure how this is a “dark day” at all. A major NCAA conference putting money in front of the well-being of “student-athletes.” That’s a dark day? That’s every fucking day! Please cue me up a Herm Edwards, “Hello?”

In fairness, I don’t even think Brennan is completely off-base here. It may end up being a very bad decision for the Big Ten to bring back college football October 24 when health experts are predicting a resurgence in COVID during flu season. The worst case scenario is certainly very dire, god forbid if a player were to die from either COVID or effects from the virus (i.e. myocarditis). The conference would have to answer to that and to the family of that player as well. The decision to opt out of the season of course is a very viable one for any player concerned with their own personal safety, but I think the larger point that Brennan and other opponents are trying to make is that these kids shouldn’t even be put in the position to make that very difficult to decision. That’s fair. Brennan very easily could have gotten away with a simple “dark day in Big Ten history” and Jerry Sandusky likely would never have started trending.

However, putting this up there with Sandusky, Nassar, D.J. Durkin at Maryland, Robert Anderson at Michigan, Richard Strauss at Ohio State, or even the Urban Meyer-Zach Smith cover-up situation as well, is ridiculous. We KNOW those are bad. It’s pretty crazy how just adding “est” to the end of a word can completely change the conversation here, but that’s exactly what has happened.

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