In an interview with PBS's Tavis Smiley on Monday, NCAA President Mark Emmert declined to rule out the death penalty when asked about possible repercussions for Penn State in the wake of the Freeh Report. The investigation, led by former FBI director Louis Freeh was released last week and outlined the school's response to child sexual abuse allegations surrounding defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
"I've never seen anything as egregious as this in terms of overall conduct and behavior inside of a university," Emmert said. "I hope never to see it again. What the appropriate penalties are, if there are determinations of violations, we'll have to decide ...
"I don't want to take anything off the table. The fact is, this is completely different than an impermissible benefits scandal that happened at SMU or anything else we've dealt with. This is as systemic a cultural problem as it is a football problem.
"There have been people who've said this wasn't a football scandal. Well, it was more than a football scandal. Much more than a football scandal. It was that, and much more. We'll have to figure out exactly what the right penalties are. I don't know that past precedent makes particularly good sense in this case because it's really an unprecedented problem."
(h/t SI.com)
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