We were closing ranks inside the athletic department. Buffaloes above all else. The University of Colorado was being attacked from all sides; we were in self-protection mode.
Those months in 2004 were a light sprinkle compared to the thunderstorm that has descended upon Penn State. Former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is charged with sexually assaulting young boys. Important members of the hierarchy, such as head coach Joe Paterno and athletic director Tim Curley, are charged - some formally, some in the court of public opinion - with failing to report Sandusky's actions to police, for failing to protect our children in favor of their program.
As a 21-year-old in Boulder, I couldn't see the humanity - the women whose lives had been damaged - standing just outside our black-and-gold athletic gates. I pulled on my CU letter jacket and refused to understand why a few women wanted to destroy our athletic family.
I explained to NBC that our sports teams were shiny and clean. Anyone claiming otherwise didn't understand "what we stood for." May those in Happy Valley not repeat my mistake.
Everyone - coach, athletic director, and president - went down in the CU scandal. Paterno was removed from his job by the university's board of trustees on Wednesday. The only thing standing between other Penn State officials and that same fate is time.
But what will these "resignations" change? Heads rolling is absolutely necessary and unusually justified. But what's more important is addressing the culture inside these programs.
Penn State will remove these people, insert others, and eventually the gears will begin churning again. That's what happened at Colorado, and we've seen no shortage of college scandals since.
