High School Senior Optimistic About Playing For Penn State Despite Sandusky Conviction
By Oren Liebermann
SICKLERVILLE, N. J. (CBS) - Even with all the challenges Penn State University has faced over the last eight months, Greg Webb from Sicklerville says he still plans on playing football when he graduates high school.
"The overall feeling of the place gets you exuberated about going there and ready to be a part of tradition," says Webb.
The defensive tackle from Timber Creek High School says he has followed the conviction of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, but that never swayed his decision to play for new Coach Bill O'Brien.
"It just doesn't affect me that much," says Webb, "because I know that Coach O'Brien wasn't a part of this and a lot of coaches on that staff now weren't a part of it."
The hallowed football program faces an uncertain future in the coming years. An NCAA investigation could lead to sanctions against the team including lost scholarships and no postseason play.
"These athletes have done nothing wrong, and they are likely to get the punishment," says attorney and sports agent Bill Baldini.
Baldini says the NCAA can hand down whatever sanctions it wants, but it may go easy on the football program.
"I don't think they want to do too much because this isn't about NCAA violations. This is about heinous crimes and this is about criminal prosecution," Baldini explains.
The NCAA released a letter last week that was written to President Rodney Erickson shortly after Sandusky was charged saying, "The behaviors and failures described in the allegations set forth by the grand jury try not only the integrity of the university, but that of intercollegiate athletics as a whole and the NCAA member institutions that conduct college sports."
Erickson said in a news conference after Friday's Board of Trustees meeting that he will use the Freeh report to respond to the NCAA letter received November 17, 2011. The NCAA has not announced any timeline on imposing sanctions against the football program.
