Cowboys LB Sean Lee Stands Behind His Alma Mater Penn State

At a “Shop with a Jock” event for the Boys and Girls Club at a Dallas area Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dallas Cowboys line backer Sean Lee spoke briefly to the media about his alma mater Penn State. Once the NCAA levied sanctions on the university they vacated all the wins from 1998 to 2011 essentially Lee’s entire career at PSU.

“There’s obviously the memories that you have, so that (removal) was done for whatever reason but as a teammate and former player you realize what you did as a team and what accomplished,” Lee said. “Your memories will always be there so that’s not what bothers me.”

While supporting his alma mater Sean Lee wasn’t shy about addressing the issues at hand. But Lee remains positive that Penn State can only go forward.

“Obviously I don’t support the actions of how they handled that situation at all,” Lee said. “The facts have shown they didn’t report Sandusky and what happened and because of it more kids got hurt. That’s what the facts show and I don’t agree with that at all. This should’ve been reported right away. There should’ve been procedures in place where this is what we do, investigation and go from there and more kids wouldn’t have been hurt. I actually think the Freeh Report was a good thing because it shows where Penn State can go, how they can improve on some things so something as horrible as it did will never happen again.”

Many are concerned that commits or players will leave Penn State to avoid the penalties including a bowl ban but Sean remains optimistic that Penn State has a good program going forward and it’s not all “gloom and doom” for the Nittany Lions.

“You can’t make this right, but there are a lot of people who want to never allow this this to happen again and don’t agree with what happened,” Lee said. “Penn State is still a great university. Great academics, great people up there. So supporting Penn State doesn’t mean you’re supporting the actions of what happened at all. I don’t think anybody should support the actions at all.”

Sean Lee also expressed a strong faith and confidence in new Coach O’Brien and the direction he is going with the program despite the sanctions.

“Like I said, supporting Penn State going forward does not mean you support the actions of what happened up there,” Lee said. “There are a lot of good people that want to do the right thing and Coach O’Brien is one of those guys. He wants to represent the university the right way. He wants to have guys who work hard, play the right way, go to class, who can impact the community in a good way. There’s a lot of people in the community that want to do the same thing. They want to support the team. They want to bring the positive about this horrible negative that happened up there.”

Many students of PSU have been vocal about their displeasure with Paterno’s statue being removed but it’s not important to Lee.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Lee said. “It’s a statue. They keep it up, they (take) it down, that’s not what I feel the issue is. What I feel the issue is, is to make sure the healing process for these victims is taken care of. Now if taking the statue down helps with the healing process, then so be it. If sanctions are going to help with the healing process, then it needs to be done. And also making sure this never happens again. I think Penn State has taken that step.”

Despite his indifference on the statue he separates his relationship from Joe Paterno with what happened..

“Coach, when I was there, did a lot of great things for the university, did a lot of great things for me personally,” Lee said. “The way things were handled I don’t agree with. More kids got hurt because they didn’t take care of it when they should have and I don’t agree with. But the things Coach did before and did for me helped me in a lot of ways.”

Regardless though, Sean Lee will always have the memories of his time as a player for PSU.

“If taking away the victories is going to help the healing process, then so be it,” Lee said. “The guys who played are always going to remember what we accomplished.”