Ki-Jana Carter was a god.

He was lightning-quick, had great field vision and was a Heisman finalist. His jaw-dropping 1994 season helped the Penn State football team to an undefeated season and a controversial second-place finish in both the Associated Press and Coaches Polls.

He was remarkable and was going to be a sensation in the NFL. That's why the Cincinnati Bengals selected him with the No. 1 pick in the 1995 NFL Draft.

That's why he was my hero. At that time he was one of many sports stars who I believed were infallible.

It all changed slowly and painfully, the same way Carter realized his career would never be what he and everyone else thought it would be.

Growing older and reporting on sports at college and at the minor league baseball level has shown me what others who came before me already knew -- athletes, collegiate or otherwise, are human beings.

With that comes some of the ugliness of humanity. Take the Penn State football program. When I arrived at Penn State in the fall of 1999 I believed, like so many others I have talked to over the past eight semesters, that Joe Paterno's group of players was the cleanest and greatest college football had to offer.

But in the past eight semesters I have witnessed scandal after scandal, small and large. Some were boys being boys, just students doing what students will do when all the freedom they didn't have in high school came crashing down on them in one massive splash.

Some were football players taking advantage of their high status, people who knew they were looked at differently and could get away with more than you or I could. And some were blatantly wrong.

This isn't to say that football players are the only ones to blame, and it's not even to say they are to blame at all.

Penn State is a jock school. Amateur runners litter the streets at all hours of the day and night. People watch games of many sports and athletes, male and female. Sport is engrained in the fabric of Happy Valley, and because of that the talented Div. I athletes that go here to get degrees also get the glory and unwarranted worshipping from other students.

They aren't gods. They do commit acts that should go repremended. And they also do many things that should be commended. Matt Schmitt, who sadly for the Penn State community just finished up his tenure on the football team, is a great humanitarian who works with multiple organizations such as THON to make the university and area a better place.

Josh Mandel of the four-time defending ACHA champion Icers is one of the most stand-up guys you can find anywhere, not just in the world of athletics. He is a team leader for Fresh Start, a Penn State organization that provides jobs and service activities for incoming freshmen and transfer students. He has done work for Coaches vs. Cancer and helped sponsor a child for Dance Marathon.

Schmitt and Mandel are far from the only ones. There are many more wonderful human beings in Penn State athletics, most likely more than the bad ones.

And they deserve the accolades the same way other "normal" students deserve them for doing similar acts.

But they also deserve the same punishment and scrutiny that students who commit crimes and uncalled-for acts get. Alumni and students need to stop with the "look the other way" mentality and start making them take responsibility for their actions.

Poor action by them gives Penn State a black eye, and gives all of us students a black eye. It doesn't matter if it is Joe Blow on the street or a potential sports millionaire.

Inspiring acts deserve comendation. They make the university look the way all those associated with it feel it should.

But everyone should take responsibility and have responsibility thrust on them for those acts. Athletes are not gods. I started to realize that when Carter's ligament let loose.

Eight years and eight semesters of college later, I am sure of it.