Joe Paterno: FIRED By Penn State!
Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has been fired amid the sexual abuse scandal that has roiled the university. He announced yesterday he would retire at season's end, only to be dismissed immediately just hours later.
The university's board of trustees voted late Wednesday night to fire Paterno.
The 84-year-old legend was not directly involved in the scandal, but in the wake of the arrest of Paterno's former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on child sex abuse charges, criticism of JoePa for not doing enough to report and stop it ran rampant.
PSU President Graham Spanier resigned right away. Paterno, who had been head coach at Penn State for 46 years, hoped to his own terms. Didn't happen.
Paterno and Spanier are just two university officials who have been under fire for not going to police with their knowledge of Sandusky's alleged sex abuse.
Hundreds of students rallied on the PSU campus last night - many chanting support for Paterno - but the trustees were steadfast in defending their decision.
Jerry Sandusky has been charged with 40 crimes, including inappropriate touching and statutory rape. He is accused of violating eight boys over 15 years.
Joe Paterno is college football's all-time winningest coach with 409 victories, but leaves with a legacy forever tainted after this shocking turn of events.
Should Penn State have fired Joe Paterno?
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November 10th, 2011 8:00 PM
THe coach who witnessed definantly should be fired, somebody should have stepped up and gone to the cops. Yes JoPa followed "[proper procedure" but he should have followed moral procedure. If that was his son or grandson molested you know shit would hit the fan, but since it was a bunch of kids he didn't personally know it wasn't as big of a deal. Sitting back while this whole thing was covered was just wrong. PERIOD.
November 10th, 2011 5:51 PM
I take back any comment I wrote on behalf of this man. My boyfriend is saying he was the monsters boss. So now I feel when he found out about that incident which happened to be the second incident that was brought to his attention
Rank: New User
November 10th, 2011 3:51 PM
JoePa followed proper procedure!!! Why didn't the guy who saw the incident STOP it right then and there???
November 10th, 2011 11:29 AM
Coach Paterno did follow protocol, and reported it to the school, but when it was covered up by the school, he should have stepped up and done something then. I had so much respect for JoPa but I can't help but be disappointed. . . And these young fans angry at the victims for what has happened makes me sick.
November 10th, 2011 11:11 AM
What are you taking about? He did what he was supposed to do, which is report it to the school. Sexual allegations by word of mouth is not something you want to bring up unless you are ready to bring charges, they should go after the school committee and trustees, I’m pretty sure once they dig a little bit more they will realize this is not the only school this monster has done this at. I understand the seriousness behind what happened to those little boys, but Jo wasn’t the one committing them. This school is going to have many scape goats. He never saw it being committed nor did any victims come to him. Someone who saw something told him and he went to the school and reported. Speculating that he knew more is unfair to him and his reputation, now the whole team has to suffer because of this monster and the school.
November 10th, 2011 10:33 AM
really? whats more important? a damn sports team or the lives of the sexually abused that he knew about and could have stopped earlier??
November 10th, 2011 9:51 AM
For all that he did for the school I believe they owed it to him and his players to at least allow him to finish out his season. He already announced he was going to retire at the end of the season. To turn around and announce he is fired was a low blow by the schools trustees, that’s was just done to save face appear like they are getting down to he bottom of things. I also believe he did what he could and he followed protocol. As much as we want to include him to what that monster did to those little boys, its not fair that we do that. We can’t really blame him for hear or say. Someone came to him and reported the incident they saw, why didn’t that player go to the police? Since he didn’t see the incident himself, I don’t know if he should really be punished for not reporting it to the police. It would have been a different story if he walked in on the act himself and turned a blind eye to the situation, or even if the victim came to him personally then he would have no cho
November 10th, 2011 8:37 AM
he should done planty like help to speak out help them now