November 9, 2011

Paterno Gets the Ax

By - Kris Fletcher

What needed to happen finally happened tonight.

Joe Paterno, the man who has known nothing but Nittany Lion football for the last sixty-two years, was fired by the board of trustees amid the growing outrage over how the school has handled child sex abuse allegations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

Photo by: Gene Puskar
He was fired via telephone no less. A fitting way for his six+ decade tenure at the school to end, given the way they've damage controlled this entire ordeal.

"This university is much larger than its athletic teams," board vice chairman John Surma said following the press conference.

Oh, is it?

I'm sorry, but the only reason anyone knows about Penn State University is because of the football program. And let's face it, Joe Paterno is, or was, the face of said program.

The board didn't remove Paterno for the right reasons, because if that were the case, they would have done it days ago. No, they canned him in an attempt to put out the fire of bad publicity the school has gotten this past week. In doing so, they only made matters worse.

In essence, they've looked like a nittany lion (insert four-letter word +ing here) a football in regards to how they have dealt with this scandal. Still, it never should have come down to this in the first place. Paterno, the board, the university as a whole would have never looked asinine had JoePa just done the right thing back in 2002, and gone to the authorities with the eyewitness information he was given.

But for whatever reason, he didn't. Now, his 409 career wins, his forty-six years as head coach and his two national championships mean next to nothing. His legacy is forever tarnished, and fifty years from now he will be remembered primarily as the guy who allowed boys to be molested on campus during his watch.

I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying it's fact.

No, Paterno never actually saw anything go down, but he was the head honcho at the place it was going down at. He had an AD to answer to, but not really. There can come a time where a coach is bigger than his boss. Bigger than his school. Even bigger than the sport in which he presides over. This was definitely one of those cases.

Photo by: Getty Images
JoePa was the guy really calling the shots, and quite frankly, he earned that right. 75% of his life had been spent associated with the university, so the least they could do was give him some pull. That's why he should have known nearly a decade ago he was the person most obligated to look into the matter he was given knowledge of.

But he didn't.

Sure, he told his "boss," but he should have, and could have done so much more.

Every horror story has a bad guy, and in this case, Paterno's it. Make no mistake about it, what went on at that school right under his nose was nothing short of horrifying. Lives were forever destroyed, and the person who should have done the most to help stop it, did next to nothing.

So yeah. JoePa's the villain. Not for what he did, but for what he didn't do.

I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying it's fact.

17 comments:

  1. As a Penn State alum, I hope you're not right about how Paterno will be remembered. I'm affraid you will be though. It's amazing how a few days can change EVERYTHING.

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  2. This is total trash, and you're just as bad as the stupid ass trustees. Throwing Paterno under the bus when he didn't even do anything makes all of you completely pathetic. Piss on all of you for trying to ruin his legacy. After devoting his life to PSU, the man deserved better.

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  3. Dude, awesome post! Couldn't agree more. J. Primm must be out of his mind.

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  4. I thought the Joe Pa Must Go post was good, but this one is even better. Real nice work Kris. As for Penn State, they made the right decision, but they should have made it 2 days ago.

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  5. They fired the man over the damn phone. After all he's done for that university, THAT'S THE WAY they get rid of him? Totally despicable.

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  6. The "they've looked like a nittany lion (insert four-letter word +ing here) a football in regards to how they have dealt with this scandal" part made me laugh so hard I almost pissed my pants. Great way to start my morning. One thing I'm curious about though is how exactly Mike McQueary still has a job while Joe Paterno doesn't. McQueary saw the child being raped and did nothing to stop it. Paterno never actually saw anything. Surely the board of trustees isn't done cleaning house yet.

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  7. I don't see how anybody can side with Paterno on this matter. I get the guy is a legend and all, but give me a break. No doubt he deserved to be fired.

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  8. J. Primm, if this is trash, what does that make Paterno for not reporting a child being sexually assaulted to police? And Stephen, if Paterno being fired over the phone is despicable, what is Paterno for doing next to nothing when he was given crucial information in regards to a childs well being? You guys must live on a completely different level of existence than most people. Meaning, you're insane.

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  9. Glad he got fired. No telling how many childrens lives he contributed to ruining by not speaking to police back in '02.

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  10. This is hands down the worst scandal in college football history. Crazy.

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  11. Thanks for taking the time to read it guys.

    J. Primm - You yourself said: "Throwing Paterno under the bus WHEN HE DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING..." Uh, Exactly. He didn't do anything. Therein lies the problem genius.

    Stephen - Why did Paterno deserve any better than that? This whole thing isn't about living legends or sixty+ years at one school or any of that stuff. It's about children being raped. Paterno didn't do near enough to see that something was done about it, so no, he didn't deserve anything more than a phone call. He's probably lucky they didn't just burn the message on his lawn.

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  12. This scandal has gutted the university. It may take decades to recover from it. If ever.

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  13. Must be hard work sitting atop your pedestal judging the rest of the free civilized world huh Kris?

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  14. Paterno's legacy is definitely tarnished by all this, but it's his own doing, so it's hard to feel sorry for the guy.

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  15. I have, on good authority, word that this scandal goes MUCH deeper. So far that Sandusky wasn't the only one partaking in such lascivious acts. EVERYONE knew more than was told.

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  16. On good authority? Wtf are you talking about dude? You're full of it. Stop trying to stir up an already bad situation into something even worse.

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  17. You're right man, guess I'm full of it....

    http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ycn-10407023

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