Yes, Paterno Got Fired

I'm disgusted by the allegations surrounding the Penn State football program. What allegedly took place there in Happy Valley is deplorable. It's disgusting and unthinkably vile.

Joe Paterno SHOULD have been fired. So should everyone else that was working there at Penn State at the time who knew about these events and did nothing. Telling someone who is above you on the authoritative food chain means nothing. If you're Joe Paterno, you ARE Penn State. There is nobody above you. If they are it's in title only. You are the first, middle and last when it comes to PSU.

I have read a lot of responses to Paterno's firing on various sites and not everyone agrees with the university's decision to remove him from the program. I see that people don't think we've "heard all the facts". Maybe not, but there are ENOUGH facts to make a decision regarding a punishment for what allegedly took place. If a man is ARRESTED and charged with 40 counts of abuse, that's enough facts for me.

To those who are saying, well, "the media just wants someone to pay for this and Paterno is the biggest, brightest name associated with the program. SURELY that's why they fired him, right"?

Wrong.

This is beyond football. It's way past X's and O's. It's about human feelings, childhoods and futures ruined because nobody was man enough to stand up for what they knew was right. How could anyone live with that information in their brains for a decade and do nothing about it? I couldn't sleep at night if I knew that a guy that I saw every day in the locker room or office had been caught with a child in a shower.

Nothing about this is funny. I heard from my brother that a radio show host cracked a joke about what could have been going on in the shower. He essentially made light of it. I didn't hear it myself, but if that's true, I hope that joker loses his job too. If you find something about abusing children funny, there's no saving you.

Paterno wasn't allowed to speak about this at a weekly press conference. He has been the head coach at PSU since BEFORE MY MOTHER was born. That's forever in coaching terms. That doesn't give you a pass to overlook obvious crimes. He had to go. There is nothing that he could have been said to save his job.

Get angry if you want to. I know I get upset when I think about what took place there at PSU, according to reports. But, don't get mad because a legendary football coach is out of a job. Get mad that this information existed for a decade and nobody did a thing to set it right. Yes, Joe told people about it. They didn't tell anyone. They all suffer for it.

But nobody suffers more than the victims in this case. THOSE are the people that deserve some justice. I feel awful for them. Nothing can take away those experiences. They're scarred for life. That's why Happy Valley is in free fall.

Whatever happened to doing what was RIGHT?