I don't think Joe Paterno should be fired. Let me first preface all my other points by stating vehemently that the crimes against children that Jerry Sandusky committed are of the most heinous quality, and I am certainly a person that believes the harshest penalty should be bestowed upon anyone that commits a rape, let alone against multiple children. I read the entire 21 page grand jury testimony and it was exceptionally stomach turning and hard to grasp the fact that one of the previous legends of Penn State was capable of such awful acts against humanity. Secondly, I will also say that I am a strong Penn State football fan so I am biased yet convinced that I would feel the same whether I was a Penn State or Ohio State fan.

But please let me explain why I don't think Paterno should be fired, despite the overwhelming media backlash against him, the football program, and Penn State University. First, according to the grand jury testimony, Paterno was not given an explicit or in fact an accurate account of what transpired between Sandusky and a ten year old. According to the grand jury testimony against Sandusky on page 7: "It was reported to Paterno that the graduate assistant had seen Jerry Sandusky in the Lasch Building showers fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy". Now at first this sounds awful, but put yourself in the mind of an at the time 74 year old Paterno. Young boy could mean anyone under 30, I firmly believe that if it was expressed to him that this was a pre-teen things would be much different. Additionally, there are several people close to Paterno reporting (and this holds up in the grand jury statement where the graduate assistant was explicit when explaining the sexual nature to the President and Athletic Director but not when speaking with Paterno) that the graduate assistant told Paterno there was some "horsing around" between Sandusky and the young boy. Finally, place yourself in Joe Pa's shoes: you are hearing reports about a man you have known for well over 40 years as doing something completely out of the blue. He probably was shocked and he did what he thought was best and immediately reported it to both of his superiors for them to handle. So it is important to think about these points: 1) He was not a firsthand witness to the events, 2) There is a lot of evidence leading me to believe that he did not know anywhere close to the age or extent of the involvement with the victim, 3) There was absolutely no attempt to cover up the situation and he immediately went to his superiors, and finally 4) Sandusky was not currently employed by Paterno or Penn State in 2002 when the crime occurred. With this incomplete information, I don't think his inaction with police are nearly as morally corrupt as every news outlet has made it appear.

Fast forward to 2011 and I think there are some real injustices with firing Paterno instead of allowing him to retire at the end of the season. You must first realize that Paterno at 84 years old has spent the entire season "coaching" from the press box but having no real contact with the players during the game due to an accidental collision with a player in August workouts, he does not speak to them at halftime, he calls few if any plays, and has not run practices for a few years now. This is not a hands on coach, and even in 2004 when many people were calling for him to be fired, he was more of a figurehead than anything else. I am quite sure for the last decade that he has had the most hands off approach of any college football program in America. The 1982 version of Joe Pa understood every detail of what was going on in his lockeroom but quite simply this is not the same guy. Yet with all of the media scrutiny placed upon Penn State in the last week, I personally believe the board of trustees just took the easy way out and fired him "for the best interest of Penn State" in a brief phone call tonight. Without even getting into the slap in the face this was to a man that served the university for 64 years, it is quite easy to see that the board was taking the easy way out. Joe Paterno did not commit any of these horrible crimes, he also was not part of any sort of coverup that included Athletic Director Curley, President Schultz, and President Spanier. These men according to the Grand Jury were given full and direct eye witness accounts by the graduate assistant. These were also men that the board of trustees at one time hired. Of course there was no admission of any wrongdoing by the board tonight; in fact by my count the director said five times that "we do not have all of the information" in regards to the media's questions about the involvement of Paterno. Yet they were overwhelmed by the media onslaught and could not handle the pressure, so they did the easiest thing they could, at least to the country outside of Penn State and fired the legendary coach.

In the past few days, Joe Paterno has come out and said repeatedly that he did not do enough and it was something that he would regret for the rest of his life. I would expect nothing else from a man that valued Penn State so much and had given so much of himself to the community and to many generations of young adults. More importantly though, I think this incident should also not define him as a person or a coach. Deciding to step down at the end of the season was the right move, not just for this awful incident but also because he simply was not as hands on as he needed to be at his advanced age for the players and community both on and off the field. Hindsight will always be 20-20, yet this does not mean he should be held accountable for the grotesque actions of Sandusky, that he should have anticipated the type of person Sandusky really was, nor was he involved with the coverup by the university presidents and athletic directors; he is owed more than that after his 64 years of service.

I anticipate this will be a controversial stance, but throughout the years that I have had my blog on CR, I have posted a number of thoughts that were against the grain. As always I am open to debate/discussion and read all of the comments.

On a lighter note, the third part of my series is now out, let me know what you think and how I can be of help to you in your games.

Salud!