Both football coach Joe Paterno and president Graham Spanier have been fired by Penn State University. The university's board of trustees met Wednesday night and decided Paterno
would not be allowed to continue as coach effective immediately. The defensive coordinator has been named the interim coach for the remainder of the season. Spanier chose to resign Wednesday and will be replaced temporarily by provost Rodney Erickson.
Earlier in the week Paterno released a statement saying that he would finish out the season then retire. The board came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was fire him immediately. The main allegations against Paterno is that he knew of the incident in 2002 when an assistant came to him and told him what had been happening with Sandusky and the kids in the showers. Nobody knows exactly what was said to Paterno, but we know that he did not follow up with a police report.
This will probably come as a huge shock to most of the Penn State fan base. They have been in support of Paterno ever since these allegations surfaced. Many students gathered on his lawn, and participated in riots in his defense. I'm not sure what the thinking is behind this. If he knew about these kinds of things and didn't report them, it's just as bad as doing them yourself. Sometimes you just want to believe something is false, even though you know it's true. Especially when has to do with someone you have supported and looked up to for so long. His legacy will forever be tarnished.
