5 BOROUGH SPORTS

As we all know, Brooklyn-born Joe Paterno was fired tonight as the head football coach of Penn State University. All of the news that has come out in the past week has been horrific and tragic. This is by far the worst thing that has ever happened in college sports. This makes SMU’s booster allegations look like a walk in the park. As much as I have respected Joe Paterno my entire life, it would’ve been wrong for him to coach another game at Penn State. According to law, Joe Paterno did what he was supposed to do after hearing the info about Jerry Sandusky and a minor from Mike Mcqueery. But morally, Joe Pa was completely at fault. Flat out, Paterno’s decision not to go to the police resulted in more children being victimized by Sandusky. Even though it sounds terrible, Joe Paterno acted as if the reputation of Penn State football was more important than the lives of these children.

It’s tragic that Joe Paterno will be most remembered for this scandal, as he should be. Usually I would say something like, “this is tragic, but let’s not forget all he has done for this school…he is still the greatest college football coach of all-time…etc.” But in this case, all of the greatness this man has brought to Penn State has been completely wiped out by this horrific scandal. There is nothing positive coming from this news.

What’s also sad is the fact that it’s Senior Day for Penn State on Saturday. These seniors, who will be playing in their last game as a Nittany Lion, have had nothing to do with this scandal, but will pay dearly for it for the rest of the season. How can a team prepare for a football game when a scandal like this is occurring around campus?

Where does Penn State go from here? First, every man on this coaching staff, athletic department, and who has been affiliated with Paterno, Sandusky, or former Athletic Director Tim Curley must go. I also think it was a dumb decision to appoint Tom Bradley as interim head coach since he was a defensive backs coach while Sandusky was running the defense. Like I said, everyone must go. Just an overall tragic story for college athletics.

This entry was posted on November 10, 2011 at 12:46 am and is filed under College Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.