Should have let him finish out the season then release him. He built that program and at his age this could be devastating to him. On the other hand protecting children is paramount and apparently Joe failed.
Let me add a little perspective why JoePa had to be removed immediately one way or another, something that that you might or might not agree with.
Base on Grand Jury testimony, Paterno should not have been the Penn State coach all these years since the 2002 incident. And that goes for all those associated with Penn State who had knowledge of the incident but allowed Sandusky to continue to be associated with the university, plus had knowledge that Sandusky continued to be around young boys with his involvement with the Second Mile organization which he founded back in 1977. How in the world could these people turn a blind eye to this? This program continued to support this monster providing countless volunteers for the Second Mile program, which provided him a pool of victims, which at the moment spanned from 1994 to 2009. Since the org began in 1977, who knows how far back his assaults go, not to mention how many victims there have been since the 2002 incident.
Another strange thing that I heard was that he retired from coaching at the prime of his career, somewhere in his 50s and didn't go elsewhere to continue his career. It makes me wonder how many people and for how long knew about what he was doing and were more concerned about Penn State and containing what he had done, or even worse, what he might be continuing to do.
I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg and that others associated with Penn State who knew about Sandusky and maybe received reports of similar incidents kept on brushing it under the rug. I realize that a lot of victims and sadly parents of victims don't come forward, but is it possible that Mike McQueary was the only one to report his evil acts during all those years? Maybe that's the case, but regardless, how can anyone who was made aware of what he did, stand pat and do nothing while not only ignoring the fact that this monster continued to be around young boys, but to enable him to do so.
Really! Do any of you think Joe Paterno should be allowed to coach the remainder of this season? I'm not discounting all the good things he did for Penn State. I'm not saying that Paterno is a bad guy. But the fact is he along with those above him who did nothing were at a high enough level of leadership that they should have made sure this went to the police and was investigated.
As for McQueary, no matter what concerns he might have had or was put in his head by others, as the eye witness, one would have to think that he should have done a lot more. I don't know why he left w/out rescuing the boy from Sandusky. Maybe his intent was to quickly find another person as a corroborating witness of the act, but someone talked him out of returning. I haven't read the entire GJ testimony to see if he explained his actions. Many don't realize the power of denial. I can somewhat understand, but never accept or condone in this circumstance, those who heard what McQueary described he saw (who knows if he was afraid or ashamed to share exactly what he witnessed at the time) that they allowed the perception of who they thought Sandusky was to make them think that McQueary might have not seen what he thought he saw. Denial is such a strong element the closer you are to the perpetrator. No excuse! Just trying to postulate what was probably going through the heads of those who didn't use them at the time. Although McQueary was the eye witness and will likely increasingly garner the ire of many, he was likely influenced by others to let it go for the good of the program, the university and probably even grotesquely, Sandusky himself. Hard to even fathom that all those who were aware of what happened had little to no concern about the young victim. That is flat out disgusting. No once came to the aid of the one who was most vulnerable and helpless. Absolutely disgusting and inexcusable.
Now I don't know if the Board gave JoePa the option of resigning. I'm on the fence as to if they should have given him that option, based on all the good he's done for the university and community. Note that one does not nullify the other, meaning the failure to do what he should have in 2002, discounts all the good he has done, or all the good he has done should give him a pass on this failure. I do wonder if the board could have first announced putting him on administrative leave and then took steps to force him to resign or be fired in the coming days. That might have spared some of the riots last night...maybe not...but would have extended a little dignity to JoePa, something that many feel he does or doesn't deserve.
People make mistakes, but this was much bigger than just a mistake, when you think about what any human being should have done and the countless lives that were impacted after that by doing nothing, or better put, enabling this monster. With that said, I still wonder if the Board could have taken a slightly different course of action, as I described above, to act in the best interest of not only Penn State, but for the victims, the safety of those at College Park, and Joe Paterno. Regardless to how the situation could have been handled, in light of what we all know, Joe Pa needed to be removed as head coach immediately to quell the storm, to begin to dig deeper into who knew what and to move toward some sort of healing process for all.
