My folks met at Penn State. They attended the football games and rooted for the team when I was young. As Miami came and went, as Notre Dame hired liars, as Pete Carroll paid his players then fled, as SMU died, as Nick Saban turned tail... for 61 years Joe Paterno ran a clean program. He focused on education and making his charges better people as a university should. He's helped thousands of students, and went above and beyond in support of the institution, despite better football offers; despite better monetary offers because teaching students to become better men was more important than either.

61 years of devotion. Countless decisions he had to make, many that were morally difficult. Losing out on prospects, losing in general because Penn State would not stoop where the competition stooped. 61 years of good decisions, but one mistake somehow invalidates that?

I am disgusted by Penn State for firing Joe Paterno. I am embarrassed by the culture in America where dedicated employees become numbers in Peoplesoft and are fired to save shareholders a few cents. I am embarrassed by CEOs making mistakes and getting millions of dollars, corrupt investors literally stealing from the government getting bailouts because they lost that money... What employee will show any shred of dedication when even JoePa got canned?

I am shamed by the flood op-ed stories by cowards who scream for blood due to one horrible decision a decade ago while ignoring the 6 decades of good decisions. How can we function as a country when we choose to crucify someone who has done so much good when so many have done so little?

I could google this, but I figure it's relevant to the thread and there'll be others with the same question: Care to give a super small summary as to why he was fired? I saw the headlines but didn't click 'em.

This article on wikipedia summarizes it.

Never heard of the guy. Yeah it's sad when one mistake can cost you your job, but it sounds like he was told about a situation and then was an accomplice in a cover-up. Seriously this doesn't look good for any of the people involved especially for that Mike guy. I have no idea what that guy was thinking, but there is some serious morality issues in that group.

Question is, why are they taking action now, as opposed to a decade ago when the incident happened? It just seems to be a unusual time to bring back an old scandal.

Question is, why are they taking action now,[/quote]
Probably because the article says they were young. Most likely young kids that are in that situation don't want to talk about/are more embarassed than an adult might be. Even girls get raped and feel embarassed to come out about it.

had seen Sandusky performing a sex act on a 10-year-old boy in Penn State football's shower facilities. Paterno then reported the allegations to Penn State athletic director Tim Curley. In November 2011, Sandusky was arrested on 40 counts of molesting eight young boys over a 15-year period

I think a lot of people have some miss information about the story as well. The news where I am at is telling it as if the coach saw it, told someone, and then didn't say anything else. It seems that someone else saw it and reported it to the coach who then reported it to his boss. It seems like the coach is being made the scapegoat for the people hire up that decided not to act.

ONE MISTAKE? Fuck that! Due to his inaction a child molester was allowed to prey on young boys for years. He could have put an end to that!

I could google this, but I figure it's relevant to the thread and there'll be others with the same question: Care to give a super small summary as to why he was fired? I saw the headlines but didn't click 'em.

(as of date of writing, based on what I've read)

10 years ago, a grad student saw a retired assistant coach having sex with a ~10 year old boy.

He did not intervene. He talked with his father. Neither called the police.

The grad student called Paterno the next day. Accounts differ about what level of detail was went into. Paterno waited until the next day (a Monday) and told his boss. He did not call the police.

His boss told essentially the University's administration of the report. They did not call the police. They told the perpetrator that he was no longer to be in contact with children on campus, and somehow thought that sufficient given the info they knew.

And yet he was on campus as of last week

Btw I live in state college. The riots last night was shameful!

Isnt school supposed to be the place where you worry about spelling rather than sports?