It’s been a gripping, surreal, almost unconscionable few days at Penn State.
A week ago, an 8-1 team was on a bye, relaxing, preparing and waiting for Nebraska, with a potential berth in the first annual Big Ten title game on the line. One week later, a coaching legend is gone, the reputation of a school and program has been tarnished, and a campus and town lies in waste both morally and ethically. As everyone wonders how it all fell apart so quickly.
And really, above all, that’s the word to best describe this week: Quick, but certainly not painless. There are so many layers to this story, so many angles, that it’s hard to dig through it all. As best we can, Crystal Ball Run has tried to sort through the madness, with a page-full of relevant links.
First, as you know, Joe Paterno was fired last night. Our own Allen Kenney gave his quick take on that. Paterno was fired by phone call, when the Penn State Board of Trustees determined that they simply couldn’t allow a man accused of covering up an alleged sexual assault be the face of their school any longer. For what it’s worth, Penn State President Grant Spanier is out as well.
Apparently, the news of Paterno’s firing saddened Jerry Sandusky, the man whose alleged crimes were the catapult to the school’s decision to fire Paterno. Most of you don’t have much of an opinion or concern on what Sandusky’s emotions are in all this would be my guessed.
Paterno released a statement after his firing last night. He also met with a congregation outside of his home.
As for what happened on campus, as you all know, riots broke out at the school. CBS Sports columnist Gregg Doyel was there to document it all. OutKickTheCoverage’s Clay Travis thought that CNN’s reporting of the Joe Pa fallout was superior to that of ESPN’s.
In regards to what’s next going forward, well it starts with Tom Bradley, who was named the interim head coach for the remainder of the season. He’s in charge (although really, he’s probably been in charge the last decade), after 12 years as the defensive coordinator. Mike McQueary- the assistant who first saw the alleged abuse and reported it to Paterno- will coach Saturday. So too will Joe’s son, offensive coordinator Jay Paterno.
Meanwhile, in the big picture, Dennis Dodd believes that it’s time for a revolution. Time for schools to take back what was once theirs; mainly honor and a bit of self-respect, from the TV networks and shoe companies that they’ve become beholden to over the past few decades.
And oh, by the way, Penn State has a game with Nebraska this weekend.
In case you hadn’t heard.
