Joe Paterno has been fired as head coach at Penn State University. What more can you say? Year2 and I have both made clear that we don't have the stomach to write about this issue in much detail, but I'll give you a few of the thoughts I've shared on Twitter.
There was no other way for this to end. No one should be allowed to ignore the kind of reports that Paterno ignored and continue to hold a respected job at a prestigious university. Not telling the police what he knew probably allowed more children to be victimized (if the allegations are true). And the main thing we need to remember in this story is that this is about about the children.
I hope the students at Penn State will allow this to end peacefully, but I'm not sure that I can get too angry with them. After all, we live in a society that has time and time again told them that what our sports figures do off the field is not important, as long as they are successful on it.
It probably isn't fair to ask the students to know any better. But Joe Paterno should have.