Penn State Fires Joe Paterno

An ignominious end.

Penn State coach Joe Paterno tried to pen the close of his own script. But the Board of Trustees erased that finish, and put its own final statement on this sordid story: Paterno is fired, effective immediately. And president Graham Spanier is gone with him.

The Board of Trustees emerged from a late Wednesday emergency meeting and announced at a 10 p.m. press conference that two of the last three men standing in the sex allegations scandal that has torn the campus asunder are finished.

Now if only the university could fire some its students.

More: Jon Ondrasik at SI: Penn State’s football program should be shut down.

Understandably, there has been a whirlwind of emotion and opinion regarding PSU. Here’s mine:

If what we know is what we think we know, Penn State Football should be shuttered. If the NCAA’s standard for the “Death Penalty” is SMU’s covering up of “recruiting violations” how can there every be another game at Happy Valley?

There will be a time to care about sports again, but it will take a while. What will help is those who are legally liable in the Sandusky case being brought to justice, those who are morally liable shamed by society, and the healing passage of time. (At least for those of us who were not personally affected.)