Not-So-Happy Valley

Part of the job of being a head coach is to know what's
going on in your program at all times. Because of the
Sandusky scandal, Joe Paterno lost his job when he
failed to report young boys being assaulted by former
coach Jerry Sandusky.

I've always had the upmost respect for Joe Paterno and the program he ran at Penn State. For 50 years, he did everything he could to turn the Nittany Lions into champions — and he did it the right way.

That is until we learned about Jerry Sandusky.

The life of a college football coach is never easy. During the season, most coaches get an average of four hours of sleep a night — even fewer if there's a big game coming up.

What Sandusky did was unconscionable. And while Paterno did report Sandusky's actions to people above him, Paterno could have done a lot more.

For 50 years, parents of athletes have trusted Paterno to protect their kids while they were at college. In fact, I'm sure that's one thing he promised to do when he was recruiting the athlete. But how can you walk into a recruit's living room and make those promises when you know that one of your assistants is sexually assaulting young boys in his home and on campus?

When Paterno was relieved of his duties as head coach at Penn State, no doubt this thought had to cross his mind. He realized that he had a responsibility to those players and to Penn State.

Fans protested the Paterno's firing immediately afterward, but I believe it was absolutely the right move. As a college football fan, you hate to see one of the greatest coaches ever go out like that, but there are more important things in life than football.

When all the smoke clears and the dust settles, maybe some day we can look back on JoePa's career and marvel at what he did for the Nittany Lions. But until then we can't look past what happened at Penn State. Afterall, that's how we got into this mess in the first place.