Penn State Football: Joe Paterno Fired Due to "Failure of Leadership"

I'm sure we all remember the angry mobs rioting in State College, PA when beloved head coach Joe Paterno was shown the door during the firestorm surrounding the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal. Well now, several months later a report released reveals that Paterno was dismissed because of "failure of leadership." This represents an interesting turn of events, not because it is untrue—it most certainly was a failure of leadership—but because the report shines a light on the minds of the board members at Penn State.

It took a lot of deliberation but the board was able to use some perspective when they arrived at their decision that just doing the minimum was not enough:

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"While Coach Paterno did his legal duty by reporting that information the next day, Sunday, March 3, to his immediate superior, the then Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley, the Board reasonably inferred that he did not call police. We determined that his decision to do his minimum legal duty and not to do more to follow up constituted a failure of leadership by Coach Paterno. 

The Board spent hours on conference calls between Saturday, Nov. 5, and Tuesday, Nov. 8, discussing appropriate action and our fiduciary responsibility as the Trustees. On Wednesday evening, Nov. 9, we met in person in State College. At about 9 pm, we unanimously made the difficult decision that Coach Paterno’s failure of leadership required his removal as football coach."

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Basically, they took three days to talk about what could be done and finally made the decision that it was best for Penn State to part ways with the long time head coach. For a program and by extension a University built upon the mantra "success with honor", the board decided that doing "just enough" was in fact not enough.

Obviously more than just the minimum was at play here as the public relations firestorm that swept through State College, PA left the board in the crossfire from both sides. One on hand there was the national media launching salvos at Penn State for allowing Sandusky to be on campus and at the program for not doing more to protect the children. And on the other side there were local people celebrating the good that JoePa did during his career and arguing that he deserved a chance to see himself out come seasons end.

All in all in ugly situation forced the board to pull the trigger on Paterno. It was not pretty and it most certainly did not end well—President Graham Spanier also was given the ax for his own "failure of leadership". The board's report gives some insight into their motivations and imperatives as the scandal unfolded, but they are far from out of the woods when it comes to putting the situation behind them. When Jerry Sandusky's trial gets underway on May 14th, the national news spotlight is sure to return to State College, PA.

Update: Paterno familiy responds to the release of the report.

The family and the university remain at odds over the image of Paterno in the public eye. There's a push from the family's side to stop the negative rhetoric being associated with Paterno's last days at Penn State and in life while the university attempts to distance itself from the situation by pointing out the failings of those individuals within the system. This is not pretty and with no way to tie a bow on the situation the back and forth between the two once joined factions is creating a rift of epic proportions.