Mike McQueary Must Swallow Pride and Resign

We saw it coming for days, but the ax finally fell on Wednesday night. After over six decades in the Penn State football program, Joe Paterno was let go.

While not exactly a foregone conclusion, JoePa's firing was certainly anticipated. He announced early on Wednesday that he was going to retire at the end of the season, but Penn State's Board of Trustees made it clear that they didn't think that was good enough. They wanted Paterno out immediately.

If you take a look at the list of big names in the Jerry Sandusky scandal, almost all of them are out. Obviously, Sandusky has basically been shunned by the university. Athletic Director Tim Curley was granted a leave of absence. Administrator Gary Schultz stepped down. And now, JoePa has been fired.

However, one big name in this case remains under employment at Penn State: Mike McQueary.

McQueary is Penn State's wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. He is also a key witness in this case, as it was him who witnessed an incident in 2002 in which Sandusky was allegedly sodomizing a young boy in the Penn State football locker room showers. Per a grand jury report, he told Paterno and Paterno told Curley and Schultz, but nobody ever went to the police.

In other words, McQueary is just as responsible for the fact that this case remained under wraps for so long as anybody else. Nevertheless, he still has his job.

I think CNBC's Darren Rovell said it best:

Make no mistake, if everyone else has to go, so does McQueary. And since Penn State isn't going to fire him, the pressure is on him to quit.

Quitting is the responsible thing to do here. McQueary needs to realize that his presence is not doing the university any favors. If he is truly that committed to his job, he has to realize that.

Penn State needs to move on. In order to do that, it needs all parties involved in the Sandusky scandal to be elsewhere. Why the university didn't fire McQueary on its own is beyond me, but he shouldn't take that to mean that his being there is not a problem.

It is a problem. A big one. Biting the bullet and resigning is the best thing for everyone, him included.