Penn State Riot: Joe Paterno Is Not the Man To Blame for Campus Chaos

Don’t blame Joe Paterno for the Penn State campus riot last night.

Blame Jerry Sandusky, the man who allegedly performed the vile acts that put everyone in the position they are in now.

Blame Mike McQueary, the coward who ran and called his dad at the age of 28 when he saw a 10-year-old boy allegedly being raped in the Nittany Lions locker room.

Blame the PSU Board of Trustees, which decided to announce it fired Joe Pa late at night in a room full of rowdy PSU fans posing as "journalists."

Blame Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, two important officials who also knew about the incident and failed to report it to authorities.

Blame Graham Spanier, whose lack of action earlier in the week and failure to report the known allegations screams of guilt.

But don’t blame Joe Pa for what happened last night.

Paterno announced earlier in the day yesterday that he would retire at the end of the season. He has been the coach of the Nittany Lions for almost 46 years and, at 84 years old, did not have much time left with the team, anyway.

Paterno acknowledged the scandal shook him and urged his supporters to pray for the victims. He said he never knew Sandusky sexually violated a young man in the way described in the grand jury report.

He knew the program was irreparably damaged because of these allegations and knew it was time to step down after the season.

By firing him yesterday, the trustees just accelerated the process and got themselves in a whole big mess to save themselves some bad press over the next few weeks.

Now they have riots on campus and a student body ready to turn on the program because their beloved coach was fired.

Paterno is not being charged with any criminal offenses and there was no point of cutting him loose at this point. They should have just let him fade out of the program at the end of the season, not fire him with a big public relations nightmare of a bang.