Mike McQueary: Assistant Coach Doesn't Deserve Protection from Penn State

With the firing of Penn State president Graham Spanier and head football coach Joe Paterno, there is only one person remaining on staff who has been linked to the child sex scandal of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

That person is wide receivers coach Mike McQueary. It is alleged that McQueary witnessed Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in a Penn State locker-room shower in 2002, but rather than go to the authorities, McQueary simply notified Paterno.

After further discussion between McQueary and athletic director Tim Curley it was decided, for whatever reason, that the matter would be kept in house. Despite the fact that McQueary reportedly witnessed the abuse, he remains on staff under interim head coach Tom Bradley.

McQueary won't be on the sidelines this weekend when the Nittany Lions face the Nebraska Cornhuskers, though. This is because McQueary has supposedly received death threats from those angry with his inaction in the Sandusky case.

The university released a short statement with regards to why it made the decision to keep McQueary from coaching this week:

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Due to multiple threats made against Assistant Coach Mike McQueary, the University has decided it would be in the best interest of all for Assistant Coach McQueary not to be in attendance at Saturday’s Nebraska game.

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While you can't blame Penn State officials for wanting to keep McQueary out of harm's way, a true decision needs to be made on their part. Either the university needs to fire McQueary for his involvement in the scandal, just as they did with Spanier and Paterno, or they need to let him coach.

Keeping him on staff but out of Saturday's game is far from an affirmative decision. All it does is delay the inevitable of McQueary being let go when a new regime presumably takes over next season.

Allowing McQueary to continue cashing a pay check from the university essentially absolves him from any blame in the Sandusky situation. The fact of the matter is however, that he is honestly guiltier than Paterno and Spanier in that he actually witnessed the act.

If anyone deserved to be fired in this situation, it should have been McQueary first and foremost. Instead they are keeping him on as a lame-duck assistant and catering to him. If his story checks out, then he saw a young boy being sexually abused and did nothing about it.

Because of that, he doesn't deserve to be protected. He deserves to be relieved of his duties immediately.