Penn State loses a major asset after scandal by Leanne Romano, staff reporter

After 62 years at Penn State as assistant and head coach, Joe Paterno’s career came to a end at age 84. Many Penn State students are outraged about the firing of Paterno, standing outside of his house chanting “please don’t go” to their beloved football coach.

Joe Paterno and other employees at Penn State became aware that their former colleague and defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight young boys over a course of 15 years and didn’t report it to the police.

Instead of informing the police about what was happening, like many said he should have done, Paterno kept his knowledge of the abuse to himself. Paterno allegedly knew about the abuse four years prior to police involvement.

The abuse allegedly had taken place on school grounds. This led to the school’s involvement in the case, and the firing of the beloved football coach.

College football fan Jacob Tamanas said, “Even though he was real old, I can’t imagine the team without him.”

Paterno wasn’t the only one to be fired after this scandal came about. Penn State’s President Graham Spanier was also fired. Both received an informal phone call from the school board to let them know that their work at Penn State was over.

Although he has been fired, Paterno is not under any investigation for the crimes Sandusky committed , but he was simply fired for not taking the appropriate action.

Tom Bradley, defensive coordinator, will be replacing Paterno and serve as temporary coach.  Rodney Erickson will be filling in for Graham Spanier as President.

Throughout his 42 years as coach at Penn State, Paterno has coached the Lions to 409 wins and only 136 losses .

“I don’t think that this will change the way that the team plays, as long as they have a good team then they should be fine,” says junior, Antonio Davis.

Paterno ended his legacy with a loss to Nebraska at their last home game of the season. Since Paterno’s leave, Penn state has beat Ohio 20-14, and was defeated by Wisconsin in a game that ended 45-7.

Only time will tell how the team will do next season. The university has not reported if they would be looking for a new coach, or keeping the replacement, former defensive coordinator Tom Bradley for the next season.