Joe Paterno was the most respected coach in football until this October when information was released that shocked the world. He was said to have known about the sexually criminal behavior of Jerry Sandusky, who allegedly used Penn State athletic facilities to sexually assault young boys. An ex-defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky was first accused in 1998 after which he promptly retired. He was then caught using the facilities to seduce a boy in 2002 by current assistant coach Mike McQueary, who recently took a leave of absence issued by the college due to numerous threats on his safety. McQueary called his father immediately after he witnessed the incident in the shower. The very next day he and his father contacted Penn State head coach Joe Paterno.

Joe Pa immediately relayed this disturbing accusation directly to his superior, athletic director Tim Curley. By doing so he fulfilled his legal responsibilities by giving Curley full responsibility to handle the situation. At the time, Joe Pa had no way of knowing the legitimacy of the accusation, nor did he have the desire to testify against a man who had coached with him for over a decade for being a pedophile. So he gave that responsibility to Curley who obviously mishandled the situation, and should carry most of the blame.

When the story emerged nine years later, Joe Pa recognized the gravity of the situation he was in and admitted to the public he handled the problem incorrectly. Paterno later announced that due to the problems that had arisen he would retire after finishing the season for his seniors. Twelve hours later he was fired.

“Penn State owes Joe Paterno the right to retire after all he’s done for Penn State as a University,” said Milford Coach Brian Salyers.

Indeed, Joe Pa has brought a lot to the university in his 61 years there. Paterno has donated millions of dollars to PSU over the years to build facilities, such as the current library on campus. He even wrote a children’s book. He encourages the students and student athletes to put their education first and has a player graduation rate of 78 percent, easily beating the NCAA Division-1 average of 67 percent. On top of that, he had coached at Penn State for over 40 years and has more FBS wins than any other coach in the history of NCAA football at 409. He has had five undefeated seasons and has led his Lions to two national championships in the 80s. He is also already in the College Football Hall of Fame and arguably one of the most influential coaches in the history of college sports.

Given his credentials, one would think he deserves to retire on his own terms after apologizing and giving his announcement. But what happened may very well be one of the greatest insults given to a coach– they fired him without a chance to say goodbye to his pride and joy, his football team. Not only did the Board of Trustees fire him, they greatly disrespected him. Typically, even the lowest of employees are brought in for a face-to-face process of being fired. Surely someone as much in the public eye as Joe Paterno would be treated professionally by doing so, right? Not even close.

Instead of bringing Joe Paterno into an office where he would be told by his superiors that he was fired. A sealed envelope was sent to his house. Inside there was a phone number with directions to call it. When he called, he was told he was fired. What harm would it have caused to let Joe Paterno, the most successful coach in NCAA history, to finish the last three games of his final season as head coach with dignity and pride? Instead, he wasn’t even allowed to finish his season because of pressure from the press and the general public. Where is the honor in having the single thing you’ve spent your entire life doing taken away because of the “due process” of the media and the opinions of recently appointed members of the Penn State Board of Trustees in attempt to clean house.

I’m bothered by the fact that John Q. Public can make accusations on this coach without knowledge of who he is or what he was accused of doing or ,more rightly put, not doing. Joe Paterno was treated unjustly, I’m in no way saying he was right in what he did, but I do feel that firing him immediately was unnecessary and hurt Penn State as a school and as a program. Furthermore, the way he was fired was wrong and unprofessional. It’s a terrible way to see a legend go.

Hopefully, his legacy will later be carried on as who he was for the first 60 years of his career instead of this last one. Recently, more problems have come his way as if these weren’t enough as he was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 84 and left Penn State with one comment, “[the scandal was] one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.”

But the question stills remains. To what extent should the media play in this scandal? Does the media have the authority to be the judge, jury, and, in Joe Pa’s case, the executioner; or should Joe Pa been allowed due process from the Board of Trustees to see if he should’ve been allowed to finish the season?

The media attacking Paterno doesn’t change what has been done to the young boys who were sexually abused, and nothing can. Jerry Sandusky allegedly did this and should suffer the consequences of his criminal actions. Even Mike McQueary, who was not fired, had more moral obligation to do something having witnessed an incident. Joe Pa did what he knew he was required to do and was acting strictly based off of the word of one of his interns.  Paterno doesn’t deserve to be despised for what is left of his life. When it’s all said and done, should Paterno pass away, he shouldn’t be remembered for what he didn’t follow through on, but rather for what he has done for students, student athletes, and Penn State University.