Pa. Gov.: Paterno shouldn’t have been fired

Joe Paterno was removed as Penn State coach with four games left in the 2011 season. (USATSI)

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett wishes the punishment for former Penn State coach Joe Paterno had been different in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Corbett now says Paterno should have been suspended, not fired.

“They probably shouldn’t have fired him, they probably should have suspended him,” Corbett told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday. “He probably should have been given the last three games, not on the sideline.”

Corbett, first elected as Pennsylvania’s 46th governor in 2010, lost in a statewide election to Tom Wolf on Tuesday and will officially leave office in January 2015. He was a member of Penn State’s board of trustees when the school decided to fire Paterno as a result of the Sanduksy sex abuse scandal.

Earlier this year, a former Penn State board member, Alvin Clemens, announced his resignation with a statement of regret regarding the Paterno firing, calling it “a rush to injustice.”

Penn State’s handling of the scandal has been revisted this week after the release of internal emails between high-ranking NCAA officials discussing potential punishments for the university.

For more on the emails and what it tells us about the NCAA’s decision-making process in the Penn State case, check out Jon Solomon’s breakdown.

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