In 4 days, a statue honoring Barry Switzer is unveiled and Joe Paterno is fired...

[Soonerus]

Awesome , Paterno does not need to leave college football to anybody...he is the worst ever...

[8timechamps]

Wouldn't it be strange if Joe Paterno said he wouldn't leave college football to the Barry Switzer's of the world, and in the end, he was worse?


Oh, wait...

[SoonerofAlabama]

paterNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....

[Herr Scholz]

He owes Barry Switzer an apology. And Jackie Sherrill.

[Soonerus]

He owes OU fans an apology, OU never approached PSU's indiscretions ....

[salth2o]

I think the abused kids and their families should be first on his list of "people to apologize to."

[Herr Scholz]

I think the abused kids and their families should be first on his list of "people to apologize to."
He'll be able to in civil court.

[Soonerus]

Tough cases...ok, easy millions...

[A Sooner in Texas]

He'll be able to in civil court.

And hopefully criminal court.

[soonerboy_odanorth]

He owes OU fans an apology, OU never approached PSU's indiscretions ....

Bull****. One football player shooting another, your star QB dealing coke, and dorm room gang rape by football players of a co-ed may not be in the same major league ballpark, but it's the same sport, and it's at least triple-A.

Barry got fired because he completely lost control. That is, he failed to lead.

That's exactly what Paterno is being fired for, either losing or giving up control and failing to lead.

At the same time, in hindsight, the OU administration that canned Switzer should be equally lauded for seizing control of the situation, as Penn State's board of trustees has been.

[Soonerus]

You are so misinformed and ****ed up....Switzer and OU have always been awesome ...

[soonerboy_odanorth]

FWIW, I think some people around here have forgotten how genuinely awful it was to be a Sooner in 1989.

OU was in that harsh spotlight just as prominently as Penn State is right now.

And don't think I am taking on the mantle of Penn State apologist. I hate Penn State. But I understand what their students, alumni, and fans are going through. It sucks.

[soonerboy_odanorth]

You are so misinformed and ****ed up....Switzer and OU have always been awesome ...

You're... mocking me. Aren't you...

http://images.wikia.com/pixar/images/f/f1/Large_toy_story_blu-ray4.jpg

[8timechamps]

Bull****. One football player shooting another, your star QB dealing coke, and dorm room gang rape by football players of a co-ed may not be in the same major league ballpark, but it's the same sport, and it's at least triple-A.

Barry got fired because he completely lost control. That is, he failed to lead.

That's exactly what Paterno is being fired for, either losing or giving up control and failing to lead.

At the same time, in hindsight, the OU administration that canned Switzer should be equally lauded for seizing control of the situation, as Penn State's board of trustees has been.

True, Switzer was fired for failing to lead (or loss of institutional control), however, Paterno's firing is because he knew of child rape happening at the hands of a staff member, and failed to do anything with that knowledge. I'm not trying to diminish any of the things that happened at the end of Barry's tenure, but to me, there is a marked difference between being unable to control your players, and being unable to control your coaches.

Nonetheless, I don't want an apology from JoPa. We're doing just fine now.

[Soonerus]

Nobody has ever been as bad as Penn State....

[BASSooner]

Lets look at what happend this year.

Jim Tressel lies about players receiving improper benefits. Is fired later on.

Miami gets busted by the $900 million ponzi scheme which the bulk of them were going to recruits and players for free boat rides, watches, blings, drugs, and prostitutes.

To think that was the worst scandal in history, this PSU scandal comes about. All within a year.

[Frozen Sooner]

He owes Barry Switzer an apology. And Jackie Sherrill.

He did apologize to Switzer.

[EatLeadCommie]

I'm just thinking that somewhere Mike Leach is even more POed that he was fired for the BS he was fired for (which we all now know was nothing). People on ESPN actually DEBATED whether JoePa needed to go.

[Sooner74]

I'm thinking the Statute of Limitations is up. Very little will be able to be brought against Paterno et al barring that something happened more recently.

[BajaOklahoma]

IMO, what went on at OU at the end of Switzer's reign and what went on under Paterno's watch are entirely different.
At OU, the players made their choice on what actions to take - horribly wrong choices. Switzer and the OU staff didn't raise the players to make those choices, but they didn't do enough to monitor the players and intervene.
At Penn State, children were raped and assaulted by a staff member. The children had no choice in whether to participate. The Penn State staff (some of them anyway) were aware of it and didn't do anything/not enough to stop it.
Both situations have forever impacted the lives of those involved.

[AlbqSooner]

Paterno did apologize to Barry for that remark. He also made it a point to apologize later during an interview with a national sportwriter. I despise Paterno for these recent incidents, but I respect that, upon meeting Barry he went out of his way to say that he would be proud to leave college football to the Barry Switzers of the world. He never mentioned Jackie Sherrill in retracting his previous statement.

[WileyCoyote]

Bull****. One football player shooting another, your star QB dealing coke, and dorm room gang rape by football players of a co-ed may not be in the same major league ballpark, but it's the same sport, and it's at least triple-A.

Barry got fired because he completely lost control. That is, he failed to lead.

That's exactly what Paterno is being fired for, either losing or giving up control and failing to lead.

At the same time, in hindsight, the OU administration that canned Switzer should be equally lauded for seizing control of the situation, as Penn State's board of trustees has been.

^^ Yeah, that was a difficult time for us to say the least. But it pales when put up against multiple child molestations, staff members, sweeping it under the rug negligence, etc etc etc....and it aint over yet.

As for lauding anybody on "seizing" control of the situation. I dont see where that was a difficult decision. The decision had essentially been made by the circumstances and the nature of the events. Old Joe had to go, pronto. No IFS ANDS or BUTS about it.

It will probably be Nebraska's luck that some DA at PSU informs them that, given the events, they will be assigned the Home Team locker room showers for this game.