you can go to our blog and make a comment at ed.msnbc.com. we ll bring you the results later on in the show. lots of opinions and lots of hard feelings surrounding all of this and a tremendous amount of sadness. joining me on the phone is nfl hall of famer franco harris and former player for joe paterno. he is now the chairman of the pittsburgh promise, an education charity. mr. harris, good to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. and i certainly understand your loyalty to coach paterno. nice to be on nice to be on your show. i m a big fan. thank you, sir. do you think that joe paterno should still be the head football coach of penn state? and tell us why you think that. not a question. i think the firing was overreaction by the board. i m very disappointed in the board. and when joe paterno needed to have someone support him and have his back, they let him
the problem i think is issues of sovereign immunity. penn state may benefit from pennsylvania s sovereign immunity statute. we have to break down exactly how many incidents there were with particular children. number two, it brings up personal liability and joe paterno s personal liability. he s done very well as the coach of penn state. however, that brings up another thorny issue which is the employee of the state school is individually liable for criminal acts or individually willful acts. if he acted negligently, it s under his employer. he s contacted a lawyer here. are there civil considerations? that s actually what i m talking about is civil considerations here. so he can be sued civilly but he s going to have protection of his employer. remember, they re going to come at it two ways.
many ways the unpredictable achievement of amateurs out there playing their hearts out, and now tonight college football in this country, as a subjects has suddenly become about something el. how did we get to this? well, you know, the bottom line is football takes a back seat here. this is not about football. this is about the victims, the kids that were taken advantage of, and an institution that needs to monitor what is going on more closely. that is what this is about. it happens to be the football department that it surrounds, and initiated in, but overall, it is the university and right now, they are doing a lot of putting out fires and trying to move forward and put it behind them by getting a fresh start. doug, we have breaking news tonight, mike mcquery who went to joe paterno after witnessing
achievement of amateurs out there playing their hearts out, and now tonight college football in this country, as a subjects has suddenly become about something el. how did we get to this? well, you know, the bottom line is football takes a back seat here. this is not about football. this is about the victims, the kids that were taken advantage of, and an institution that needs to monitor what is going on more closely. that is what this is about. it happens to be the football department that it surrounds, and initiated in, but overall, it is the university and right now, they are doing a lot of putting out fires and trying to move forward and put it behind them by getting a fresh start. doug, we have breaking news tonight, mike mcquery who went to joe paterno after witnessing
thanks, and pray over those victims. coach, coach i love penn state. that was penn state football coach joe paterno late last night after learning he d been fired after 46 seasons. paterno s former assistant coach jerry sandusky is charged with sexual assault over eight boys over a 15-year period. minutes after the announcement last night of the firing of coach paterno and the university president graham spanier, police say that 5,000 people descended on the nearby town of state college and the crowd turned violent turning cars upside down and tearing down poles and as this video shows toppling tv vans. the police moved in with pepper spray, and the rioter s wis wite