Wednesday night, about a quarter after 9 o’clock, I checked deadspin.com and saw the headline that instantly sent a wave of astonishment over me: Joe Paterno’s Coaching Career Is Over.

These are words that many college football fans thought would never be said regarding Paterno and his tenure as head coach with the Nittany Lions.

After all, it seemed so evident Penn State was going to let Paterno ride out into the sunset and finish his 45-year coaching career with some pride, or whatever was left, and then fade to black.

This would not be the case, and I, for one, couldn’t be more pleased with Penn State’s Board of Trustees’ decision.

Now, there will be fans running to his defense, but I dare those who might defend Paterno to read the entire 23-page grand jury report on the the scandal, if they haven’t already.

It’s littered with horrific graphic details that recall what former Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky is being accused of doing to multiple young boys.

And, more importantly, what many so-called “men” failed to come forth and report.

To some, the initial reaction to this whole tragedy was Paterno had nothing to do with it. After all, many thought, “It’s Joe Pa, he could never allow something like this to happen on his own watch.”

As more details and supposed victims come forward, lies and appalling incidents will have and will continue to break this levee of malicious nature.

Tuesday evening, Paterno slowly strolled out of his house and addressed a mob of Penn State students. He implied he was pleased to see them supporting their school, and the crowd responded with roars of, “Let Joe stay.”

It’s simply despicable, especially from a student body that appears to be naive of what’s happening on its own campus.

For a man that has been coaching for nearly 50 years at the same university, and with the amount of authority and power he had, all Paterno had to do was make a phone call to the proper authorities.

Instead, he did nothing.

Some will say this shouldn’t tarnish Paterno’s coaching career, but in reality, how can it not?

How can all the lives he supposedly shaped and shifted through his teachings on the field outweigh the fact he neglected to intervene in the sadistic and gluttonous acts this monster he called his friend and colleague did?

In my opinion, one action needs to be taken into order by the NCAA: Death penalty.

This, of course, to those of you who think I’m asking for blood, isn’t what I’m actually calling for.

The death penalty is an action the NCAA can take to ban a school from participating in a sport for at least a year.

And, more importantly, heads will and have rolled right out of University Park, Pa.

However, a year simply isn’t enough for a program and institution filled with so-called “good men” who didn’t even have the decency to stand up and say something about these repulsive acts.

I didn’t think the Penn State bigwigs had it in them.

This certainly will not bring complete justice to those victims, but there has to have been some satisfaction for them and their families knowing someone said something – a stance that Paterno and other Penn State members couldn’t take, which made them all cowards.