A Twitter timeline as the story of JoePa being fired unfolded

November 9th – 8:18 p.m.

I walk in the door after celebrating my friend Shaunna’s
birthday. Throw my purse on a bar stool and dump my coffee
mug from that morning in the sink. Halfway through a
chocolate cupcake from the b-day bash, my Droid beeps with
a text:

“ESPN News – Joe Paterno has been fired as Penn State
football coach; school president Graham Spanier
dismissed.”

I better hop on Twitter to get the whole story.

Cardinals kicker Jay Feely had some of the first tweets
I
see. Clearly he felt very strongly that the firing was the
right decision. He started calling out other players, like
Falcons’ wide receiver Roddy White, who disagreed:

“Roddy would you say the same thing if it were your son
raped??? RT @roddywhiteTV Joe Pa has done so
much for that
school this is wrong”

More from Feely, when asked by
@vmads94: “what about
Mike McQueary? He saw it happening. How do you not stop
that. What man walks away from that” Feely replied by
calling McQuery “A coward.”

Cardinals safety Hamza Abdullah didn’t tweet much during
the evening but one tweet seemed to be a constant theme:
@hamzaAbdullah21 “This is bigger
than Football!”

Ochocinco: “Touchy subject but i
thought they’d let him
finish the season out at least. RT
@ScottyClaggett:
@ochocinco Thoughts on JoePa?”

Tweeters were not happy about this one from Chad
Ochocinco, lots of responses included profanities. Chad
deleted this tweet before the end of the night.

This one totally caught me off guard,
Ashton Kutcher
expressing distaste for the firing: “@aplusk: How do
you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find
it in poor taste”

Fifty minutes later he recants, tweeting, “Heard Joe
was fired, fully recant previous tweet! Didn’t have full
story. #admitwhenYoumakemistakes”

Really Ashton? Think they fired him because his team is 8-
1? I call BS on you Mr. Kutcher. He took Ochocinco’s lead
and deleted the initial tweet within a few hours.

This
story tweeted by Stewart Mandel includes an
interview with one of the victim’s sister who still
attends Penn State. She talks about her “mixed feelings”
about the student rallies, and how she blames Penn State
president Graham Spanier.

Ty Walker works at the Ticket in Dallas,
@tywalkerticket “PSU ComRadio had
one of their people
relaying on air the rumor that seniors could sit out
Saturday in protest.”

I believe the best thing is for the Penn State team to
play football on Saturday, a player protest will only
cause more trouble. There are eight victims listed in the
Grand Jury Presentment. I would call for 8 minutes of
silence for the victims and their families before kickoff.

Here’s
a link to that 23 page disgusting grand jury
presentment, obviously it includes every graphic detail
[WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC MATERIAL].

Twitpic of overturned media van
from SI’s Jon Wertheim. I’d like to think students were
just gathering to cause a fuss, not because they truly
comprehended the magnitude of the situation.

Joe Schad @schadjoe “Paterno received at his
home an
envelope from a messenger with a # to call 15 minutes b/f
BOT announcement”

It’s a crappy way to do it, but I don’t really care how
they fired him. The victims didn’t get a 15 minute
notice.

“@schadjoe: Paterno is said to have been told of
fondling, touching or horseplay but not sodomy or rape”

I think the Joe Pa supporters will cling to this one for a
few a days. Just to be clear to my friends, family, co-
workers and anyone in position of authority: if I’m being
raped, fondled or touched inappropriately, and someone at
my office sees it, or has the incident reported to them, I
want you to call the police. Immediately. And should you
be able to intervene and stop the behavior, I want you to
do that too. Please do more than your legal obligation.

On my timeline, the most retweeted of the night was Daniel
Tosh @danieltosh: “if you feel bad for
joe paterno it’s
because you are an awful person.”

One thing I still want to know: how did his wife not know?

Some of the abuse took place in her home, and on family
vacations.

And what about his eight adopted children who
are now grown adults?

I’m saddened to think how much more
of this story will be revealed.

I pray for support, unconditional love, healing and
therapy for the victims and their families. I pray that as
a society we take the time to educate ourselves on these
sick and unspoken situations. I hope our coaches,
teachers, parents, managers, babysitters and neighbors
now understand the importance and significance of the
moral obligation we have to those who cannot protect
themselves. I hope through this tragedy we find
conversation and education about child abuse.

The most disturbing realization of the night: Jerry
Sandusky is out on $100,000 unsecured bail, which means
he doesn’t have to pay the bail money if he shows up for
his court date in December.

Do you think he was at home
watching this whole thing play out?

Follow @Tyler_Bassett