Ohio State's Greg Schiano Should Be Fired. Today. [OPINION]

By: Will Burchfield
@burchie_kid

Newly-released testimony unsealed by a Philadelphia court on Tuesday revealed that Greg Schiano, former assistant coach at Penn State and current defensive coordinator at Ohio State, knew of Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing boys.

The testimony, given by ex-Penn State assistant Mike McQueary, also named Tom Bradley as being aware of Sandusky's misconduct. Bradley spent 37 years at Penn State as a player and a coach, and currently serves as the defensive coordinator for UCLA.

It was McQueary's claim of seeing Sandusky molesting a boy in the showers in 2001 that really set the Penn State investigation into motion. In his most recent deposition, McQueary explained that when he reported the incident to Bradley, Bradley replied, matter-of-factly, that Schiano had witnessed a similar thing many years prior.

"[Bradley] said another assistant coach had come to him in the early '90s about a very similar situation to mine, and he said that he had – someone had come to him as far back as early as the '80s about seeing Jerry Sandusky doing something with a boy," McQueary said.

Asked if Bradley identified the other coaches who had given him that information, McQueary confirmed that in the case of the early '90s account, it was Greg Schiano.

Elaborating on what Bradley had told him, McQueary said, "I can't remember if it was one night or one morning, but that Greg had come into his office white as a ghost and said he just saw Jerry doing something to a boy in the shower. And that's it. That's all he ever told me."

From there, it appears the damning information was swept under the rug. Bradley, as far as records show, never alerted the proper authorities, while Schiano seemingly left things in the hands of Bradley.

In light of that, both Schiano and Bradley should be removed from their jobs immediately.

It isn't enough to merely follow the chain of command. Though Schiano was right to report the incident to Bradley, he was utterly wrong to not follow up. When it became clear to him that Bradley wasn't going to act on the information, Schiano should have gone directly to the police. In fact, he should have gone to them from the start.

Think about what he had seen. Consider what he allowed to continue by keeping mum. Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse. Though it's hard to know how many of those incidents could have been avoided had Schiano spoken up, it bears mention that the eight victims who testified in June 2012 spoke to molestations that occurred in the late '90s and later.

Years removed from Sandusky's abuse, those boys are still wracked with anxiety, tortured by insecurities. Their lives will never be the same. It wasn't just physical abuse that Schiano could have saved them from, but psychological devastation. They will forever pay for his reticence.

In response to McQueary's testimony, Schiano denied having any knowledge of the scandal. Per Adam Schefter:

That's what you would expect Schiano to say. But if McQueary is to be believed, then Schiano is lying.

That would hardly be his darkest sin.