Firings not over at Penn State: Sports expert

Just 12 hours after legendary football coach Joe Paterno announced he would retire because of the child sex abuse charges against his former top assistant, Penn State University fired him, along with the school's president. The late-night decision sparked an angry protest by thousands of Penn State students.

Complete coverage: The Penn State Scandal

But according to Jon Wertheim, senior writer of Sports Illustrated magazine, this isn't the end of the Penn State firings.

"Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge said, "Looks like the board (of trustees) is trying to clean house here, (with) everyone associated with the scandal basically told to leave immediately. Are more firings on the way -- Mike McQueary, by the way, who is still an assistant with the team?"

Wertheim responded, "Yeah. I don't think we are done with it yet. I don't think the investigation is over by any stretch. That was one surprise from yesterday -- that Mike McQueary who was once a grad assistant, (and is) now a full assistant coach, wasn't fired along with the university president and Paterno. I thought that was interesting, and a lot of other people did, too. I think there's still more to come here. We have lost four high-ranking officials. Who knows who is coming next?"

Former Penn State star: Paterno will be ousted

The university, Wertheim said, didn't really have a choice in firing Paterno.

Sports Illustrated reports Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly has said that her office won't file charges against Paterno for not reporting the alleged child sexual abuse by former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

However, the magazine adds that Paterno could eventually face criminal charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and violating the state's Child Protective Services Law. The publication reports, "Paterno could also become a defendant in civil lawsuits filed by Sandusky's alleged victims. Those lawsuits could allege that Paterno negligently failed to prevent a third party with whom he had a supervisory relationship (Sandusky) from committing abuse."

Wertheim said on "The Early Show," "This has gotten to a point where, as more people parsed apart this grand jury testimony and as public sentiment really swayed against Paterno, some ham-fisted damage control, I think pretty early on, well before yesterday, it became clear where this was heading. And Joe Paterno's statements to the contrary, I think the board had little choice but to make the choice they did last night."

As for Paterno's statement Wednesday that he'd planned to retire at the end of the semester, Werheim said it was wishful thinking.

"You can sense a real rift here very early between the university's agenda and Joe Paterno's agenda. Paterno hired his own (public relations team). And you can sort of see this gulf. And absolutely, yesterday was this preemptive strike by Paterno, but clearly the board disregarded that."

The university's decision was not welcomed by everyone -- including many students on campus, Wertheim said. He described the scene on-campus in State College, Pa., following Paterno's firing as a "mini-riot."

"A couple of thousand college students (were) sort of taking over the downtown," he said. "This has nothing to do with the allegations, this has nothing to do with the university losing its president. This was all an impromptu rally for Joe Paterno. And some of it was just college kids expressing their frustration. Some took it a lot more seriously. One girl said, 'Look, I have never lost my grandparents. This is as much grief as I have ever felt.' It got a little scary at times. They overturned a news truck. But they really took to the streets."