Joe Paterno, Dead at 85

[KrauserKrauser]

Link to Story

Joe Paterno Jr., whose glittering career as Penn State's football coach was tainted by a child sex-abuse scandal, died today. He was 85.

"It is with great sadness that we announce that Joe Paterno passed away earlier today. His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled," Paterno's family said in a statement.

Paterno coached the Nittany Lions for 46 years and in 2011 became the winningest coach in Division 1 football. But before the season was over, he was abruptly dismissed as the sex scandal involving former assistant Jerry Sandusky suggested that top school officials had ignored signs of Sandusky's alleged predatory behavior.

Shortly after his dismissal, Paterno was diagnosed with lung cancer and broke his hip. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments weakened him, robbing him of his hair and his once-booming voice.

In a recent interview with the Washington Post, he appeared frail, wearing a wig and speaking in a whisper. He canceled public appearances after the interview because of his failing health, according to family members.

For Paterno's legion of fans, who referred to the coach affectionately as "JoePa," the turbulent final months of Paterno's life were a tragic end to an outstanding coaching career that was built around his motto of "success with honor."

Saturday night, Paterno's wife, Suzanne Paterno, summoned close friends and longtime staff members Saturday afternoon to the State College hospital where Paterno has been undergoing treatments since last weekend, a source told the Citizen's Voice newspaper of Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Paterno wanted to see them and say a final goodbye, the coach's wife told one of the staff members, the source said.

Hundreds of students gathered around the bronze statue of Paterno on the Penn State campus Saturday night, praying for Paterno's recovery, lighting candles and placing blue and white baseball hats at the foot of the statue.

Paterno's personal life included service in the Army, an English degree from Brown University, a marriage that lasted more than half a century, and a football team's worth of children and grandchildren.

"He died as he lived. He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been. His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family, his university, his players and his community," Paterno's family said in a statement.

While at Penn State's helm, Paterno, who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., led the Nittany Lions to seven undefeated seasons and two NCAA championships, had only five losing seasons, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2007, and was nominated for a Presidential Medal of Freedom. The nomination was revoked, however, after the scandal broke.

Penn State Great Joe Paterno Dead at 85

Paterno was known for his "Grand Experiment" at the university, stressing academic success as well as athletic achievement for his players.

"Just winning is a silly reason to be serious about a game," Paterno wrote in his 1997 book, "Paterno: By the Book." "The purpose of college football is to serve education."

During his tenure, the reputation of Penn State grew from that of a small land-grant university to a nationally ranked research university. The football program ballooned in prestige, with the school's Beaver Stadium expanding six times during his tenure.

Paterno's football program consistently ranked among the top in the NCAA for graduation rates, as well as the top grade point averages for student athletes in Division 1 sports. The achievements helped illustrate Paterno's philosophy on collegiate sports and on life, as he said in a 1973 commencement speech to Penn State graduates, that "Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger but it won't taste good."

And despite offers from other universities and NFL football teams, including an ownership stake in the New England Patriots, Paterno remained at Penn State, where his base pay was only a fraction of that of other top football coaches in the country. His base pay in 2011 was a little less than $600,000. He and his wife, Sue, donated more than $4 million to the university, which named a library and a campus spirituality center for them.

Paterno was also involved in politics, supporting conservative candidates in Pennsylvania and befriending presidents George H.W. Bush and Gerald R. Ford, who tried but failed to convince the coach to run for office.

Paterno spoke at the 1988 Republican convention in support of Bush.

Bush's son, President George W. Bush, visited Penn State's campus in 2005, noting his respect for Paterno.

"I tell you one thing about Joe Paterno, there's no more decent fellow on the face of the Earth," Bush said. "What a man, who sets high standards, he loves his family, he loves this university, he loves his country, and my mother and dad love him."

Joe Paterno Leaves Football Legacy

Although he was the most well-known person on Penn State's campus in State College, Paterno was also seen as a picture of humility. Students at Penn State knew that Coach Paterno lived nearby in a modest ranch home he bought for $9,000, and walked from his house to each home football game. He and his wife remained listed in the public phone book, and his children went to the town's public school.

At his direction, the team wore simple uniforms, donning blue jerseys without names and simple white helmets without logos, and plain high-top black shoes. The austere style reflected that of the coach, who wore to nearly every game the same thick-framed black glasses, rolled-up pant legs and white athletic socks.

But Paterno's reputation was called into question in November 2011 when allegations of child sex-abuse surfaced against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. A grand jury presentment detailed an incident that took place in 2002 in the Penn State football complex, in which an assistant coach allegedly saw Sandusky in a shower, naked, with a young boy, in a position that seemed sexual.

The assistant, Mike McQueary, testified to a Pennsylvania grand jury that he reported what he saw to Paterno, who in turn told his superiors. No one called the police.

Paterno was accused of doing too little to ensure the safety of children on campus, although he was not legally bound to call the police.

Penn State Mourns Joe Paterno's Death

In his last interview before his death, Paterno told the Washington Post that he wished he had done more when faced with the allegations against Sandusky.

"I didn't know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was," he said. "So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn't work out that way."

Paterno was fired by the Penn State Board of Trustees during the week after the scandal broke, three games before the end of the 2011 season and six weeks before his head coaching contract expired. The board said Paterno's ability to lead had been "compromised."

In the wake of the scandal, Pennsylvania's senators withdrew their support for his nomination for a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Paterno's name was removed from the Big Ten Conference championship trophy.

During his induction into the Hall of Fame in 2007, Paterno expressed joy at a career spent coaching football.

"How good has it been? What we share in football; there's never been a greater game. We've been involved in the greatest game, the greatest experience anybody could hope for. Great teammates. Guys you could trust. Guys you loved. Guys you would go to war with tomorrow. We're so lucky. We're so lucky," he said.

Paterno is survived by his wife, Suzanne Paterno, their children, Diana, Joseph Jr. "Jay", Mary Kay, David and Scott, all of whom are Penn State graduates, and 17 grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family requests that donations be made to the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania or the Penn State-THON (The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon).

Won't speak ill of the dead but he definitely won't get the send off he would have if this had happened a year ago.

[Flagg]

Won't speak ill of the dead

I will. Hope the son of a bitch's last painful thoughts were of the children's lives he enabled ruining. Of course they almost certainly weren't.

[Alferd Packer]

While I didn't think he would die this quickly, I did think he'd only last about six months after his firing. I guess the lung cancer was more advanced than was initially let on.

[Thanas]

Well, nothing to mourn here but nothing to celebrate either. The whole situation at Penn State is so freaking horrible...what a culture of cowardice and hiding he fostered.

[FSTargetDrone]

While I didn't think he would die this quickly, I did think he'd only last about six months after his firing. I guess the lung cancer was more advanced than was initially let on.

The chemotherapy itself may well have exacerbated things, as the article suggests.

By the way, I thought about mentioning it some time ago (though I neglected to) but here is what became his last interview that he gave to The Washington Post concerning the scandal as well as other things.

Joe Paterno’s last interview

By Sally Jenkins, Published: January 14 2012

STATE COLLEGE, PA. — Joe Paterno sat in a wheelchair at the family kitchen table where he has eaten, prayed and argued for more than a half­century. All around him family members were shouting at each other, yet he was whispering. His voice sounded like wind blowing across a field of winter stalks, rattling the husks. Lung cancer has robbed him of the breath to say all that he wants to about the scandal he still struggles to comprehend, and which ended his career as head football coach at Penn State University. The words come like gusts. “I wanted to build up, not break down,” he said.

Crowded around the table were his three voluble sons, Scott, Jay, David, daughter Mary Kay, and his wife of 50 years, Sue, all chattering at once. In the middle of the table a Lazy Susan loaded with trays of cornbread and mashed potatoes spun by, swirling fast as the arguments. “If you go hungry, it’s your own fault,” Paterno likes to say. But Paterno, 85, could not eat. He sipped Pepsi over crushed ice from a cup. Once, it would have been bourbon. His hand showed a tremor, and a wig replaced his once-fine head of black hair.

Paterno’s hope is that time will be his ally when it comes to judging what he built, versus what broke down. “I’m not 31 years old trying to prove something to anybody,” he said. “I know where I am.” This is where he is: wracked by radiation and chemotherapy, in a wheelchair with a broken pelvis, and “shocked and saddened” as he struggles to explain a breakdown of devastating proportions. Jerry Sandusky, his former assistant coach at Penn State from 1969 to 1999, is charged with more than 50 counts of sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period. He maintains his innocence. If Sandusky is guilty, “I’m sick about it,” Paterno said.

How Sandusky, 67, allegedly evaded detection by state child services, university administrators, teachers, parents, donors and Paterno himself remains an open question. “I wish I knew,” Paterno said. “I don’t know the answer to that. It’s hard.” Almost as difficult for Paterno to answer is the question of why, after receiving a report in 2002 that Sandusky had abused a boy in the shower of Penn State’s Lasch Football Building, and forwarding it to his superiors, he didn’t follow up more aggressively.

“I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was,” he said. “So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn’t work out that way.”

Former athletic director Tim Curley and school vice president Gary Schultz face charges of perjury and failing to report suspected child abuse, based on their inaction. They have pleaded not guilty. Though he is not charged with a crime, Penn State president Graham Spanier was fired on Nov. 9, along with Paterno.

Paterno is accused of no wrongdoing, and in fact authorities have said he fulfilled his legal obligations by reporting to his superiors. Nevertheless, the university Board of Trustees summarily dismissed him with a late-night phone call four days after Sandusky’s arrest. At about 10 p.m., Paterno and Sue were getting ready for bed when the doorbell rang. An assistant athletic director was at the door, and wordlessly handed Sue a slip of paper. There was nothing on it but the name of the vice chairman of trustees, John Surma, with a phone number. They stood frozen by the bedside in their nightclothes, Sue in a robe and Paterno in pajamas and a Penn State sweatshirt. Paterno dialed the number.

Surma told Paterno, “In the best interests of the university, you are terminated.” Paterno hung up and repeated the words to his wife. She grabbed the phone and redialed.

“After 61 years he deserved better,” she snapped. “He deserved better.”

The firing provoked a riot on campus that night.

To Penn State students, Paterno was less a person than a beloved monument. He had arrived at a “cow college” in 1950 as an assistant coach armed with a flathead haircut, a Brooklyn accent and a degree from Brown. As the head coach from 1966 on, he struck an austerely iconic pose, managing to be both fierce and bookish, with his black cleats and his thick black-framed glasses. To his rivals, he was a holier-than-thou prig who intimated he was more principled than they were.

Under his leadership Penn State football became a kind of gross national product as he won more games than any other coach in history, yet regularly posted high graduation rates — his team was ranked No.1 academically out of the top 25 football teams in 2009 and 2011 by the New America Foundation’s Academic Bowl Championship Series. The “cow college” grew into a public research university with $4.6 billion in revenue and buildings as large as airplane hangars. Beaver Stadium was renovated and enlarged six times during his tenure.

But after 61 years on the campus, Paterno cleared out his office in the space of one day. It was an end he was unprepared for. Yet it came with the realization that as the face of the university, people assign him greater responsibility than other officials.

“Whether it’s fair I don’t know, but they do it,” he said. “You would think I ran the show here.”

Over two separate conversations on Thursday and Friday, Paterno discussed his career and his actions relating to Sandusky. His attorney Wick Sollers of the Washington law firm King & Spalding, and a communications adviser, Dan McGinn of TMG Strategies, monitored the conversations, in part to be sure Paterno was lucid, since he has experienced fogginess from his chemo treatments, one of which he underwent the day before the first interview.

Since the scandal broke, Paterno has been largely silent while dealing with his health issues, despite scathing criticism that included accusations that he protected Sandusky and wielded more power in the cloistered community known as Happy Valley than the university president.

Paterno was initially reluctant to speak because “I wanted everybody to settle down,” he said. But he is so eager to defend his record that he insisted on continuing the interview from his bedside Friday morning, though ill. He was hospitalized for observation later in the day due to complications from the chemo but, according to the family, had improved by Saturday morning.

Mostly he sat in his wheelchair covered by a blanket, surrounded by pictures of his children and grandchildren, in the modest stone-and-plate-glass home he bought for $9,000 in 1966. The home, and the fact that his address and phone are still listed in the State College phone book, have oft been cited as evidence of his regular-Joe values. A good deal of what he earned has gone back to the university, in the form of donations to a library that bears his name and a campus spiritual center.

“My father said about money: ‘You have to have some. But you don’t have to have all of it. Just be honest with yourself.’ ”

He displays only a few mementos of his football career, jumbled in a glass case in a dark corner of his old study, a small, woody space. Most of the items in the case are personal souvenirs. Tucked in one corner is a card that says, “This marriage is interrupted for football season.” There are game balls, the most prominent one from Oct. 29, 2011, when the Nittany Lions defeated Illinois, 10-7, to make Paterno the winningest coach in the annals of major college football, with 409 victories.

Sandusky was arrested just a week later.

What Penn State officials knew about Sandusky and when is the subject of no fewer than five formal investigations. They range from state Attorney General Linda Kelly’s criminal investigation of Sandusky, to an NCAA inquiry, to Penn State’s in-house inquiry led by former FBI director Louis J. Freeh. The best-case scenario is that the institutional leaders were guilty of blindness, and an unfeeling self-absorption. The worst case is a criminal cover-up to protect a wealthy university’s reputation.

This is Paterno’s own account:

On a Saturday morning in 2002, an upset young assistant coach named Mike McQueary knocked on Paterno’s door to tell him he had witnessed a shocking scene in the Penn State football building showers. Until that moment, Paterno said, he had “no inkling” that Sandusky might be a sexual deviant. By then Sandusky was a former employee, with whom Paterno had little to do. Although Sandusky had been his close coaching associate and helped fashion Penn State defenses for three decades, their relationship was “professional, not social,” as Paterno described it. “He was a lot younger than me.” Sandusky had been out of the program for three years, and in fact, Paterno said he cannot recall the last time he had seen or spoken to Sandusky. “I can’t,” he said.

Sandusky retired in 1999, shortly after Penn State made the Alamo Bowl. The timing was curious. Paterno’s understanding was that Sandusky took early retirement on his recommendation after Paterno told him frankly that he would not become his successor. The state was offering 30-year employees a handsome buyout, and Paterno believed Sandusky should take it. Paterno was frustrated that Sandusky spent so much time working on his youth foundation, The Second Mile, that he was not available to help in recruiting and other coaching duties. Authorities now say Sandusky used Second Mile to meet and groom his alleged victims.

“He came to see me and we talked a little about his career,” Paterno said. “I said, you know, Jerry, you want to be head coach, you can’t do as much as you’re doing with the other operation. I said this job takes so much detail, and for you to think you can go off and get involved in fundraising and a lot of things like that. . . . I said you can’t do both, that’s basically what I told him.”

Paterno insists he was completely unaware of a 1998 police investigation into a report from a Second Mile mother that Sandusky had inappropriately touched her son in a shower. The inquiry ended when the local prosecutor declined to bring charges. “You know it wasn’t like it was something everybody in the building knew about,” Paterno said. “Nobody knew about it.”

Paterno contends that ignorance was the context with which he heard McQueary’s disturbing story in 2002. McQueary, sitting at Paterno’s kitchen table, told him that he had been at the football building late the evening before when he heard noises coming from the shower.

“He was very upset and I said why, and he was very reluctant to get into it,” Paterno said. “He told me what he saw, and I said, what? He said it, well, looked like inappropriate, or fondling, I’m not quite sure exactly how he put it. I said you did what you had to do. It’s my job now to figure out what we want to do. So I sat around. It was a Saturday. Waited till Sunday because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing. And then I called my superiors and I said: ‘Hey, we got a problem, I think. Would you guys look into it?’ Cause I didn’t know, you know. We never had, until that point, 58 years I think, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn’t feel adequate.”

At that point, Paterno set up a meeting for McQueary and Curley, the athletic director, and Schultz, who oversaw university police. McQueary has testified that he gave both men a far more graphic description of what he witnessed, which he believed to be Sandusky sodomizing a boy of about 10, who had his hands against the shower wall. At the preliminary hearing for Curley and Schultz on Dec. 16, McQueary said he had been reluctant to go into similar “great detail about sexual acts” with Paterno, out of respect for the coach, who was 75 at the time.

Schultz and Curley have maintained that McQueary failed to impart the seriousness of what he saw to them as well. They never told police about the allegation, instead informing Sandusky he could no longer bring children to university facilities. Prosecutors say Sandusky continued to abuse boys for six more years.

Paterno has said, “In hindsight, I wish I had done more.”

Paterno’s portrait of himself is of an old-world man profoundly confused by what McQueary told him, and who was hesitant to make follow-up calls because he did not want to be seen as trying to exert any influence for or against Sandusky. “I didn’t know which way to go,” he said. “And rather than get in there and make a mistake . . .”

He reiterated that McQueary was unclear with him about the nature of what he saw — and added that even if McQueary had been more graphic, he’s not sure he would have comprehended it.

“You know, he didn’t want to get specific,” Paterno said. “And to be frank with you I don’t know that it would have done any good, because I never heard of, of, rape and a man. So I just did what I thought was best. I talked to people that I thought would be, if there was a problem, that would be following up on it.”

Paterno declined to judge Sandusky, or his other Penn State colleagues. “I think we got to wait and see what happens,” he said. “The courts are taking care of it, the legal system is taking care of it.”

According to Sollers, the attorney, Paterno has no legal exposure in the Sandusky case. Paterno has cooperated fully with the investigation, and has “met on multiple occasions voluntarily” with representatives from the attorney general’s office, Sollers said. “In my judgment Coach Paterno has no legal liability in this matter. In fact, he acted completely appropriately in reporting the only allegation he received to his superiors and had every expectation that the allegation would be investigated thoroughly.”

Paterno has felt smaller repercussions.

His son Scott says Paterno has been “shunned” by many in the university, though he did hear from current Penn State President Rodney Erickson last week when he made a $100,000 donation to the school. His name has been removed from trophies. The Maxwell Football Club of Philadelphia has discontinued its Joseph V. Paterno Award, which was to be given to coaches who made a positive impact. A nomination for the Presidential Medal of Freedom was withdrawn.

But Joe Paterno is not the victim here, he reminds you.

“You know, I’m not as concerned about me,” he said. “What’s happened to me has been great. I got five great kids. Seventeen great grandchildren. I’ve had a wonderful experience here at Penn State. I don’t want to walk away from this thing bitter. I want to be helpful.”

The Paternos say they think about the real potential victims every time they look at their own children. “I got three boys and two girls,” Paterno said. “It’s sickening.” His knee-jerk response is to go back to Flatbush. “Violence is not the way to handle it,” he said. “But for me, I’d get a bunch of guys and say let’s go punch somebody in the nose.” Sue Paterno is more blunt. “If someone touched my child, there wouldn’t be a trial, I would have killed them,” she said. “That would be my attitude, because you have destroyed someone for life.”

She sighed. “It’s a bad scene for this happy valley.”

The Sandusky investigation has torn apart a cloistered town-and-gown community where everyone knows everyone — including Sandusky. Old friends cannot talk to each other because criminal trials are imminent. Recently Sue went to the funeral of Tim Curley’s mother. The Paternos have known John Surma for years — Paterno recruited his brother. Underneath the tension is the complicated knowledge that if Sandusky is guilty, he was as good at seducing the adults as he was the children.

If nothing else, the Paternos say, perhaps the Sandusky case will raise consciousness in other communities the way it has been raised in theirs. “We are going to become a more aware society,” Sue said. “Maybe we will look for clues.” She wonders what signs she missed all those years, when they felt so successful and sure of themselves.

“I had no clue,” she said. “I thought doctors looked for child abuse in a hospital, in a bruise or something.”

It remains to be seen, barring any new revelations, whether there will be a reappraisal of Paterno’s life and record at Penn State. Eventually, his family hopes, there will be healing and forgiveness in the community, and the outlines of the man they insist Paterno is, and not the monument or monumental target, will reemerge: A modest, decent, fundamentally devoted coach who always loved books more than money.

His starting salary was just $20,000. In 1972 the New England Patriots offered him $1.3 million to become coach and general manager. But at 5:30 a.m. on the day he intended fly to Boston to accept, Paterno woke up and realized it was mistake. He said to his wife: “You went to bed with a millionaire but you woke up with me. I’m not going.” He stayed at Penn State, though he was making just $35,000. In 2008 his salary of $1.03 million was still fractional compared to peers, some of whom now make $4 million.

Paterno’s record is not perfect. Anyone who won on his scale has an ungenerous competitive streak and nascent ego. His love for higher learning — he likes to name-drop Puccini and Virgil — could tip over into superiority. He could show a temper, as he did in 1995 when a camera caught him delivering a profane on-field tirade.

His football program was not immune to the problems of big-time college athletics. An ESPN inquiry found that from 2002 to 2007, 46 Penn State football players faced criminal charges. But he liked working with problem cases and turning them around. “Hotshots,” he still calls them today. The 2007 team had 19 players who earned Academic all-Big Ten honors. “The bigger the problem the guy was, the more I enjoyed it when we had success,” he said.

Over the course of his career, 47 of his players made Academic all-American, the third-highest total among institutions playing at the championship level.

He loved his work. “They were all days I looked forward to,” he said. His philosophy was simple. “My thing was play as hard as you can, don’t be stupid, pay attention to details, and have enough guts in the clutch that you’re not afraid to make a play,” he said. “Some things I thought were important for a young man to know.”

Early on, Paterno vowed that he would try to never lose perspective. In 1968 he said: “We’re trying to win football games, don’t misunderstand that. But I don’t want it to ruin our lives if we lose. I don’t want us ever to become the kind of place where an 8-2 season is a tragedy.”

Asked if he succeeded in keeping the vow, he said: “I stayed on the track I wanted to stay on. I don’t think I deviated from what I’m all about and what I thought was important. Whether you want to call that a legacy, or whatever you want to call it.”

These are the things Paterno would prefer to reminisce about. Instead, he is tying up the loose ends of the abrupt end to his career. There are mounds of mail to deal with, 12,000 letters (his grandchildren counted them). Former Penn State running back Franco Harris, the Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Famer, checks in regularly and is leading a furious campaign to depose the Board of Trustees for their handling of the scandal and Paterno’s dismissal. Paterno tries to play peacemaker, although he admits his first reaction was, “Raise hell.” There are still details to work out with the school, because he remains a tenured professor. On Jan. 2 the university sent him a retirement letter.

“Right now I’m trying to figure out what I’m gonna do,” he said. “Cause I don’t want to sit around on my backside all day.” He grins and there is a light behind his glasses. “If I’m gonna do that I’ll be a newspaper reporter.”

Nevertheless, sitting is mostly what he does, surrounded by the photographs that have accrued on the walls for almost a half-century. They provoke memories. His father, Angelo, studying late at a kitchen table to become a court clerk, impressing on him the open-endedness of learning. His deep pride at being admitted to Ivy League schools, followed by chagrin when he visited Princeton and no one in the eating clubs would speak to him. “Bunch of stuffed shirts,” he said. His wound when frat boys at Brown frowned at him for wearing sweaters instead of tweeds and said, “How did that dago get invited?” His mother, when he called to tell her that he was finally ready to wed at 34, to a young woman he had met, of course, in the library.

“I’m getting married.”

“To who?”

“Susie. You know Susie.”

“That big German girl?”

“Yes, Ma, she’s German.”

“What the hell are you gonna eat?”

The big German girl is in fact slender as a schoolgirl and still has world-class cheekbones at 75. She tends to Paterno gently, ushering him from kitchen table to bedroom and back again, clasping his hand when it trembles. “Speak up,” Sue tells him. Paterno smiles and rasps, “Ordinarily she tells me to shut up.”

Every little while, Sue pulls a picture from a wall and shows it to Paterno or shares it with one of his many visitors. They are invariably photos of children, of sons and daughters and grandchildren. The children are captured in time and they are all beautiful. They are new, unmarked, angel-faced, radiant. These are the images the Paternos cling to, through all the levels of distortion, the press maelstrom, the impending trials, the grotesqueries described on witness stands. Whenever someone in her family loses their emotional way, and sits at the kitchen table weeping for something that’s been lost or torn down, Sue holds a frame out to them and shows them a photograph of unspoiled familial innocence.

“Look at this picture,” she tells them. “This is who we are. And no one can take us from us.”

A final comment I'll make about the man... It is inconceivable to me that he was this naive about this kind of rape: "...I never heard of, of, rape and a man." He may not have been a particularly worldly man, but no one can be this out of touch. He was a Catholic and doubtless heard about that Church's various scandals, priests assaulting children (particularly boys). He came across as someone simply ignorant of the very concept of an adult male sodomizing a child, if that was indeed he meant by that comment. And the behavior of the others who pussy-footed around him, sparing him from hearing the very word "rape" or whatever the hell else they avoided uttering to his face as to not upset him, out of "respect" for him. Garbage. I simply do not believe he was that unimaginative. I'd believe he was suffering from dementia before the other possibility.

[Sephirius]

A final comment I'll make about the man... It is inconceivable to me that he was this naive about this kind of rape: "...I never heard of, of, rape and a man." He may not have been a particularly worldly man, but no one can be this out of touch. *snip*

I think he may have actually been referring to what the whistleblower told him; as we all know McQueary didn't really tell him as much as he told the two higher-ups. While Paterno's lack of follow-up is perhaps a lapse of moral judgement, recall that he did live up to his legal obligations and treating him as an 'enabler' of the whole thing I think is quite unfair to him, considering the benefit we have of hindsight.

[Lost Soal]

Expect fireworks of some form, Westboro Baptist Church Plans To Protest the funeral.
Religious fundies v Football fundies.
Place Bets NOW!!

[Thanas]

He should have asked then. If somebody tells you he saw something inappropriate between a man and a child, isn't your first instinct in these days of church, teacher and other authority figure scandals to go "Uh-oh. Hope to god it is not child abuse". He should have asked more about it then and he did not.

And for all the crowing about his academic achievements bla bla bla, well we have all seen the emails about how he pressured the school not to discipline players who broke into an appartment to beat up people with beer bottles and how he took especially care of not reporting this to authorities, fearing damage to the reputation of his team.

A big fraud and hypocrite who died in disgrace.

[Thanas]

Expect fireworks of some form, Westboro Baptist Church Plans To Protest the funeral.
Religious fundies v Football fundies.
Place Bets NOW!!

How about you STFU while the adults are talking in this thread.

[Terralthra]

And for all the crowing about his academic achievements bla bla bla, well we have all seen the emails about how he pressured the school not to discipline players who broke into an appartment to beat up people with beer bottles and how he took especially care of not reporting this to authorities, fearing damage to the reputation of his team.

No, we haven't all seen that. Have a link?

[Sephirius]

And for all the crowing about his academic achievements bla bla bla, well we have all seen the emails about how he pressured the school not to discipline players who broke into an appartment to beat up people with beer bottles and how he took especially care of not reporting this to authorities, fearing damage to the reputation of his team.

No, we haven't all seen that. Have a link?

Paterno liked to keep things handled within the team when possible, this much is true, however I doubt it was for prestige but rather more to try and turn around the miscreants into productive members of the team and society- there's an interview to this effect from a few years ago when this came up, iirc. He felt that if he involved the school and the law, then there would be no way he could work with the 'problem player' to turn them off that path.

[Zaune]

I think he may have actually been referring to what the whistleblower told him; as we all know McQueary didn't really tell him as much as he told the two higher-ups. While Paterno's lack of follow-up is perhaps a lapse of moral judgement, recall that he did live up to his legal obligations and treating him as an 'enabler' of the whole thing I think is quite unfair to him, considering the benefit we have of hindsight.

I can't really fault him for being wary of raising the alarm based on one man's unsupported word, at least if he really was unaware of any other allegations. Reading between the lines, Sandusky doesn't seem to have been in especially good standing with the college even before the scandal broke, neglecting his official duties to run that Second Mile organisation before taking early retirement; Palermo would have had to at least consider the possibility of someone trying to settle an old score with a false accusation.

[Broomstick]

Well, nothing to mourn here but nothing to celebrate either. The whole situation at Penn State is so freaking horrible...what a culture of cowardice and hiding he fostered.

I mourn that the good he did in encouraging kids who got into college based on athletics to excel in academics and get a meaningful degree was tainted by the moral and ethical failings of both himself and his staff.

[Thanas]

No, we haven't all seen that. Have a link?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 61402.html

[...]
Just before she arrived, Penn State faced an episode in which Mr. Paterno had decided to let cornerback Anwar Phillips play in a bowl game, even though he had been charged with sexually assaulting a woman and had been temporarily expelled from school.[...]


In the spring of 2005, Dr. Triponey's office suspended Penn State offensive lineman E.Z. Smith and a teammate for the summer after they were caught shooting arrows through an off-campus apartment wall, according to news reports at the time. In an email that August to Dr. Triponey, Penn State athletic director Curley said that Mr. Paterno was "frustrated" because Mr. Smith couldn't participate in preseason practice.

In August 2005, Mr. Spanier, the university president, suggested that Dr. Triponey meet with Mr. Paterno. Athletic director Curley, assistant athletic Director Fran Ganter and Joe Puzycki, the assistant to Dr. Triponey, also attended the Aug. 11 meeting, according to two people knowledgeable about the meeting. Mr. Paterno loudly criticized Dr. Triponey at the meeting for meddling, these people say.

The following day, Dr. Triponey sent an email to Messrs. Spanier, Curley and Puzycki summarizing the meeting and sharing her thoughts and concerns. In the email, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, she said that football players were getting in trouble at a "disproportionate rate" from other students, often for serious acts. She said her staff had tried to work with the athletic department, sometimes sharing information, but that whenever her department initiated an investigation into a football player, the phones lit up. "The calls and pleas from coaches, Board members, and others when we are considering a case are, indeed, putting us in a position that does treat football players differently and with greater privilege."

Dr. Triponey also wrote that Mr. Paterno believed that the school's code of conduct should not apply to any incidents that take place off campus—that those should be handled by police—and they shouldn't be allowed to affect anyone's status as a student.

"Coach Paterno would rather we NOT inform the public when a football player is found responsible for committing a serious violation of the law and/or our student code," she wrote, "despite any moral or legal obligation to do so."

Dr. Triponey ended her note by asking Mr. Curley and Mr. Spanier if these were accurate impressions of Mr. Paterno's views—and whether they shared them.

Mr. Curley's response, also reviewed by the Journal, was sent three days later and was copied to Mr. Spanier. "I think your summary is accurate," it said.

Mr. Curley, who had played for Mr. Paterno's team, explained what he said was the coach's "frustrations with the system." Mr. Paterno, he wrote, felt that "it should be his call if someone should practice and play in athletics." He said Mr. Paterno felt the school had "overreacted" by deciding to allow reporting of off-campus incidents, and that the NCAA had gone "overboard" with new rules on academic-eligibility requirements.

In an email to Mr. Spanier on Sept. 1, Dr. Triponey wrote of Mr. Paterno: "I do not support the way this man is running our football program. We certainly would not tolerate this behavior in our students so I struggle with how we tolerate it in our coach."

That same fall, Dr. Triponey's office suspended Dan Connor, a Penn State linebacker, who had been accused of making harassing calls to a retired assistant coach. Shortly after the suspension was handed down, Mr. Paterno ordered the player to suit up, according to a person familiar with the matter. Dr. Triponey informed the player that if he suited up for practice, he would be in violation of his suspension and could face expulsion. Mr. Connor says he recalled being suspended only for games, not practice.

The incident prompted Mr. Spanier to visit Dr. Triponey at her home. Dr. Triponey confirms he told her that Mr. Paterno had given him an ultimatum: Fire her, or Mr. Paterno would stop fund-raising for the school. She says Mr. Spanier told her that if forced to choose, he would choose her over the coach—but that he did not want to have to make that choice.

Later, Mr. Connor's suspension was reduced to 10 days, allowing him to return to football.

In 2007, as many as two dozen players broke into an off-campus apartment, sparking a melee that captured headlines and prompted the police to file criminal charges against six Penn State football players. "Pretty much the entire Penn State defense broke in and started swinging bar stools and stuff," says John Britt, then a third-year criminal-justice major who was beaten up in the incident. Mr. Britt says he took a beer bottle to the back of the head—and that players apparently continued to beat him after he'd lost consciousness. (Now 25, Mr. Britt serves warrants for state court in Philadelphia.)

Dr. Triponey's department began an inquiry. According to a Penn State employee's record of the proceedings, Mr. Spanier was involved in at least nine meetings with representatives of the judicial-affairs department, and Mr. Paterno was involved in at least six.

In a meeting with Messrs. Paterno and Spanier and others, Dr. Triponey complained that the players were stonewalling her and suggested that Mr. Paterno ought to compel them to be truthful, according to one person familiar with the meeting. Mr. Paterno angrily responded that his players couldn't be expected to cooperate with the school's disciplinary process because, in this case, they would have to testify against each other, making it hard to play football together, these people say.

In the end, police dropped many of the charges against the players, and two pleaded guilty to misdemeanors. The school's inquiry led to four players being suspended for a summer semester. They did not miss any games.

Coach Paterno imposed his own punishment: he said the whole team would spend two hours cleaning up the stadium after home games that fall.

You can see the emails when clicking on documents and you can read the whole sordid tale there.

[Thanas]

Paterno liked to keep things handled within the team when possible, this much is true, however I doubt it was for prestige but rather more to try and turn around the miscreants into productive members of the team and society- there's an interview to this effect from a few years ago when this came up, iirc. He felt that if he involved the school and the law, then there would be no way he could work with the 'problem player' to turn them off that path.

Yeah....I am sure that if you are accused of sexual assault, playing football will cure all the ills. Just ask Roethlissberger.

[Edi]

In light of Thanas's article, good fucking riddance to bad rubbish is all that can and should be said of Paterno.

[Sephirius]

Paterno liked to keep things handled within the team when possible, this much is true, however I doubt it was for prestige but rather more to try and turn around the miscreants into productive members of the team and society- there's an interview to this effect from a few years ago when this came up, iirc. He felt that if he involved the school and the law, then there would be no way he could work with the 'problem player' to turn them off that path.

Yeah....I am sure that if you are accused of sexual assault, playing football will cure all the ills. Just ask Roethlissberger.

Mr. Phillips was acquitted of the charge in a subsequent trial.

Accused does not automatically mean guilty, just throwing that out there. Without knowing specifics about the trial/case I would not jump to such conclusions.

[Terralthra]

Roethlisberger hasn't been convicted of anything either. Thanas assumes that the lack of convictions (or dropped charges) is due to manipulation by the football apparatus.

[Sephirius]

Roethlisberger hasn't been convicted of anything either. Thanas assumes that the lack of convictions (or dropped charges) is due to manipulation by the football apparatus.

And I can definitely see how one could think that; however the possibility for false charges is also present, given that these are extremely high profile individuals and it is their exposure IN said sport which opens them to legal abuse; we can't just assume the sword cuts one way. I'll agree to disagree with Thanas on this one though, because despite my beliefs to the contrary, I really can't fault his logic or rationale.

[Gandalf]

I didn't know about the assaults. Fuck him and that whole corrupt institution.

Unfortunately, I guess that statue's never coming down. He picked a good time to pop his clogs.

[Jade Falcon]

A final comment I'll make about the man... It is inconceivable to me that he was this naive about this kind of rape: "...I never heard of, of, rape and a man." He may not have been a particularly worldly man, but no one can be this out of touch. He was a Catholic and doubtless heard about that Church's various scandals, priests assaulting children (particularly boys). He came across as someone simply ignorant of the very concept of an adult male sodomizing a child, if that was indeed he meant by that comment. And the behavior of the others who pussy-footed around him, sparing him from hearing the very word "rape" or whatever the hell else they avoided uttering to his face as to not upset him, out of "respect" for him. Garbage. I simply do not believe he was that unimaginative. I'd believe he was suffering from dementia before the other possibility.

I'm definitely not defending the man, but I wouldn't say this sort of ignorance was unknown. I have a friend who at one time was close friends with this girl at University. They had grown up in the same town and to say he fancied her would be an understimation. This girl, no, woman, was studying in Uni to be a microbiologist, and once when a conversation came up she came away with the rather inane comment "There's no such thing as male rape". I wasn't exactly a fan of hers, but she was not what I would have considered stupid, but to hold such an opinion.....

[The Yosemite Bear]

been tryibg to supress the thought but seing the simularities to a certain other transition of power, overshadowed by sex abuse scandels, and comments of football as religion..
Will Penn state be blowing white smoke while the replace pope- coach

[Thanas]

Accused does not automatically mean guilty, just throwing that out there. Without knowing specifics about the trial/case I would not jump to such conclusions.

I know that. If it were one incident, I would not blame him for that. But there is a pattern of Paterno covering up things for his players and shielding them from punishment.

And I can definitely see how one could think that; however the possibility for false charges is also present, given that these are extremely high profile individuals and it is their exposure IN said sport which opens them to legal abuse; we can't just assume the sword cuts one way. I'll agree to disagree with Thanas on this one though, because despite my beliefs to the contrary, I really can't fault his logic or rationale.

What is your rationale then? That he did it all because he thought he could better people? Maybe in questionable circumstances, but breaking into an appartment and hitting people with beer bottles (people can and have died from that)? How do you defend that?

And this:

Mr. Paterno angrily responded that his players couldn't be expected to cooperate with the school's disciplinary process because, in this case, they would have to testify against each other, making it hard to play football together, these people say

is the epitome of everything that is wrong with corruption. Football apparently was more important to him than the guys who were hit in the head with the bottles and suffered the injuries (who, btw, were students of the university as well).

How do you categorize the above statement as anything but "football and winning matters more than anything else"?

[Bright]

The Onion weighs in.

STATE COLLEGE, PA—As thousands of mourners gathered at Penn State's campus spiritual center Wednesday afternoon to say their farewells to Joe Paterno, former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky took the opportunity to express his "deep, everlasting gratitude" for everything his late mentor had done for him.

"When I think of how much of my life I owe to Joe Paterno, I don't even know where to begin," said Sandusky, who confessed to feeling "overcome" while attending the former football coach's funeral. "I think it's safe to say I wouldn't have been able to lead the life I've led, wouldn't have grown into the man I've become, if it hadn't been for his leadership. I can't even begin to imagine what would have become of me if not for Joe Paterno."

"Truly, he gave me a place where I could reach my full potential—not just as a coach, but as a man," continued Sandusky, his voice cracking. "So many of my accomplishments would not have been possible without him and the unique atmosphere he created at Penn State."

Paterno and Sandusky enjoyed a relationship stretching back almost 50 years, with each helping the other to pursue his passion. Sandusky said that while it was true the two men harbored different dreams, aspirations, and desires, Paterno was careful never to stand in his way. In fact, he affirmed, Paterno's wholehearted attention to the overall success and reputation of Penn State football allowed Sandusky to focus on building his own legacy at Happy Valley, where he was always able to go after what he wanted most.

"How many people honestly get to fulfill their very deepest desires in life?" Sandusky said. "Let alone fulfill those desires over and over again, year in and year out, day after day, for decades? That's the kind of life Joe allowed me to live."

Sandusky added, "I owe it all to the tradition he established at Penn State University."

Although Sandusky said he "cherished the freedom he was allowed" under Paterno, he admitted there was never any question as to who was ultimately in charge of and responsible for the football program.

"Make no mistake—Joe would give you free rein, but he always knew exactly what was going on in State College," said Sandusky, grinning slightly at the memory of his friend and colleague. "He had ways of letting us know that as long as we weren't interfering with Nittany Lion football, we could do our own thing and let him worry about the big picture."

"I could not have asked for a more perfect boss," Sandusky added tearfully.

Under the legendary head coach, 67-year-old Sandusky established a charitable organization called the Second Mile, which allowed him to bring thousands of underprivileged and at-risk youths to campus, introducing them to all aspects of the Penn State tradition. Paterno served Second Mile for years as one of the program's biggest fundraisers, thereby single-handedly helping Sandusky's involvement in the lives of as many children as possible.

"Life is about more than just football—it's also about being active in the community," Sandusky said before speaking at length about the particular vulnerabilities of children, and going into great detail about how badly young boys need strong, confident figures in their lives. "I remember how much Joe cared about the image of Penn State football, and how determined he was to protect that image within this community."

"I'll tell you this from the depths of my soul: Joe Paterno could do no wrong in my book," he added. "And I believe he wanted people to think the same of me."

After stepping away from the program in 1999, Sandusky was given an emeritus position with the Nittany Lions that included an office and unrestricted access to recreation rooms, showers, and other athletic facilities, a privilege Sandusky admitted he "wouldn't have known what to do without."

"This was a man who looked out for his program, but at the end of the day, he was very much aware that a program is its people," Sandusky said of Paterno. "He knew that taking care of the program meant taking care of me. Sure, we had our tough times, but some things are bigger than football—like friendship, and the legacy you hope to leave behind."

With Paterno's passing now closing the final chapter in their relationship, Sandusky said he can't help but smile when he reflects back on their tenure together at Penn State.

"I had years of great times at Penn State," Sandusky said. "Years and years of great times. And I owe every minute to Joe Paterno."

Good going.

[Thanas]

That's only slightly worse than Sandusky's real statement.