Joe Paterno Dies

A

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Reilly has a tremendous article on the front page of ESPN. Captures the man well IMO.

RIP JoePa
 
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CarrollVermin

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My take on the situation...

It is easier to judge the integrity of a man than to silently reflect on the value of your own.
 
phgreek

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CarrollVermin said:
My take on the situation...

It is easier to judge the integrity of a man than to silently reflect on the value of your own.
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...agreed. As I get older, I find that every man is a dichotomy waiting to happen....time, age and circumstances guarantee it (although the faithful hang on longer).

The best you can do is lead with goals...one of them being "leave" the place better, and go lead something else. If you do that...you will not likely be overcome, and you'll recognize the guy in the mirror, and ALL of his actions.
 
J

johnnykillz

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Amen.

Joe Paterno of Penn State Nittany Lions -- memorial exposes anger over firing - ESPN

Nike's Phil Knight:

In a 2½-hour gathering that capped three days of mourning on campus, Nike chairman and CEO Phil Knight brought the near-capacity crowd at the basketball arena to its feet when he defended the coach's handling of child-sex allegations leveled against a former assistant. Paterno was fired two months ago by the Penn State trustees.


"This much is clear to me: If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno's response," Knight said. Paterno's widow, Sue, was among those rising to their feet.
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His son followed up Knight:

Later, Paterno's son Jay received a standing ovation when he declared: "Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience."
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And Pittman, a former player of his:

Former NFL player Charles V. Pittman, speaking for players from the 1960s, called Paterno a lifelong influence and inspiration.

Pittman said Paterno pushed his young players hard, once bringing Pittman to tears in his sophomore year. He said he realized later that the coach was not trying to break his spirit but instead was "bit by bit building a habit of excellence."

"He was building a proud program for the school, the state and the hundreds of young men he watched over for a half century," said Pittman, senior vice president for publishing at Schurz Communications Inc., an Indiana-based company that owns TV and radio stations and newspapers, and a member of the board of directors of The Associated Press.

"Now, with grown children grandkids and 42 years removed from my playing days, I thought Joe Paterno had taught me all that he could teach me. I was wrong," Pitman said. "Despite being pushed away from his beloved game, and under the extreme pressure of the events of the past few months, Joe's grace was startling."
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NCND

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You acting like JoPa raped those kids. If they wanna salute the coach that built that program.. so be it.
 
Rack Em

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NCND said:
You acting like JoPa raped those kids. If they wanna salute the coach that built that program.. so be it.
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Dude, he covered it up for years. Rape? No. But it harbored a heinous felon who destroyed the lives of many kids. That's the definition of a disgusting human being despite his redeeming qualities (albeit he seemed to have several).
 
PANDFAN

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connor_in

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Rack Em said:
I already made that joke about 4 posts up.
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Nonononononononono...Your joke was that he was STILL dead, mine was that he died AGAIN...TOTALLY DIFFERENT


actually...mine was actually the first thought that did pop into my head
 
GowerND11

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Living in PA it's amazing how loyal the fans still are. If they want to be loyal to PSU, go for it, many went there (or it's satilitte campuses), or have family members that did. Being that it is centrally located in the state, many can take a few hour drive up and tailgate. It's in a very beautiful area of the state to boot, especially in the fall.

However, these people are still extremely loyal to Joe Pa. It's like a cult of personality here. The amount of people I know that took to Facebook when the bowl ban was lifted was amazing. They want his wins reinstated too. Was Joe Pa a good coach? Of course. Very successful. He, and his family, donated millions to the school. Very charitable. However, he didn't do enough. He reported something to the higher ups, but he never followed up on it. Not once did he say, "Hey guys, any word about what's going on?"
 
wizards8507

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GowerND11 said:
Living in PA it's amazing how loyal the fans still are. If they want to be loyal to PSU, go for it, many went there (or it's satilitte campuses), or have family members that did. Being that it is centrally located in the state, many can take a few hour drive up and tailgate. It's in a very beautiful area of the state to boot, especially in the fall.

However, these people are still extremely loyal to Joe Pa. It's like a cult of personality here. The amount of people I know that took to Facebook when the bowl ban was lifted was amazing. They want his wins reinstated too. Was Joe Pa a good coach? Of course. Very successful. He, and his family, donated millions to the school. Very charitable. However, he didn't do enough. He reported something to the higher ups, but he never followed up on it. Not once did he say, "Hey guys, any word about what's going on?"
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I'd reinstate the wins in a heartbeat. I'm all for severe punishments in cases like this, but they have to fit the crime. Wins and losses are decided on the field of play over the course of 60 minutes. The nightmares that happened at Penn State did not decide those wins and losses.
 
Emcee77

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I was thinking about all this PSU stuff recently after having a conversation with my grandpa about it.

My grandpa is an Italian guy from the Northeast in his late 80s (but still quite lucid), as JoePa would be if still alive. He told me he couldn't understand what the scandal was all about.

At first I misunderstood him and thought that he meant that he just hadn't followed the story. I tried to explain it to him, trying not to put too fine a point on it, and it was clear that he still didn't understand. I tried to explain it to him in increasing levels of specificity--which, I probably don't need to tell you, was incredibly awkward--and I could not make him understand.

It soon became clear to me that he had never in his life heard of adult male/young male sexual abuse. He truly had no idea what I was talking about.

This was something JoePa had said in his own defense before he died, that he had never heard of such a thing before and just couldn't credit the stories he had heard about Sandusky, and I was quick to write that off as a desperate lie. No educated citizen in the 21st century is unaware of this type of abuse, right?

But when I told my mom this story, she was unsurprised, and she explained how gramps grew up in a different time and culture and these sorts of things just weren't discussed in his day.

I have to admit that made me see JoePa in a slightly different light. Maybe he really was as innocent and naive as his defenders have said he was.
 
dshans

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In related news:

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Rhode Irish

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Emcee, my grandfather is no longer with us, but he is of the same background and generation as your grandfather and JoePa (in fact, he played football against Paterno in college - JoePa played at Brown). I honestly can't imagine that my grandfather had ever considered whether an adult male would or could have sex with a male child. Like, I just think that was so far off of his radar. He wasn't a sheltered or naive guy, really. He fought in the Pacific in WWII and was a successful businessman. But that kind of thing just was not something that was part of the culture they grew up in. So I also can kind of believe, with the benefit of some time having passed, that Paterno never truly and completely processed what was told to him about Sandusky.

However, I don't think that totally absolves him, either. It was still his watch. If he outstayed his ability to competently manage that program, that is at least partially on him. It is also on a lot of other people who allowed someone who was clearly out of touch to continue to reign over a massive operation like Penn State football. If they wanted him to stay on as a figurehead, fine. But there should have been someone with some semblance of control behind the scenes managing things.
 
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Emcee77

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Rhode Irish said:
Emcee, my grandfather is no longer with us, but he is of the same background and generation as your grandfather and JoePa (in fact, he played football against Paterno in college - JoePa played at Brown). I honestly can't imagine that my grandfather had ever considered whether an adult male would or could have sex with a male child. Like, I just think that was so far off of his radar. He wasn't a sheltered or naive guy, really. He fought in the Pacific in WWII and was a successful businessman. But that kind of thing just was not something that was part of the culture they grew up in. So I also can kind of believe, with the benefit of some time having passed, that Paterno never truly and completely processed what was told to him about Sandusky.

However, I don't think that totally absolves him, either. It was still his watch. If he outstayed his ability to competently manage that program, that is at least partially on him. It is also on a lot of other people who allowed someone who was clearly out of touch to continue to reign over a massive operation like Penn State football. If they wanted him to stay on as a figurehead, fine. But there should have been someone with some semblance of control behind the scenes managing things.
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Yes, it sounds like our grandpas were very similar. My grandpa is not an ignorant man. He worked as a civil engineer for decades and he was always deeply involved in his community. This sort of thing was just not on his radar or the radar of similar men of his generation.

And I totally agree that that ignorance doesn't totally absolve JoePa, and it certainly doesn't absolve all the other enablers at PSU. As you say, it was his watch, and he bears responsibility. Like I said, it just makes me see him in a slightly different light. He's not a monster ... although at best he is a modern-day Herbert Hoover, which isn't great.
 
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