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The Spectacle Blog
Former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno has died of complications from lung cancer. He was 85.
Paterno had been associated with Penn State’s football program for more than sixty years, first as an assistant coach before taking over as head coach in 1966. Paterno led Penn State to over 400 victories, two national championships and had the distinction of being the only head coach to have his team appear in the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and the Sugar Bowl.
However, Paterno will now likely be best remembered for his part in the sex abuse scandal involving his long time assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. After Sandusky was charged, Penn State fired Paterno in November after it became known that he was informed of Sandusky’s conduct and did not contact local authorities.
Days after his firing, Paterno’s son stated his father had been diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer. But given the fact that Paterno would never step foot on a football field and the guilt he undoubtedly felt for not telling the authorities what he knew about Sandusky and the ostracism he and his family faced, he probably lost the will to live.
Earlier this month, Paterno was replaced as Penn State head coach by New England Patriots offensive co-ordinator Bill O’Brien.
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More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/01/22/joe-paterno-rip
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Clint| 1.22.12 @ 5:09PM
JoePa is a good & honorable man.
" The next morning (Saturday), McQueary called Paterno and went to Paterno’s house and reported to the coach what he had witnessed.
— The next day (Sunday), Paterno called athletic director Tim Curley to his home and reported that McQueary told him that he had seen Sandusky in the showers fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy.
Then, Assistant football coach Mike McQueary's told athletic director Tim Curley and school vice president Gary Schultz ( In Charge Of Campus Police),that he saw Sandusky molest a boy in a locker room shower in 2002.
Curley and Schultz are charged with lying to a grand jury and failing to properly report what McQueary told them."
Dixie Pixie| 1.22.12 @ 5:26PM
I am convened that Joe Paterno died of a broken heart aggravated by Lung Cancer.
For 46 years Coach Paterno was a icon of Honor and Integrity in College Football.
He gave his life and soul for the Penn State Football program.
So much so he was the center of the Nittany Lions and they were the entirety of Coach Paterno's existence.
He could not live without Penn State Football, like a bird can not live without air nor a fish without water.
And to be suddenly terminated in the manner and reasons he was terminated for would break any heart.
Despite recent events Joe Paterno will always be considered to be the top end of his profession along with Vince Lombardi and Paul “Bear” Bryant.
No one did it better and longer than Coach Joe Paterno of the Nittany Lions.
Drek| 1.22.12 @ 8:29PM
Dixie,
at the present time his death was a grace. For the only thing he had to look forward to was lawyers, depositions, testimony, probably taking the stand, endless media attempts to finger him as the prime culprit, as if he was a same sex rapist.
But it's true, he lost the will to fight. The mental, spiritual and emotional shock ruptured his will to continue to live.
It wasn't lung cancer or any cancer for that matter that killed him.
He had become so psychologically destroyed that he probably wanted to escape all of it.
Oh God what a tragedy, what a wretched way for a good and honourable man to be torn from us.
Ed| 1.22.12 @ 6:17PM
Sorry, fellas, but Joe Pa ruled the roost, not the lackeys that were his "bosses". Why make excuses for someone who tolerated (I would say abetted) such evil? Wouldn't you, if you had a shred of decency, have followed up?
Bob K.| 1.22.12 @ 7:19PM
There were 2 Grand Jury investigations between his report to the authorities and the final Grand Jury investigation. Neither one resulted in an indictment. Would you have preferred that he go out and make a citizen's arrest on the basis of what he knew and reported? You reason like a "journalist" endowed with a higher moral sensitivity not bestowed on mere mortals. It probably comes when the BA degree with the Major in Journalism and Minor in Hypocrisy is granted!
chuck| 1.23.12 @ 9:33AM
At the very least, he should have fired Sandusky, and banned him from the campus. He might not have had the ability to put Sandusky in jail, but he definitely had the ability to protect boys from him in his locker room, and his football program.
I heard Lou Holtz say "There is never the right time to do the wrong thing, and never a wrong time to do the right thing."
JoePa should have done the right thing.
Todd S| 1.23.12 @ 10:49AM
Lou Holtz is someone to be admired, not Joe Paterno. Everyone knows who had the real power at Penn State, one word from Paterno when told of the evil and Sandusky would have been stopped long ago. But Paterno was more concerned about his "legacy" (championship teams led by Sandusky's defense) than protecting children from this monster and that is the sorry truth. The irony is his legacy is now defined by his inability to do what was right when it mattered most whatever his apologist say.
Dixie Pixie| 1.22.12 @ 7:08PM
What the MSM did to Joe Paterno was flat-out evil in support of their ideology of “Gay Rights”.
The MSM consider “Gay Rights” to be the equivalent of the 1960's moral struggle for Civil Rights.
MSM support of “Gay Rights” is the centerpiece of their moral superiority over the yokels and bumpkins of “In-between America.
So when the story came in that a Nittany Lions Assistant Coach had buggered an underage male minor, then the story had to be re-framed so “Gay Rights” was not the problem.
So the MSM changed the focus of the story from the gay guy to Joe Paterno.
Never mind, that Coach Paterno did every thing he was legally required to do.
Never mind, Coach Paterno moved swiftly to separate Coach Sandusky from Penn State as soon as the facts were established.
Never mind, that over the three year period of the Grand Jury's existence, Joe Paterno was never even considered to be in any violation of Law.
All that mattered to the MSM was the Gay guy be protected by re-framing the blame.
The MSM created a firestorm by hyping the severity of the crime and then implying that Coach Paterno was to blame for not doing something.
In most MSM reports, the name of Coach Sandusky was not mentioned and what he did was barely alluded to.
The fact that Jerry Sandusky was gay and the Grand Jury charged him with 40 counts of pedophilia was never mentioned by the MSM.
All that mattered was Coach Paterno could be framed for the fall instead of “Gay Rights”
Can the MSM do any more evil than to Frame an innocent man so the blame for an activity the MSM ideologically supports, falls elsewhere.
Can the MSM do more evil than to smear a man who was a icon of Honor and Integrity and hound him from the office that was his life.
How much more evil can the MSM do than to break a mans heart by stomping what he loves and lives for into the mud.
Nay, the MSM is proof that “Justice” does not exist except as a mockery of true “Justice”.
What the MSM did to Joe Paterno was flat-out evil and the MSM will say not a word about it.
Drek| 1.22.12 @ 8:25PM
The decades spent normalizing and mainstreaming pathological sexual activity prepared the way for the paralysis that set in at Penn State Football.
Had this happened two to three decades ago, there wouldn't have been any hesitation, no thought of live and let live.
But political correctness now precludes any man saying straight-up, homosexual behavior is pathological, and self-evidently and demonstrably so.
Nor will we hold the line against any homo marriage, without the stigma obtaining to such behavior at large, with or without legal codification.
To the extent that the stigma deteriorates because of our own widespread decadence, just to the same extent will such pathology as that which occurred at Penn State continue.
These things didn't happen fifty years ago.
But now they do.
This is sick stuff.
Todd S| 1.23.12 @ 10:54AM
You are delusional, has nothing to do with gay rights. Sandusky has gotten plenty of attention for his evil acts and everyone agrees he is an evil monster. The shocking fact is Paterno knew about it and did very little to stop it and he knows it himself. Whatever good he had accomplished in his life, he failed to do what was needed when it was most important and that will be his sad legacy.
Winning alot of football games means very little in comparison.
JmsA| 1.22.12 @ 7:50PM
That's a pretty good assessment, DP.
Drek| 1.22.12 @ 8:21PM
Political correctness that covered and normalized predatory homoism killed him.
Got him fired.
Shattered his reputation.
Shattered friendships.
Shattered long time associations such as those with his university.
And it was all because political correctness now precludes any man seeing something wrong with homosexual displays.
Utter pathology.
And it's only going to get worse.
PCC| 1.22.12 @ 8:38PM
Paterno didn't need a police investigation or grand jury indictment to confront and then fire Sandusky with prejudice the moment McQueary reported what he saw.
If his reputation suffers for it, then so be it. What is the importance of his reputation compared to the suffering and abuse inflicted upon those children by Sandusky after Paterno failed to act to protect them?
Ed| 1.22.12 @ 9:46PM
Amen. Make a citizen's arrest? The gay agenda? Fire the guy and ban him from the campus wouldn't be too extreme, would it. For his sake, just hope that God forgives a little sodomy with a child for the sake of a football team's "reputation".
Clint| 1.23.12 @ 1:21AM
Duuuuhhhhh !
You don't know what you're talkin' about, Sport.
1999: Sandusky retires after learning he will not be the successor to Joe Paterno. Sandusky holds emeritus status.
This incident happened March 2nd,2002 and Sandusky wasn't under JoePa's authority and had emeritus status rights to Penn State athletic facilities.
Con Chef (NB) | 1.23.12 @ 9:04AM
Of course Cint's gonna make excuses for JoPa keeping his mouth shut. And don't give me that shit about how he reported it up the chain of command at the university. He was the most powerful man AT that university & he could've done more. His legacy will be forever tarnished by the fact that he did NOT do so.
PCC| 1.23.12 @ 3:09AM
Fine, Clint. Still no excuse for Paterno not confronting Sandusky and banishing him permanently from Penn State facilities, the attaction of which helped him lure these youngsters to satisfy his depravity. And please don't say it wasn't within Paterno's authority to do so; he answered to no one.
Clint| 1.23.12 @ 6:20AM
Duuuuuuhhhh !
Do Your Homework.
Again, JoePa didn't have the authority to banish ex-coach Sandusky from Penn Stat's Athletic Facilities.
JoePa was told, second hand the day after the incident and he then in turn reported it to his superior in Penn States chain of command, Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley.
Todd S| 1.23.12 @ 10:58AM
Why am I not surprised that a Ron Paul nut is sticking up for Joe Paterno? Only someone as delusional as you really believes that Tim Curley was Joe Paterno's superior and Joe Paterno did everything he should have in this case.
Con Chef (NB) | 1.23.12 @ 11:06AM
Why not? Their candidate called salami hider Bradley WoManning a "hero." No wonder Clint like peole who diddle little boys & those who cover for them.
PCC| 1.23.12 @ 3:19AM
Here's when Paterno should have fired and banished him, but didn't:
1998: Boy known as Victim 6 in grand jury presentment is taken into the locker rooms and showers when he is 11 years old and showers with Sandusky, according to grand jury testimony. Sandusky lathers up boy and says, “I’m going to squeeze your guts out.” When Victim 6 is dropped off at his home, he tells his mother of the incident and she reports the information to university police, who investigate. Investigators eavesdrop on two conversations between the mother and Sandusky, and after one conversation, Sandusky asks for forgiveness, even telling the mother, “I wish I were dead.” Then Centre County district attorney Ray Gricar ultimately says no charges will be filed against Sandusky.
Summer 1999: Sandusky announces he will retire from Penn State at the end of the season. He will have emeritus status, maintain an office on campus and have access to all Penn State facilities.
Clint| 1.23.12 @ 6:40AM
Duuuuuuhhhh !
Do Your Homework.
Sandusky was never charged in the 1998 incident and JoePa was not informed by Centre County district attorney Ray Gricar about any charges against Sandusky, since no charges were ever filed against Sandusky.
Con Chef (NB) | 1.23.12 @ 9:06AM
Of course you're taking up for him. You were no doubt a regular in the shower with Jerry & are pissed your cover got "blown."
PCC| 1.23.12 @ 8:43PM
There is no excuse whatsoever for Sandusky's conduct, charge or no charge, and he should have been fired and banished on the spot.
There can be no doubt that Paterno's poor judgement was motivated by his desire to protect his vaunted football program rather than protect these poor abused kids from his monstrous associate, Sandusky.
It was a terrible mistake in judgment that revealed to all an ugly flaw in Paterno's character that will define his legacy forever. As it should.
Le Cracquere| 1.23.12 @ 9:39AM
I look forward to a TAS obituary on the next Penn St. faculty member who dies, or anyone else there whose job was integral to a university's mission (rather than parasitical on it).
No college whose coach is the best-known campus figure is worthy of the name.
Wally| 1.23.12 @ 11:48AM
His life became a real-life Greek tragedy. He achieved huge success, but the seeds of his destruction were sown in his own personal flaws- arrogance, vanity, egomania bordering on megalomanis. And his eventual downfall was by his own hand.
I have disliked the man since he back stabbed Rip Engle so many years ago. But, the fates even thjings up.
Prayers to his family and may he now rest in peace.
Tiffany| 1.23.12 @ 9:55PM
Anyone who watched the whole debate last Saturday would know Newt did NOT win anything except telling King off in the beginning and that was it. Mitt & Santorum were much better than Newt. Newt said the most embarrassing thing you can image about illegal immigration. After 25 years the illegal will have a way to citizenship. It took both Romney and Santorum to remind Gingrich that if an illegal is working here for 25 yrs. then they’re using illegal identity from American Citizens and now they’re committing several fraud crimes and you want to reward this Newt????? Newt is old, fat, and his white hair w/bad ideas & ethic violations, a bunch a bad baggage. The democrats are setting the stage for Newt to win instead of Romney or Santorum b/c those two at least have a good chance of beating Obama. NOT Newt !!!