Joe Paterno 1926 - 2012

[The_Waco_Kid]

Vaya con Dios JoePa. No one is perfect and everyone has regrets and mistakes in life but Joe Paterno's contributions still loom large over Penn State and the many players he coached over a great career.

I'm a diehard Texas Longhorns fan but today i have this to say:

We Are Penn State.

Joseph Vincent Paterno 1926 - 2012.

[Guest090620]

Rest in Peace Joe Pa. What a great Coach

[WTF]

Originally Posted by The_Waco_Kid

Vaya con Dios JoePa. No one is perfect and everyone has regrets and mistakes in life but Joe Paterno's contributions still loom large over Penn State and the many players he coached over a great career.

I'm a diehard Texas Longhorns fan but today i have this to say:

We Are Penn State.

Joseph Vincent Paterno 1926 - 2012.

+1.

Great Coach and better still a great man.

[guest031612-2]

So tragic. The scandal literally killed him while Jerry Sandusky professes his innocence.

Wretchedly, wretchedly sad.

[WTF]

No, I think the Cancer had more to do with killing him!



If only 10% of the world would have lived like Joe Pa, the world would be 100x better.

Celebrate his life brother, do not mourn his death!

[MrGiz]

I was not a fan.... but it's just a damned shame that a historic lifetime of success had to end the way his did!
Smile On, Joe Pa

[WTF]

Originally Posted by MrGiz

I was not a fan.... but it's just a damned shame that a historic lifetime of success had to end the way his did!

It all ends in death!

[MrGiz]

Originally Posted by WTF

It all ends in death!

So True! But there will be too many assholes who will only remember him in the light of Sandusky's perversion!

[pyramider]

Or the Penn State cover up?

[WTF]

True enough but that don't change what a great guy he was just because a few ignorant folks don't know know better!

[Guest032414-2]

All of the lives he affected. The fathers who went to PSU and sent their sons, not for the program, but for the coach.

61 years of service to a college, to a program, to the players and their families, to the students, to the state. That cannot and will not be forgotten.

[gman44]

RIP PappaJoe

[Finger Bang]

I'm not a HUGE sports fan, so I didn't CLOSELY follow this story. I also think because I don't worship sports figures to the extent some do, I might be able to look at this objectively. I understand he was a great coach, but a great man? ASSUMING these allegations are true, didn't he turn his head to reorts of Sandusky's acts? I don't think he personally witnessed anything, but didn't he know these things were or may be going on? Couldn't he have followed up long ago so that maybe even one more child wouldn't have been subjected to abuse? Not insinuating he was in any way as bad as Sandusky, but should "great coaching" actually overshadow that big of a "bad decision not to follow up"? Is he any better than someone who moved priests to another parish after being discovered molesting children?
I may be incorrect on some of those points...again, I didn't follow TOO closely. But a lot of the defense of Paterno I did see seemed to be so related to coaching and his being a "good man". Not a whole lot of thought to how a molestation may have been prevented. Hey, I'm a HUGE Saints fan and a HUGE Drew Brees fan. I'd like to think if he were involved in anything like that, I'd be able to condemn him as, "What a great quarterback, but what a piece of shit person."
I apologize in advance for stepping on toes...just an opinion.

[The_Waco_Kid]

Some comments on Joe Paterno by those who coached against him. A few i find particularly interesting are these by Steve Spurrier and Tom Osborne:

“I’ve coached around 300 college games and only once when I’ve met the other coach at midfield prior to the game have I asked a photographer to take a picture of me with the other coach. That happened in the Citrus Bowl after the `97 season when we were playing Penn State.”—South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier.


“Whenever you recruited or played against Joe, you knew how he operated and that he always stood for the right things. Of course, his longevity over time and his impact on college football is remarkable. Anybody who knew Joe feels badly about the circumstances. I suspect the emotional turmoil of the last few weeks might have played into it.”—Nebraska athletic director and former coach Tom Osborne.

And this from a player Joe recruited but who when to Michigan State instead.

“(During recruiting,) Paterno was the only coach that didn’t talk about football. He talked about life and what life had to offer at State College. While I did not go there and went to Michigan State, he was the only coach to call me and wish me luck.”—former Michigan State wide receiver Nigea Carter.

[WTF]

Originally Posted by Finger Bang

but should "great coaching" actually overshadow that big of a "bad decision not to follow up"? Is he any better than someone who moved priests to another parish after being discovered molesting children?
I may be incorrect on some of those points...again, I didn't follow TOO closely. But a lot of the defense of Paterno I did see seemed to be so related to coaching and his being a "good man". .

Read this link, your comparison is not even close.

Almost as difficult for Mr. Paterno to answer is the question of why, after receiving a report in 2002 that Mr. 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."


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12015/1203682-454.stm?cmpid=psu.xml#ixzz1kE6 bOdM5