Joe Paterno talks for 1st time since his firing

CBS News ^ | January 14, 2012 | Sally Jenkins

[Zakeet]

Joe Paterno sat in a wheelchair at the family kitchen table where he has eaten, prayed and argued for more than a half-century. 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.

[Snip]

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. If Sandusky is guilty, "I'm sick about it," Paterno said.

[Glenn]

He is as every bit the monster that sandusky is.

Could you be any more judgmental?

What have you done in your life that compares to his accomplishments?

[sand lake bar]

Well we have something in common. We both make each other sick. But Joe’s statue is still there and the library still bears his name.

[Eaker]

Good post.

[No Left Turn]

It was about having a program that was good that played by the rules

Not to pile on, but PSU didn't play by the rules. They had several - and i mean several - players run foul of the law over the years. It wasn't called State Penn by those outside the community for nothing. There has been a serious lack of introspection by the entire PSU community, as exemplified by the fact that so many atheltes there got into serious incidients, but the fan base still saw the team as playing by the rules. And the rumors about Sandusky were around for a long time, yet PSU alums still think the team played by the rules.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Players who broke the law were disciplined by joe - nothing atypical about players getting in trouble. He wanted to handle it himself and apparently they let him for better or worse. He didn’t let players play who weren’t on track to graduate, unlike other schools. Not perfect by any means. I’ve had former players tell me Sandusky was their favorite coach and the had no idea he was a pervert.

[Category Four]

I think that political correctness and fear of homosexual mafia is part of this case.

I think you just hit it on the head.

[No Left Turn]

Players who broke the law were disciplined by joe - nothing atypical about players getting in trouble. He wanted to handle it himself and apparently they let him for better or worse.

Exactly my point. How many other incidents were there that Joe "handled" that didn't make it in to the press. That's not playing by the rules. And that "handle it in house" mentality carried through to Sandusky, when he should have been handled by legal authorities ten years ago.

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

The man was too friggin old to be in such a position of responsibility. He barely knew what was going on during the games.

You can say the same thing about congressmen and senators who hang around until they have to be wheeled into the Capitol and told how to vote.

[Loyal Buckeye]

It seems to me that there is plenty of blame to spread around on this one. For one, Paterno’s ego and his quest to beat the all-time winning record led to his staying on well beyond when he should have retired. Had he retired earlier, this whole mess could have been avoided. Paterno cannot escape some of the blame because of who he is, the powerful position he held, and the fact he hired Sandusky. Having said that, the main culprit is Sandusky.

[SpringtoLiberty]

This is the crux of the sickness of our country. Leadership is trickle down.

[FamiliarFace]

Rush’s description was that the Sandusky was a banana-flavored ice cream that came with nuts. You didn’t have to request the nuts, because that’s what the description included already. At least that’s what I understood from him when I was listening one day.

Rush also said that nobody was talking about the elephant in the room, which I took him to mean that this was homosexual behavior. The PC crowd will rarely talk about that aspect of this case.

[Scoutmaster]

Rush’s description was that the Sandusky was a banana-flavored ice cream that came with nuts.

Okay. Now we have something interesting. An early national story mentioned that the sales of "Peachy Paterno" ice cream at the PSU creamery had gone up after the firing of Paterno. People said "a school creamery?"

Then a prankster posted a photo of two scoops of ice cream with an up-ended cone (and some details) and said it was a special Sandusky dessert. Some people bit. Somebody on FR was outraged and bit. It was a hoax.

What you are saying is not a hoax according to PennLive.com:

The Penn State Creamery has removed the "Sandusky Blitz" ice cream flavor, named after former PSU assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, from its shelves and online menu, the Daily Collegian first reported yesterday.

Prior to the flavor's removal from the creamery website, The Big Lead got a screen grab of the ingredients. Sandusky Blitz was described as a "banana-flavored ice cream with chocolate-covered peanuts and caramel swirl."

Though creamery staff wouldn't comment specifically to the Daily Collegian, the timing of the flavor's removal coincides with charges of sex crimes against minors filed against Sandusky last weekend.

So, yes, it was banana and nuts.

[True Republican Patriot]

The latest quotation from dear JoePa as reported by Drudge today is that he said: He was unaware that “RAPE COULD HAPPEN BETWEEN MALES!” Thata sounds quite close to the NAMBLA PREACHINGS! WEIRD!! to say the least!

[rintense]

Not really. I had no concept that men could be raped by other men until my early 20s.

[True Republican Patriot]

Sounds pretty close to dead giveaway to me:
A Banana with chocolate NUTS!
Just a thought!
There were no secrets about Sandusky’s Perversions in “HAPPY VALLEY for Years!” It was covered up...clear and disgusting. Now we know in the last week that Sandusky was honored to be in the PSU Presidential Box for the game that gave JoePA his record breaking win just ONE WEEK BEFORE HE WAS ARRESTED! DUH!!
By that time, everyone with a micron of a brain in the Penn State ADMIN knew he was under Grand Jury Investigation since they had all had to testify under subpoena.......

signed by an Eagle Scout

[True Republican Patriot]

Bless You! You must have been in a Convent until your Epithany?

[rintense]

LOL. Nope. Just a very conservative, Christian childhood. I had to have homosexuality explained to me in college when there were whispers my softball coaches were gay. It wasn’t a sheltered childhood by any means. But there were things that weren’t a part of my world, or my mom/grandparents either.

[FamiliarFace]

Not really. I had no concept that men could be raped by other men until my early 20s.

The difference here is that you were in your 20's when you discovered the truth about homosexuals and man-on-man rape, and JoePa wants us to believe that he never heard of such a thing by his 70's. Never in his adult life had he heard of males being raped by males. I have a very hard time believing this assertion.

Everyone's heard about perverts, usually by the time you were 10 or so. My brother was approached by a man when we would take a short cut home by his house on our way home from school. He gave my brother a candy bar one time. When we got home, my Mom wanted to know where he got that candy bar from, and he told her. He wasn't allowed to eat the rest of it, and Mom & Dad went to the man's house and talked to him about it. They didn't accuse him per se, but they told him that he was never allowed to talk with any of us kids again, or that they would report him to the police. Then they gathered us kids and told us that some adults weren't nice to kids even if they acted nice to kids at first. They didn't go into graphic details but they put it into terms we could understand, about being naked and things like that. They explained that while this man may have been a nice man, he was a stranger to us, and that we were never to speak with strangers...EVER!!! We were never to take short cuts home, and after that, we didn't.

So somehow, I'm to believe that JoePa had never heard of Adam Walsh? He's never heard of pedophilia? I just can't wrap my head around that. Plain and simple, I just can't believe that he never heard of male rape, even into his 60's and 70's. It defies logic to me.

[True Republican Patriot]

But to your credit, iy only took until your early 20’s to understand, Joe Paterno, the most brilliant Coach in all of History allegedly by the Media, hence the LEFT!, at 85 after testifying to a Grand Jury! finally “GETS IT!”
I now believe JOEPA is a Charter Member of NAMBLA!, or he is stupider and dumber than a Rock! and he has been entrusted with coaching one of the Best University Teams in History? Come on! The Boy Scouts learned along time ago to keep Homosexuals away from Youg Men enos ago and have suffered Madia Rath ever since!
signed by:
A Proud Eagle Scout

[True Republican Patriot]

GOD BLESS YOUR EXCELLENT CHRISTIAN UPBRINGING!
I probably didn’t understand it either ntil about that time. It’s horrible that now every little kid from Kindergarden up is being barraged by how wonderful Homosexuality is and we Christians don’t stand up and revolt over this abberation
of Humanity! GOD BLESS! and may GOD SAVE OUR AMERICA!