Posted on 08/16/2012 7:19:10 AM PDT by BO Stinkss
Joe Paterno was an emotional wreck the day after he was fired as Penn State football coach, according to excerpts from the upcoming book “Paterno.” The biography by author Joe Posnanski is due to be released Aug. 21, and GQ offered several excerpts from the book Wednesday. In one excerpt, Posnanski said Paterno “sobbed uncontrollably” when he met with his former staff Nov. 10, the day after he was fired. This was five days after child sex abuse charges were brought against former Nittany Lion assistant Jerry Sandusky, leading to Paterno, school president Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley all losing their jobs.
In the book, Posnanski writes of Paterno: “This was his bad day. Later, one of his former captains, Brandon Short, stopped by the house. When Brandon asked, 'How are you doing, Coach?' Paterno answered, 'I'm okay,' but the last syllable was shaky, muffled by crying, and then he broke down and said, 'I don't know what I'm going to do with myself.'
A former writer for Sports Illustrated, Posnanski was granted unprecedented access to Paterno for the book. But that agreement was struck long before the Sandusky scandal exploded and rocked the program Paterno spent some 45 years building.
Paterno was diagnosed with lung cancer shortly after being fired and died in January of this year.
The excerpts released by GQ focus on the volatile end of Paterno's coaching career, including his family coming to grips with the vast number of charges against Sandusky and a public relations specialist attempting to “negotiate a gracious ending” to Paterno's storied coaching career.
A source close to the Paterno family, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the book covers the Hall of Fame coach's entire life, and not just the final few months. He added that certain members of the family have read proofs of the book and seem to be OK with it.
“It's fair,” the source said. “It's a good book. There are a lot of things in there I didn't even know.”
The source added that Posnanski does not make any judgement calls in the book, but rather asks readers to read what he wrote and then come to their own conclusions
Yeah, too bad. Those little boys weren’t devastated at all.
They ought to dig up his corpse and feed it to wild dogs.
Poor guy. He did EXACTLY what he should do and gets beat up. Not to worry though, he is up with God now and not down in this hell hole place where you are judged wrongly without even being wrong. God Bless Joe, his family and Penn State.
That will be his legacy now. Hiring the eye witness who told him of the second manboy shower he had heard of involving Sandusky - and the two of them doing nothing for over a decade while Sandusky paraded boy after boy through the Penn State football facilities - using that as the currency with which he groomed his victims.
A rather putrid legacy.
Don’t candy coat it, tell us how you really feel! lol
I never went to PSU, so I never rallied around the university like a lot of people did in my area.
However, I think far too many people are lashing out on Paterno, which allows a lot of the more guilty parties like the Trustees get away.
>He did EXACTLY what he should do and gets beat up.
Not sure I agree with that. How many more children were molested because of what Joe and the rest of them could have done but did not do. There’s plenty of blame for a lot of people including Joe.
Let's see now ... he gets a report that JS is buggering a little boy, and he forwards that report.
To that point, you're correct.
But then, by all accounts I've heard, nothing else ever happens and JS continues to use the PSU facilities, with little boys.
Are you really claiming he (Paterno) had no responsibility to further inquire "Hey - what about Jerry buggering that little boy I told you about - what ever became of that?"?
Or could he just wash his hands and say "I did my duty"?
Really? I think God might have a different opinion as to where He would send someone who looked the other way while a close friend and colleague was sodomizing little boys for many, many years.
The fact that the Paterno-creep allowed that pervert to continue even for a minute makes me think that JoPa is probably not in the Northern paradise, but rather down South where he's probably getting a room ready for Sandusky when he shows up.
No pity for Paterno whatsoever . . . none. I'm very disappointed that we didn't get to see him in prison jammies wearing handcuffs, being hauled to prison.
>> In the book, Posnanski writes of Paterno: “This was his bad day”
I have a feeling Judgement Day is going to be interesting for ol’ JoePed too.
Paterno was a pos. But im just a little bit biases. Nevertheless, the whole story is sad.
re: Or could he just wash his hands and say “I did my duty”?
Kinda like Pontus Pilate, wasn’t he?
Well, much of the nation is devastated over the fact he KNEW what the hell was happening and chose to “preserve PSU’s image” over seeking justice.
Lying sack of sh*t covered it all up to the very end.
The difference between being motivated by honor and shame.
Honor is based on what you know about yourself. Shame is based on what others find out about you.
The ultimate example of the difference, IMO, is Christ. He was intentionally executed in the most shameful manner possible, but he remained through the ultimate exemplar of Honor.
An honorable man would have ensured that children were protected, regardless of the potential cost to himself or his “legacy.”
This is, BTW, not an uncommon temptation to those who have given their lives to a cause or institution. Protect it at all costs.
The Dreyfuss case in France springs to mind, as does the Church shifting priests around to keep their proclivities under wraps. But the examples are Legion.
It is a simple question, were those tears of regret as he realized that he had failed to do what he should have done to stop Sandusky or tears of sorrow that he’d been held responsible?
Going public and telling the truth would've been helpful.
If he was very, very penitent before his death, maybe he got Purgatory instead of an immediate dive in the lake of fire.
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