Joe Paterno (Page 1 of 2)

This is just terrible news......I knew Joe Pa was sick but had no idea the cancer was that bad.....I HATE that frickin cancer, my wife just got another clear PET scan, now we can exhale for another 6 months

Love ya Joe Pa

And now he's gone. Joe Pa passed away this morning. Aside from his biggest mistake he does leave a legacy of immeasurable good deeds. One example of his life lessons came in 2007 when a few players were arrested for a fight they were involved in, so the coach made the entire team clean their stadium to show that as a group they weren't a bunch of hoodlums. You'll see upon his passing that his supporters will show there was a very good side to a human being who made a mistake as humans are prone to do. RIP Joe.....if that's possible.

                                                                                                            J Dawg

Maybe I have my head in the sand, but I stick with my initial response to the whole Penn State tragedy: something stinks!  So many things don't make sense.  I don't think the general public will ever know the whole truth, but I still want to believe that Joe Pa was made a scapegoat for something way bigger than he knew about, as in he was kept in the dark, he reported the initial thing and was told it was being dealt with...  I did not read any of the court documents and I am NOT saying he was totally innocent maybe he should have done more and followed through, etc.

The way things unfolded and the swift move to get Joe Pa out...I can't recall any other high-profile situation that went the opposite of the American way...INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY!!  I feel some moves were made to silence the uproar.

My mother predicted it, she said, this is like a death sentence, Joe Paterno won't live 6 months.  This will kill him, I agreed. (before all his health issues sprung up)

I hate Sandusky even more this morning and I never really hate on anyone...

And Shredit, yeah, I HATE that frickin cancer...I hope your wife continues to stay healthy.

RIP Joe Paterno

I read this morning an excerpt from one of his last interviews where he blamed himself for not doing more about the situation. He said he handed it over to others he thought had better expertise at handling a situation of that magnitude, only to have that decision cost him his reputation. You & Rick are right, the whole truth will probably never surface.

                                                                                                              RIP Coach,

                                                                                                              J Dawg

To those whose first impulse is to denegrate Joe Paterno for his actions, or "inaction," in the wake of the Sandusky scandal, first of all,  he did take action. He reported it, and he told the assistant coach who reported it to him to cooperate with the investigation.

And second, think of your grandparents. Joe Paterno was from a different generation. Things like that were not spoken of, and probably not even thought of.

And third, when you are honest and honorable, maybe it's hard to imagine that anyone else could do something so monstrous, so when confronted with that news, you don't know how to react. Which squares with this quote in the Washington Post from what turned out to be his last interview:

"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.”

No one is trying to minimize Sandusky's abhorrent actions. But let's not make things worse by vilifying those who had nothing to do with it. Joe Paterno did nothing wrong. He reported the incident to his superiors as it was reported to him. He did not hide anything, he didn't try to protect anyone. He has said that in hindsight, he wishes he had done more. As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. We have benefit of it, so we shouldn't judge Joe, who didn't.

Today we feel the tragedy of the last few months of Joe Paterno's life. But in time, I'm confident his true character will overshadow those events and his legacy will be as bright as ever. But I won't say Joe should rest in peace... I'm sure there's a football team in heaven that just got a great coach, and he'll be pacing the sidelines again soon.

That was hilarious.

I still have a hard place in my heart for everyone involved either directly or indirectly in this situation.  I continually ask myself if it was Paterno's grandchild, or the child or grandchild of anyone else who was told about the situation and brushed it off, in the shower with Sandusky, would he have been as concerned about the reputation of the University and would he have simply turned it over to someone with more experience in handling such matters?  None of us will ever know the entire story. 

If there is anything at all positive to come out of this, hopefully it has put the spotlight on child abuse everywhere and people will react to stop it as opposed to telling someone else about it.

My prayer for Joe is the same as every person that I hear of that passes away.  I pray the Lord have mercy on his soul and that he rest in peace.

Great news Shreddy! Please tell the missus that I'm thrilled to hear this!

All I'll say about the subject at hand here is that I have seen how much and how deeply it has divided people's reactions (not just here). Please try and keep your disagreements civil.

Thanks.