Patrick Smith - Getty Images
4 months ago: STATE COLLEGE, PA - JANUARY 24: Students leave notes on a cardboard cutout of former Penn State Football coach Joe Paterno in the Pattee and Paterno Libraries on the campus of Penn State on January 24, 2012 in State College, Pennsylvania. Paterno, who was 85, died due to complications from lung cancer on January 22, 2012. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Joe Paterno will be buried today at a private funeral in State College, yet none of this seems real or final. From a personal standpoint, it began to set in when I watched this video (produced by Ben Jones) and saw a fuzzy clip of Paterno walking his children down a quiet State College street. The true hammer fell last night, after reading a tweet from a student who tried to pay her respects after the viewing had concluded, only to see Sue Paterno bending forward to kiss her husband's coffin.
Thankfully, I read that after Kevin and I recorded the podcast, because "almost cried at the 17:00 mark" would have turned into "bawled like a baby, please burn the audio file now". We talk about Joe's passing, how Twitter and the news media failed us, and how Penn State finds a way to reintegrate Joe Paterno back into the football program as we move forward.
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1 recs | 43 comments
That's horrible!
Bury the man in the ground, not a pile of post-it notes!
WorldBFat - January 25, 2012
Nice
PSUCharmas - January 25, 2012
What!?
Morgan Freeman is dead? WHEN WILL IT END?
skarocksoi - January 25, 2012
Where you getting your news? OnwardState.com?
PSUinOH - January 25, 2012 via mobile
For an indication of where I'm at
I almost broke down mid-alma mater.
OctaShields - January 25, 2012
Joe was mentioned during the Pats game btw
Mostly in the context of BOB taking over the PSU HC job. It was just something quick though.
skarocksoi - January 25, 2012
Thanks
Figured there was a very good chance I missed it, but I did see about 95% of the non-halftime broadcasts, so I was confused.
Kevin Powers - January 25, 2012
yeah it wasn't anything too in-depth
they just showed BOB and talked about how he was taking over for Joe and everything else.
skarocksoi - January 25, 2012
Chris/Kevin...
I think this is probably the best podcast I’ve heard you guys do going back to the Slow States days. Thanks.
Chris, I know you’ve met a lot of animosity on this site, including from me, for your opinons on the fiasco. But it meant a lot to hear you acknowledge that what the man didn’t do won’t erase 61 years of great service and an exemplary life. I’m tired of the Cooke’s, the Ramzy’s and the DiNardo’s dragging the man’s reputation through mud and their outrageous hyperbole to accuse Paterno, Penn State and their supporters of things that simply aren’t true.
Artiefufkin10 - January 25, 2012
Agreed.
06Lion - January 25, 2012
Thanks guys.
Looking forward to getting past this, obviously.
I think the first thing I saw after we stopped recording was something like “that was difficult.” It’s hard to put this shit into words sometimes.
Kevin Powers - January 25, 2012
I like the unscripted approach.
It really added to the emotions into it and made it much more palpable and real. I think that’s the biggest indicator of how well people understood Paterno. If you watch the Ditka, Coach K, or various Penn Stater interviews, you can just hear the emotion in their voices. When you listen to the asshats at the B1G or elsewhere, there’s no emotion and they’re also unable to talk about anything other than Sandusky.
Succss With Honor Always - January 25, 2012
That’s a very good point.
Kevin Powers - January 25, 2012
Great Point
I believe last summer was the first time Coach K met Joe for their ESPN special. It was unbelievable how much emotion and respect Coach K had for him despite their only encounter. You can even detect the divisions within ESPN, I think guys like Rece Davis and Chris Fowler are very much in the same regard with Paterno.
That said, I have a new found respect for Glen Mason, who tweeted that he’s enroute to SC to pay his respects. I have even MORE respect for Fitz at NW, who is also going out to pay respects despite NSD being right around the corner. These are guys who get Joe and realized the body of his work and contribution to society.
I haven’t been able to confirm this with an actual link, but I saw this quoted on FOS regarding John Cooper’s thoughts:
Just amazing. These guys get Joe. And if the media wants to stretch the hyperbole about JoePa supporters further, might as well include these guys.
Artiefufkin10 - January 25, 2012
I hear Urban is coming to SC as well
He heard some of our recuits might be in town to pay their respects and thought he might get to chat with them.
skarocksoi - January 25, 2012
Lol. too soon
Artiefufkin10 - January 25, 2012
BILLY BALDWIN GETS IT
Jake Kaplan @jakemkaplan
·More
Being told that was in fact Billy Baldwin, not Stephen. Not a Baldwin expert, I guess. Regardless, a surprise guest here.
Retweeted by @nittanyrich
Artiefufkin10 - January 25, 2012
If a Baldwin gets it...
I question the collective IQ of the talking heads…
iamkatemcg - January 25, 2012
he was there with his slicked back hair
letsgopsu - January 25, 2012
And to think I used to hate John Cooper
OmarLittle - January 25, 2012
I love John Cooper
He kept insisting on playing Stanley Jackson instead of Joey Germaine even though Germaine was better. Jackson looked like a player. Germaine looked like The Great Kazoo.
Cooper and that other guy whose name I forget were the broadcast team for the William & Mary – Delaware 1AA quarterfinal in Williamsburg. After W&M won in OT and there was some minor pandemonium, they both passed by me and getting into a beat up minivan, asked the nearest passerby “hey, how do we get out of here?” Yeah, the game as on ESPN2, but come on, couldnt they give the guys directions and maybe a better ride?
reedjohnmiller - January 25, 2012 via mobile
Ha, cool story
Nice to see how the Worldwide Leader treats its own
I was not a fan of Cooper for how he allowed his team to score a touchdown after Taliferro got hurt. Though that could have been overly emotional on my part
OmarLittle - January 26, 2012
We’re definitely getting a rehash of the moral grandstanding, hyperbole, misrepresentation of facts, and just getting things wrong from back in November. Brian Cook called Sandusky a “long-time friend” of Joe’s.
This is one of those things where the spectrum of possible opinions is very wide, and that’s fine. But, if you’re going to use your blog, position in the media, etc. as a place to voice that opinion, it’d be helpful to at least try to get some things right.
I also understand that it’s a situation where people who aren’t as attached to this aren’t as motivated to seek out every piece of information so there is going to be some of this. I can’t honestly say how I would be looking at this if I weren’t a Penn State grad, but what I do know is that my judgment of other people’s situations will be forever impacted by this.
speedomike - January 25, 2012
This
So true. And if they are opponent bloggers, they’re actually motivated to do the opposite. They don’t care, at all. They’re only interested in the opportunity to paint the big swipe.
jtothep - January 25, 2012
Yep
I really wish I hadn’t read that Mgoblog post. Brian Cook is a smart guy and a good writer and is welcome to his opinion. But, well, let’s just say we’re not on the same page here.
What kills me is these fans of other programs who act as if they wouldn’t have the same kind of reaction that Penn State fans have had (Or, even better-say things like “I KNOW Bo would have gone to the police, punched Sandusky in the nuts, and kicked him out of the world!”). Joe Paterno meant a lot to us. And rightfully. So sue us. Leave us the fuck alone if you don’t like that.
speedomike - January 25, 2012
"The man was real"...
is what I keep thinking every time I see those old shots of him with his kids.
Artiefufkin10 - January 25, 2012
Those break my heart all over again.
I think I’ve finally been able to deal with the loss of Paterno as an icon, but it’s forcing me to realize there was also Paterno the family man. The stories of him playing on the floor with his grandchildren just set me off all over again.
Succss With Honor Always - January 25, 2012
That clip of him walking hand in hand with his kids and kissing one of them as they walk away was so cool/sad to see
We always think of him from a coaching/teacher perspective. The only word I can think of to describe that old clip is “tender,” which, for all the great and exemplary adjectives used to describe Joe, isn’t one you hear very often.
LAPSU - January 26, 2012
I think what has frustrated me the most about this
Is that the man has always been hyperreal to me, and a lot of people have been treating him as a sort of character, or worse, caricature.
When I was young, I actually thought of Joe as family. And this might seem weird, but I’m full-blooded Italian (and mostly southern Italian, to boot) and Joe was around the same age and basically looked and acted a lot like my grandparents and great uncles and (other Italians will get this) the nebulous network of older relatives that you don’t really know, or know how they’re related to you or to each other, but are always at family reunions and stopping by your grandparents’ for coffee. I would absolutely not have been shocked if, at the age of 8, Joe and Sue walked in and started chatting with my grandparents and fawned over pictures of each others’ grandchildren, trying to politely decline whatever superfluous foods were being cooked at the time. Of course I realized he wasn’t family, but he was like family.
So that’s the context from which I always viewed him. He wasn’t some icon. He was like a lot of people I knew, if they were insanely intelligent and good at coaching football. When I was young, it was awesome that there was this old Italian dude yelling and cheering and leading my dad’s alma mater and favorite football team.
When I got older and read more about him, I found more reasons to respect him. In school, my passion was always for writing and literature. Paterno was an English major? At an Ivy League school? Wow. I went to a small, rural public school, and reading was always one of those things that was considered to be pretty lame. But if Joe loves it and studied it at college, and still talks about classics, then maybe it’s not so bad.
This is all not to mention that his maxims were used by others in my development. I can’t tell you how many times my basketball coach said “as a great man once said: if you take care of the little things, the big things will take care of themselves.” Or how my parents would point to Paterno and Penn State football to teach me life lessons. I was a good player in youth league sports, and at one point started to get to feeling pretty good about myself. “You should strive to be the best you can, but remember it’s a team game. You couldn’t score a single goal or touchdown without every last one of your teammates. When you watch Penn State, have you ever seen any names on the backs of their jerseys? Why do you think that is?”
So years later I ended up going to Penn State, and being an English major. Paterno was a real person, who was in my orbit. Sure, when I’d see him, I’d get a rush of adrenaline and a weird, flustered feeling. Not because I had seen him on television. (Side note: I have run into quite a few celebrities over the past several years, and I’ve always been surprised at how little reaction I have to it: “hey, I just walked past Jake Gyllenhall and Paul Rudd in the lobby” /ex-girlfriend freaks out) But I would react because he was what I wanted to become, and you can never really know what to do or say around someone like that. It’s coincidental, though sort of funny, that I ended up going to law school and I’m trying to live out his other dream, that would have come true had he not been so damn good at coaching football.
Joe Paterno was both a real man and a role model. If your role models don’t seem like real people, then how can you really properly model your life after their example? But for me, Joe was like most other people’s four biggest role models rolled into one person. He was someone I could identify with ethnically – a successful, inspirational Italian guy (bonus: he wasn’t always associated with the mafia), he was the coach of my favorite sports team, he was the most influential person at the university I attended, and he was someone whose passions and family life and grace and virtue and career accomplishments I could look at and find something to strive for in my own life.
I guess that’s just something I’ve felt I needed to express. I’m still spiraling in that weird, emotionless space of reflection, punctuated by moments of happiness and appreciation and sadness and grief. It’s hard to see other people who didn’t know Joe like I knew him (to paraphrase Taliaferro) voicing strong opinions about who he was and what he stood for. Call me an icon worshipper, tell me I’m blinded by bias…I don’t care. I can’t care. I had the best of all possible role models, and now he’s gone. I will forever remember him as a great man.
OctaShields - January 25, 2012
You've honestly honored him with this post.
Good job.
SubLime - January 25, 2012
Thanks Octa. That was great.
belbijou - January 25, 2012
In my house, he was Mr Paterno
Because he was our neighbor and my parents insisted we call him Mr, regardless of what they called him on TV. I delivered his paper. Because of where his house was in relation to ours, I always delivered their’s last. It was usually a bit late. He never complained. I don’t think he actually read the CDT. I think they just got it out of a sense of civic responsibility.
reedjohnmiller - January 25, 2012 via mobile
Tin Foil Hat time...
At this point, can we assume that Penn State is just another member of the “little 10”(formerly 9) and this is just OSU and UM’s conference.
I’m not asking for Paterno’s name to be put back on the trophy. Though I disagree, I could see why that was done. But at least, on the day of his death, show the man and his family a little respect. Why bring up JS? (i feel wrong just typing JS). Why not celebrate his life, his accomplishments, his positive contributions to the world (you could fill a few hours of TV with those alone).
Sorry, I’m emotional, hence the lack of a logical argument.
Artiefufkin10 - January 25, 2012
They fought like Nittany Lions. And won the B1G Championship.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V96BFTlsNA
bbpennstate10 - January 25, 2012
Attending the Memorial Thursday
We got lucky and have two tickets to the Joe Paterno Memorial. I expected Penn State to announce that the stadium or Park Ave or the field will be renamed in honor of all the great things Joe Paterno did for people, Penn State and college football. Then Erickson crawled out of his hole to say the the “time wasn’t right”. When the hell will the time be right? These guys need to tell the detractors that we will do what is right whether they like it or not. Of course that would require that the colletive board had a single pair of balls.
bluebellgolfer - January 25, 2012
That assumes they have balls in the first place.
iamkatemcg - January 25, 2012
Sorry, golfer, but I agree, the time is not right. Knee jerk=take name off trophy? We're better than that.
In the past couple days I’ve seen a half dozen or more suggestions. Any one of them could be the best or the worst thing to do. While I don’t know all University policies in these matters, I would suspect that at some point the family should be having a say. If not, they should have.
Having lost a lot of family members over the years, (in much, much less public circumstances) I know you don’t make those kinds of decisions lightly or rapidly.
be4time - January 25, 2012
I think they want to talk about it more
Changing the names of stuff is actually kind of a big deal. Everyone has an opinion and it costs money to change all the signs. The family must be consulted and they have bigger things on their mind now.
Let’s be patient and let it marinate for a while.
reedjohnmiller - January 25, 2012 via mobile
Excellent Job Chris and Kevin.
Esteban d' Amur - January 25, 2012
On Legacy.
We create things like “legacy” due to a human desire to seek moral clarity and guidance through other’s life actions. The problem is that people are too complex to fit into a box labelled “good” or “bad.” To approach this from a different angle: Jerry Sandusky was arguably the greatest defensive coach of the last quarter of the 20th century in college football. You can’t review any of Penn State’s incredible defensive performances from 1977 to 1999 and not consider his direct and, yes, positive impact on the Penn State football program at that time. Also, a lot of kids went through the Second Mile and had nothing but positive experiences. Do his alleged actions overwhelm his legacy? Personally, yes. Absolutely. Still, we must acknowledge that some people do not view him with such unconditional disdain, and are confused by such bad acts from someone they still think of as a good person.
Is “not doing enough” going to overwhelm Paterno’s entire life? I hope not. I hope a reaction to a horrible act weighs less on a person’s legacy than on the perpetrator of a horrible act. Otherwise everyone else who witnessed these crimes (McQueary, the high school coach, the mothers, the friends) will be known only for something they witnessed or reported and did not follow up strongly enough over time. That would be unfair.
Why in Paterno’s case must we equate him with the perpetrator of an act? To do as Gerry DiNardo and others have done and devolve a life’s work into a message about this incident and the culture surrounding it is asinine. Paterno isn’t a parable. Paterno was neither all good nor all bad. He was a complex man. Even if the events of 2002 never happened he would still be a complex man.
I also don’t think it damaging to consider that he was a complex man. I’ve worked on museum sites before where there are conflicting messages about historic figures. The best way of resolving the conflict is to acknowledge both sides of his story and let the individual visitor determine for themselves how they want to interpret that person. Perhaps we should do the same for Paterno. Let his life work, good and bad, be his legacy. I think it far more interesting than Paterno the legend or Paterno the warning parable.
J.Schnauzer - January 25, 2012
Strong medicine here. . .
You draw out the manifold nuance well.
SubLime - January 25, 2012
Well said
DiNardo is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
reedjohnmiller - January 25, 2012 via mobile
JUST found this regardin today's funeral:
http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/wjac-to-provide-live-coverage-online-stream-of-paterno-funeral-procession-990103/
WJAC to Provide Live Coverage, Online Stream of Paterno Funeral Procession
That’s where I’m headed. (I’d make a FanPost, but for reasons unknown, but every post I make will not happen, even when they are 1000 words long!)
ComfortHePuHuTh - January 25, 2012
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