December 8th, 2011 at 12:26 PM ^
Self-fulfilling prophecy I think. It was speculated for years that Paterno was holding onto his job with everything he had because he was petrified he'd die soon after. You have to think that kind of a mindset has an effect.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:34 PM ^
He was also friends with Bear Bryant, who died soon after his retirement.
December 8th, 2011 at 6:42 PM ^
There's also a huge difference between he and the Bear. Bryant was 69 when he retired, drank enough to drown, smoked like a chimney, and didn't take the best care of himself in general. That was also 30 years ago, and medical care is much better than it was even then. I would contend that Paterno has access to some of the best care available today.
Bear Bryant's situation and Joe Paterno's are like comparing apples to tractor tires.
December 8th, 2011 at 12:26 PM ^
A lot of times you hear stories of things like some old Navy chief or Marine sergeant retiring and dying of a heart attack a week into retirement. Like their job was the only thing they ever knew and it literally killed them to be away from it. Wouldn't surprise at all if that was basically the story here.
December 8th, 2011 at 12:46 PM ^
Over the years, I've seen a lot of cases like this - quite often with men in Paterno's generation. Their whole identity is their job and when it's suddenly gone, their reason for living seems to diminish quickly. And this shows up in sudden and rapidly declining health. Now in Paterno's case, all this may simply be a coincidence and his pre-scandal health was already going downhill. Then again, he would seem to fit the profile you mentioned.
December 8th, 2011 at 4:46 PM ^
December 8th, 2011 at 12:29 PM ^
This is all originating from SportsbyBrooks post. I would not consider that source reliable.
With all the press circling PSU these days, if anybody is going to get the scoop on something like this, it is NOT going to be SportsbyBrooks.
We should wait from more formal source before posting something like this here.
December 8th, 2011 at 12:28 PM ^
He finds out one of his most trusted friend/coaches has been lying to him for as many as 35 years. Then, he is vilified and accused of covering it up, thus ruining the reputation he worked for over 50 years to build. Then, he is fired without anyone even considering his side of the story.
JoePa isn't dying of cancer; he's dying of a broken heart.
December 8th, 2011 at 12:51 PM ^
considering that Paterno pretty obviously knew that he was interested in boys by 1998.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:05 PM ^
like that of a child.
December 8th, 2011 at 12:29 PM ^
That job was his life. I think he was never going to retire and wanted to coach till he died.
December 8th, 2011 at 12:29 PM ^
A lot of the short term thinking we see in the world is a direct result of self preservation motivators which lead one to the "well, the next generation can deal with this problem" mentalitiy. If only we were elves and lived forever we could make better long-term decisions with sustainability in mind. Fucking JoePa and his selfish thinking. Hopefully he dies in peace.
December 8th, 2011 at 12:29 PM ^
Bear Bryant didnt make it long after he left Bama. Stress cant be good for Joe either.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:01 PM ^
Or Woody for that matter. Bo was the only one who hung on for a while afterwards and was allegedly the sickliest one of all of them and retired because of his heart.
How ironic.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:56 PM ^
Woody did last eight years after he was fired. Not as long as Bo but at least he had some time.
December 8th, 2011 at 3:03 PM ^
Woody was 74 when he died and Bo was 77...I think the those numbers have more to do with it than years spent in retirement. Had Bo continued coaching...he probably would not have made it to 2006.
December 8th, 2011 at 4:33 PM ^
The way I see that is Bo won by 3.......
December 8th, 2011 at 6:30 PM ^
but funny!
December 8th, 2011 at 12:50 PM ^
When he was fired I thought to myself, I wonder how long he will be with us now that he won't be coaching anymore. That might be a bad thing to think about, but I think it's reality.
December 8th, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^
I had the same thought, and I'm sad that it seems it's becoming a realtiy.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:06 PM ^
In a way, it was sad to see his career end the way it did, with all that has happened at PSU. I didn't want to think that once the football chapter of his life was forcibly closed, the end of the story would come fairly soon thereafter, but especially in light of the cancer revelation and the stress from all the fallout at PSU, it has been hard not to think that. Now reading this, it seems like he really might not be around much longer.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:03 PM ^
I mean not to be a dick, but he's an 84 year old man with cancer. These things typically don't have a happy ending and people that thought/expected him to beat it are nuts. Octogenarians don't beat cancer. If you're lucky, you get a year of declining health before its curtains.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:09 PM ^
His age, the cancer, the stress from the Sandusky scandal, retiring (albeit forced) and losing your routine for the last 50 years, all those things combined make the report very believable.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:11 PM ^
If anything, its completely expected.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:05 PM ^
I kind of expected this to happen, as others have mentioned this is why he was hanging on so long.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:17 PM ^
I can't imagine how I would feel if Christmas was approaching and I knew that it would probably be the last Christmas spent with a loved one.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:28 PM ^
My Grandma died on Christmas day last year. It sucked.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:17 PM ^
This a sad reminder of the horrible, horrible disease that is cancer. Unfortunately, treatable and curable are not synonyms in the medical world.
December 8th, 2011 at 1:29 PM ^
Joe Paterno.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:04 PM ^
God bless those kids that were abused. I can't get past my disgust for those who let Sandusky's sordid behavior continue years beyond what it should have, and that includes Paterno.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:09 PM ^
I hope we can call agree on this:
84-year-old man dying of cancer = sad.
Ten or more children being sexually abuse over many years = really f----ing nightmarish and awful.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:16 PM ^
Eric in Dayton.
I should feel bad for JoPa considering he was one of my all-time favorite coaches.
But for some reason......i just dont much care.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:34 PM ^
My knee-jerk reaction to this news was more along the line of "who cares?" than it was "isn't it sad that poor old JoePa is going out like this," but I thought more about and think that there's a middle ground.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:33 PM ^
Bear Bryant passed away less than a month after he coached his last game. These guys are so competitive that when you take that away from them, they have nothing left to live for.
Hope he has a full recovery.
December 8th, 2011 at 4:39 PM ^
From Wikipedia:
"After the 1982 season, Bryant, who had turned 69 that September, decided to retire, stating "This is my school, my alma mater. I love it and I love my players. But in my opinion, they deserved better coaching than they have been getting from me this year." His last regular season game was a 23–22 loss to Auburn and his last postseason game was a 21–15 victory in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee over the University of Illinois. After the game, Bryant was asked what he planned to do now that he was retired. He replied "Probably croak in a week." His reply proved ominous.
Four weeks after making that comment, and just one day after passing a routine medical checkup, on January 25, 1983, Bryant checked into Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa after experiencing chest pain. A day later, when being prepared for an electrocardiogram, he died after suffering a massive heart attack."
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Joe doesn't make it to Christmas. What a terrible end.
December 8th, 2011 at 5:20 PM ^
Anytime you base an article on a report from SportsbyBrooks you're in trouble.
December 8th, 2011 at 6:51 PM ^
Let's back up for a minute here.
If he has cancer, he's probably had it for a while. This isn't something that developed over the past couple weeks. Just because they just recently announced that he had been diagnosed, doesn't mean that he hasn't had it for a while. And like others have said, at 84, other factors in his life such as this are going to have a bigger effect on his life span other than his coaching career ending.
December 8th, 2011 at 10:42 PM ^
Yea the story was origanally reported like JoePa has a treatable form of lung cancer and they down played the seriousness of the illness. the fact is cancer treatment is hard on your body if you are young and semi healthy. You knew when it was dealing with an 84 year old it would'nt be cut and dry.