Paterno biography due out, partial excerpts from last days at PSU
GQ has a fairly lengthy excerpt of a new biography on Joe Paterno in their September issue. Currently, they're publishing part of it online and I found it interesting, if only because it shows some actual emotion from Paterno. Now, the emotion shared in this small excerpt is still emotion about Joe Paterno, but I can start to see where he may have realized the gravity of his inaction a decade earlier.
Here's the link. They have it broken into three paragraphs, and I'll blockquote one from the day following his firing below.
On Thursday, Paterno met with his coaches at his house. He sobbed uncontrollably. 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." Nobody knew how to handle such emotion. Joe had always seemed invulnerable. On Thursday, though, he cried continually. "My name," he told Jay, "I have spent my whole life trying to make that name mean something. And now it's gone."
August 15th, 2012 at 2:42 PM ^
Sad Joe Pa is not sad at all.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:44 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 2:47 PM ^
But the last images I have of Paterno are ones of him leading "We are..." cheers on his front lawn while his program was being rocked to its core and a number of sexual abuse victims were probably worrying about having to come forward.
At least this seems like he had some comprehension of how serious the situation was, which is more than we've seen from anyone named Paterno before or since.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:54 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 3:34 PM ^
Or, as Paterno put it that night, "[Y]ou know, the kids who were the victims or whatever they want to say. I think we all out to say a prayer for them."
August 15th, 2012 at 9:02 PM ^
please tell me you made this up. link? That's disgusting if it's true.
August 15th, 2012 at 9:22 PM ^
I don't know if he was reading a prepared statement.
August 15th, 2012 at 9:30 PM ^
It was off the cuff, and that line was in the middle of praising the students and community for their school spirit and telling them how proud he was of the school.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:57 PM ^
He had over a decade to show that his name meant something, by turning Sandusky in. It would have damaged his program in the short run, but ultimately would have reflected positively on him. That he showed remorse after the coverup unraveled doesn't say a whole lot.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:00 PM ^
I don't know if he showed any remorse or not, and I'd probably guess that between some combination of age, denial and twisted logic that he never got around to feeling actual remorse. All I said was "realize the gravity of the situation", which seems reasonable based on this short quote.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:56 PM ^
this just shows that he was concerned about his name, not about the you-know actual victims.
August 15th, 2012 at 5:59 PM ^
about what you disagree with in my post.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:54 PM ^
That almost makes him seem like he's out of touch... "my name..." forget that, he failed those kids. hopefully there are some quotes to the extent of "I can't believe this was happening here and I failed to protect those kids..."
August 15th, 2012 at 2:58 PM ^
to believe anything written about JoePa anymore.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:00 PM ^
Is this biography going to end up being nothing more than an attempt to get sympathy from the public for JoePa and the position he was in? If so, I'm not buying a word of it.
And even if (BIG IF) he actually broke down and said those words, I still don't feel a bit of sympathy for him or his family. If he worked his whole life to make his name mean something, it should have been automatic pilot for him to turn Sandusky's ass in right away.
You don't cover up crimes this serious for as long as JoePa did and then cry about your image taking a hit during your final days. I would think the 16 grandchildren he had would make this a no-brainer. But that's just me.
I better not say anything more or else the Paterno family might try and sue me.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:15 PM ^
Posnanski spent the better part of the last 2 years in Happy Valley with Paterno and the biography was largely written before any of this scandal came out. I am sure there were some edits made after things broke, but I'm fairly certain it was printed before the end of the Sandusky trial.
In short, I wouldn't expect much damnation of Paterno, but in the author's defense, it should be noted his book was written while he (and most of the rest of us) were being fooled. I feel badly for Posnanski, I mean, can you imagine spending 2 years working on something, being away from your wife and kids for large portions of time to do it, and then finding out at the very end that it was all a sham (not your work, but the subject). That's a kick in the gnads
August 15th, 2012 at 3:06 PM ^
At best, Joe Paterno was a once great football coach who turned into a crazy old coot sometime around 1998.
He had about 0 official coaching duties the last 12-14 years anyway, and his adjusted record reflects exactly that.
In short, of course he's crying about his name being Mudd, he's Joe Paterno. All he's had the last decade and a half is his name. Lord knows he wasn't coaching any fucking football.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:10 PM ^
It seems much too early to publish this. The Freeh report has been out for a month and there will be more investigations to come. Not to mention that feelings are pretty raw on all sides. This comes off like an attempt to make a quick buck off the scandal.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:25 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 3:53 PM ^
"Elia shook his head again. "It began in 2004," he whispered, referring to an old clash Paterno had with [university president Graham] Spanier. "The board started to turn. We don't have anybody on the board now" - from one of the excerpted paragraphs
This is something I found interesting too only because I didn't know how far back the slide in relations between Paterno and the Board Of Trustees went. Granted, at this point, there was no Freeh Report which pointed to the Board being essentially a rubber stamp, but as I recall, the Board vote was unanimous to fire him in November, so even if someone was there for outreach, they didn't want him as head coach of the team under those circumstances (the details of which turned out to be horrific, of course).
Like others, I was turned off even further by the statement he made in this excerpt about his name and this being apparently the primary concern, for it seems that, in the end - and maybe age played a role - Joe Paterno and Penn State football finally became the same thing in his mind. It may very well have been an ego-crushing moment to realize that he was merely an employee of the university.
I have to wonder if this is a better, more rounded book, if published a year or two from now though. If it is coming out later this month, I have to think that it may not touch on some very important revelations in the story to date.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:52 PM ^
"I have spent my whole life trying to make my name mean something,and now its all gone."
Yes Joe Pa you are correct.
August 15th, 2012 at 7:48 PM ^
to mean something alright. . .
August 15th, 2012 at 3:55 PM ^
The final chapters on Paterno won't be written for a while. At some point, one of the other players involved in the coverup may talk and we will really know what went down. Assuming there are legs to the story that the FB I/USPS are doing an investigation, the biography may be in need of significant revision.
August 15th, 2012 at 4:06 PM ^
His life work did make his name mean something. Just not what he thought it was going to. From fame to infamy is a short step. He jumped with both feet.
August 15th, 2012 at 4:27 PM ^
Bo walked away at 60. Carr walked away at 62. Id put my money on Coach Hoke leaving in his early 60s as well. Those men know that the program is bigger than they are, and after their hard work and success...it was time for someone else to take over the program.
Jo Pa could never accept that the program would ever be bigger than he was.
August 15th, 2012 at 9:59 PM ^
...because his heart wouldn't let him coach anymore. If he was healthy he would've coached another 10 years or so, imo. And if the Lloyd/Parkinson's rumors are true, that would explain some things, too. I have come to believe that a person doesn't ascend to these types of positions without a very healthy ego, and such an ego makes it difficult to walk away.
August 15th, 2012 at 10:12 PM ^
August 16th, 2012 at 12:51 AM ^
Mitch Albom wrote a book called "Bo" towards the end of the Bo Era. He described how he was sitting in Bo's office while Bo made a phone call to some HS recruit and told the kid all about why he should go to Michigan...blah blah blah.
Bo hung up the phone and looked at Albom and said something like "Im really getting tired of that shit". The point was that he had had enough of it and was looking to move on.
August 16th, 2012 at 1:38 PM ^
Bo also mentioned in his book Michigan Memories that he had a sense after the 1989 Ohio game that it was time to move on. I don't know if his health that all that decisive of a factor; he had the second heart attack at the end of the 1987 season and still coached two years beyond that.
August 15th, 2012 at 5:46 PM ^
Richard Nixon sobbbed at the very end of his tenure as well. Self serving tears are just water.
August 15th, 2012 at 6:46 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 6:46 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 7:10 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^
JP did not have to worry about paying his bills, or keeping his legacy. He could have stood on the president's desk with ESPN holding on his cell phone and dictated terms when this happened. JP had no problems if he spoke up publicly, unless he was already involved in some fashion.
I agree 100% with your second statement, the rest of the roaches have yet to be flushed out into the light of day.
August 15th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 10:00 PM ^
Is anyone else with a conspiracy-theory mind thinking that JoePa Kevorkianed himself?
August 16th, 2012 at 1:33 PM ^
...and nobody has made the link to Hitler yet? Shhhheeeesh!
