R.I.P.Joe Paterno (1926-2012)
 

Joe Paterno legendary college coach died of lung cancer within the last couple of hours after taking a turn for the worse on Friday. Its sad because of the timing of his diagosis which was thought to be treatable just after his removal from his life-long position. I hope with his passing right or wrong people will remember him for what he was, a lasting name of college football and the game in general. R.I.P.,sir.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports...-2012/related/

Nothing can erase the many accomplishments he did make, and he did get some support after his "leaving", and he did enjoy 85 years and got to have his family/friends with him in the end, RIP Joe.

for better or worse- he will certainly be remembered for his involvement with all things related to penn state football. rip joepa

Yeah, I heard this today while watching an NFL pregame show. He will be dearly missed and will be remembered for his legacy he left for Penn State, and I hope that people will remember him for that and not that scandal because it really wasn't entirely his fault. R.I.P., Joe Pa.

Wasn't surprised to hear this news at all. The old boy has been in horrible shape for a couple of years now. I'm pretty sure the events of 2011 did nothing to help his health.

That's about all I got. My other thoughts are best kept to myself.

This poor man is now in a far better place. :( Only God knows the truth. I hope he did find peace.

Yes, Paterno was a great coach.

But like with anybody, the whole record needs to be known. If he did anything wrong, it shouldn't be ignored or covered up.

Yeah but it shouldnt be lied about either. I recall Espn breaking a story actually exonerating Joe Pa. That the assistant coach that saw the incident didnt tell him actaully what happened. I ll try to find a link in a bit.

There's no separating the man from the scandal, as far as I'm concerned.

But Joe didn't do anything wrong. He handled it correctly by going to his superiors, but they didn't do anything about it. They ignored him and basically just covered it up. They should've gone to the police when they found out about all of this, but they didn't. I know a lot of people don't want to separate him from this scandal, but I don't think he's entirely at fault in this. I just don't. I think Penn State just used it as an excuse to get rid of him.

He went to hell.

I agree with you, Bubbly Shell. He told what he knew. That's that. He wasn't in the wrong.

Otherwise, Rest In Peace, JoePa. Alot of people are hating on him, but when it comes down to it, he was a great coach, and someone's dad and grandpa. Those people deserve to not hear such hateful things, and be allowed to grieve appropriately.

RIP, JoePa

Wow! This is up there for one of the best posts of all time.

Just......sensational. Jesus christ.

Jesus had nothing to do with it by the sounds of it.

Why do people have to speak ill of him? He was a father and a grandfather. Let him rest in peace. He wasn't at fault for the entire thing. Stop saying that he's in hell. He didn't assault those kids, Sandusky did. So stop acting like he's in hell because he committed the act when he didn't. Hell doesn't exist anyway.

As if this wasn't enough of a hot button topic.

To the point, short and sweet.

@Redeemer- ESPN also broke a story that said Sandusky was on campus weeks before the scandal broke...JoePa knew about this for the better part of a decade but Sandusky still had access to Penn St. facilities? He was a naive old turd. Period. He looked out for a pervert instead of the well being of children. I am not saying he's in hell, but he might be in limbo.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/...ek-reports-say

He wasn't naive.
Barely four months before the Sandusky story broke Paterno sold his house to his wife for $1.

He knew what was coming.
I don't wish the guy any peace until the victims of this whole affair find some.

And why should he be blamed for it? He did what he had to do. If anything, the higher-ups and Sandusky should be blamed more. Sandusky actually admitted that he was in the shower fooling around with the boys, not Joe. Joe didn't do any of that. Joe went to the superiors and told them what was happening, but the superiors didn't follow up on it. Sandusky and the higher-ups are to blame, not Joe. I'm just sick of people being so narrow-minded without listening to the whole story.

It's a shame that this man has died and yet the school he coached for is rocked by this scandal that he's a part of. Can we please try and separate the scandal from the legendary football coach? This isn't fair to Joe for people to just bash him like this.

I'm sorry, but no.

Alright. I can't keep my thought to myself.

The man was a legendary coach...a father...grandfather....and husband. But that does not excuse him from taking backlash for a dumb*ss decision. He told his bosses what happened? So the f*ck what?

If I saw that sh*t happening i'd call the cops. One of my employees came in all freaked out and said he saw a guy having sex with a kid. Cops would be called. Period. Even if the "right thing" by policy was to tell my boss, once I realized nothing was being done....cops. I don't care what the damage to the school would have been. It damn sure would have been less than what it is now.

I'm very sure that any of those people who were molested or raped by Sandusky in the TEN F*CKING YEARS between when Paterno found out and when a high school coach called the cops on Sandusky....probably don't relieve him of some responsibility.

Read the charges. It will make you sick. Sandusky is a sick f*ck. Paterno, along with many many others, was an enabler. They allowed him to continue by not getting the authorities involved.

He is not a victim. Any judgement he gets is well deserved IMHO

And I'm sick of people jumping to his defense just because he was a highly successful football coach for a remarkable period of time.

If this exact same thing happened at say... VMI or Appalachian State, everyone involved would have been burned at the stake. But since poor old Joe won lots of games, he gets people standing up for him.

Katie has hit the nail on the head. At best, Joe was a coward who failed to call the authorities when he should have.

Amazing how so many people are so forgiving of a person's serious crimes because they were a great [whatever]. Like when Ted Kennedy died, so many people glossed over his having caused the drowning death of Mary Jo Kopechne-oh he was a great liberal who made a few mistakes when he was young. (Paraphrasing of actual quotes.)

I've never even heard of Joe Paterno or his accomplishments until the scandal broke last year. I don't follow sports and it doesn't play a part in my opinion.

A lot of you need to go back and read over all the articles released on this. Mike McQueary was very vague to Joe about what he saw that day. He didn't tell him enough for Joe to understand it was far more serious than he knew. Joe was also from another time and had never heard of rape and a man. Ignorant, yes, but that's no reason to condemn the man to hell.

He did go tell the right people, he did do the right thing, but then those people didn't act on that information to investigate as they should have. There is where the fault lies. The line of communication was broken.

I've never heard of a man being guilty before proven innocent, but that's just what has been going on here towards Joe Paterno. People act as if he himself sodomized those boys instead of Sandusky. Every one was looking for a scapegoat, including the Penn State's Board of Trustees, and it happened to be him. In fact, the board was such cowardly asses that they couldn't fire him in person. No, they fired him over the telephone, and as what his wife said when she called them back "He deserved better".

Those who knew Joe personally supported him to very end and they knew the truth. There are thousands of those people who were outraged at how he was treated, but Joe himself was never bitter about it. Those same thousands are now paying their respects at his public memorial on campus.

The man is now dead; leave him alone. He was first someone's loved one. A family is in mourning.

Gimme a freakin' break.

That will be absolutely impossible. I don't care if you're amongst the most ardent of Penn St. fans who would rather take a bullet to the head than bring it up, it will still be the elephant in the room.

He will forever be associated with the scandal. That ship has sailed.

What? Did you want a Kit-Kat?

Walk a mile in someone else's shoes for a change. Maybe you'll understand one day, especially when similar circumstances could happen to you.

Ever known anyone who was molested as a little child? Try walking in their shoes and see what you have to say about that.

I really don't give a f*ck if he actually heard the word "sex" or not in conjunction with the shower incident. The fact that Sandusky was naked in a shower with a child....that's enough to warrent some investigation. At a minimum find the kid and make sure he's ok.

The fact is that Paterno was basically a god at Penn State. What he said went where the sports facility was concerned and a lot of other places on campus too. Don't think for a minute Paterno was ignorant to what was being said about Sandusky. Paterno himself told Sandusky he'd never be coach of Penn State....and proceeded to keep coaching to make sure that didn't happen. Sandusky was the logical heir to Paterno should he have retired.

Think Paterno thought Sandusky was a good stand up guy? Nope. Think he didn't really know what was going on? Nope.

Paterno was an enabler. Period.

Yes, I agree that he should've gone to the cops, but he probably thought that the higher-ups would do that. I don't care what anyone thinks. We all have our differing opinions on what happened and how we feel about it. But I believe he did all he could, and I'm sticking by that. I'm not a fan of Penn State. I barely watch sports at all. I'm just calling it like I see it. Even my dad said the same thing that he should've gone to the cops but that he did at least tell the superiors. Dad said he would've done the same thing if he'd been in Joe's shoes. I just hate that people seem to act like Joe did everything. Sandusky was the one who committed the acts and should be condemned. Plain and simple.

It's fine if you guys disagree with me, but that's how I feel. I do feel sorry for the victims who've had to suffer through all of this, and I really hope that Sandusky gets what's coming to him. But as for Joe, there's really nothing that can be done to him now. He's gone and should be left in peace.

He didn't call the cops and you acknowledge that but then say that he 'did all he could'. He kinda didn't do that at all dawg.

He did next to nothing. He deserves a great deal of the blame.

The bottom line is that Paterno knew enough about that incident to warrant a call to the police. He chose to keep it in house more than likely to avoid being the one who would bring chaos to his beloved university. He turned a blind eye and now his legacy will pay the price. Fair or unfair this is the way our society handles things.

Sorry, Nines, THIS IS NOW THE BEST POST EVER.

With apologies to Ludacris:

My coach bad, my coach hood,
My coach turned a blind eye like I knew he would...

Then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this. But I stand by my opinions.

You and all the kids who rioted when he was fired.

you people that say how great of a coach he was..who gives a ****...As a man if you see a child being molested you do something not look the other way

Yeah because Wrestling doesn't have a truly awful tragedy involving a formerly beloved figure that people still defend despite mountains of evidence.

Oh......Wait......No.