The AP obit is here. It’s sad that his life will always be remembered in a more complicated way than he wished. But honesty compels me to say that such was the choice he made. I hope his family can find some peace with that eventually.
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“We remember the Sugar Bowl, I think it my junior year of high school, we let Alabama beat us twice,” Brinson said of a team that also lost to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. “We’re not letting Alabama beat us twice. In the Sugar Bowl in 2018, they… thought they should have been in the playoffs and lost to Texas.” -- AB-H, 12/27/23
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Get The Picture · Bloviation for the Dawgnation
Get The Picture 
Couldn’t agree more. He created the legacy, good and bad.
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That is sad. I didn’t know he was sick. I guess once they took the ability to coach football away, he didn’t have anything left in the tank.
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I doubt not being the head coach had anything to do with him passing. The guy had a very serious case of lung cancer.
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“Treatable” lung cancer according to most reports. The odds were in his favor. The loss of the major focus of his life had to have been a factor in his death.
As far as his legacy is concerned, I think we’ll have to wait a few years.
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My dad had the same form of cancer and died three years ago this past week (small cell lung cancer).
It’s “treatable” only in that it can be beat back for the short term, but then it kills you.
If you don’t catch it in time you could die within days or weeks of finding. If you catch it early, like my dad, you may get 15-18 months.
Sounds to me like they didn’t catch it early and were trying to keep the public from knowing how bad his situation was.
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Sorry to hear about your dad.
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Thank you
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Thanks for adding that BD. Sorry about your father.
I get pretty tired of people who have close to zero medical knowledge acting like they know why people have health issues or why people can’t overcome those health issues. It’s nothing but arrogance and ignorance all wrapped into one.
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There is a great deal of research linking psychological state to responsiveness to medical treatment. Having said that, no one, not even medical experts can know for sure what the factors are in an individual case. All you can do is go with the probabilities. Chances are, if he doesn’t lose his career, he’s around a while longer.
Don’t make assumptions about what other people may or may not know.
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Uh…you’re making assumptions about the guy’s mental state and the role it played in his death. Why can’t I make assumptions about what you know?
By the way, research doesn’t show that psychological state is ALWAYS a factor in responsiveness to medical treatment. Just that it CAN be.
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You’re saying that it’s unreasonable to assume that Paterno being linked to covering up pedophilia probably upset or depressed him? Seriously?
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No, I was just pointing out that it IS an assumption. In any case, that assumption isn’t the one I have a problem with. The one I have a problem with is assuming that it was a factor in his death.
Could you “seriously” not understand that after reading those posts? If not…wow.
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Absolutely it does/will; i’m a Nurse for 35 yrs., and have seen many people just try to not let their families & friends know they have not got much left to live for after suffering such a shock to his mind & system then to learn he has a debilitating illness as he had to further take away his will to live.
Let me take this spot to relay my condolences to his family for them to just “Hold tight to the memories they have of ‘JoePa’ for there is “NO-ONE”; i say no-one can take them from you.~~
If anyone knows of a ‘Web Site’ to where this comment on him could be Copied & Pasted i would appreciate for you to do it. Thanks..
Let me also put in my comment on here and want start another one::–
To each his own but after reading this Obit. I am more convienced than ever that when that assistant relayed to him of what he saw Sandusky doing in the shower that he “DID WHAT HE BELIEVED ‘AT THE TIME’ WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO”. We all know that hindsight is much better than foresight. so i for one wish the media would hush the slander and let “JoePA” “RIP”~~~ May God richly bless his family, and keep them safe from all harm…
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It’s a terrible thing that he will be remembered more for his act of moral cowardice than for any of his acts of charity or goodwill, but he made his choice. Which doesn’t make it any less sad.
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I completely disagree. His decades of generosity and good deeds will be his legacy and will trump the mistakes he made with respect to Sandusky. I think we are seeing this today in the public response to his passing. He was a wonderful person and will be greatly missed.
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People are always complimentary in the immediate aftermath of celebrity deaths. I, for one, say bollocks to that. Covering for a child rapist for at least the better part of a decade trumps whatever charity work he did. And that’s taking everything at face value without drawing any other logical conclusions about what the cover-up implies.
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Not to re-litigate the whole affair yet again……but what was “greatly missed” was the opportunity he, and several others in leadership, had to stand up for a kid who was being sodomized in the Penn State locker room. None of the adults in leadership did dick to find out how this kid was doing after being raped, was he one of many, was the abuse continuing with him or others, etc., It is hard at this point to applaud the fact that Joe endowed some scholarships or put Penn State of the football map. His last act was a deplorable act of cowardice and self interest. When confronted with the opportunity to do something decent and responsible, in the face of tragedy, he chose to preserve his own legacy and public perception at all cost.
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And I completely disagree with you. He turned a blind eye to pure evil and a lot of people suffered and will continue to suffer because of it.
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Scott – No offense man, but if you seriously think some good deeds can make up for enabling a child rapist………
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You are going to judge his entire life as evil because he chose to hand-off the information to the AD and President for them to handle? Judge his life cover to cover.
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Joe Pa’s legacy will be that he put the reputation of Penn State ahead of the safety of those kids which is a shame considering how much he meant to the university, students and alums.
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or more bluntly – the image of himself and the university were more important than not raping children.
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I have a hard time giving him praise at this point, perhaps that will soften with time.. but as you said Senator, this is of his own doing… and no ‘aw shucks’ good guy charisma changes the blind eye he took on the Sandusky affair.
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His legacy will be one he created – good and bad – in full. 50 years from now, he will be a footnote, 1000 years, His name will never be spoken again, just like all of us.
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I guess Scott and I are just going to have accept that we are in a minority. I also believe he was a good man who made the mistake of thinking that when he reported allegations that he was getting either 2nd or third hand up the chain of command (and I don’t know if that is campus cops or the administration) that they would investigate and do their jobs. Joe Pa was a Coach not a cop.investigator or even a witness to the matters your attacking him for. Judge not lest ye be judged. Judged by the Court of hindsight and holier than thou….You want to be mad at someone get mad at the witness who s I understand it was an ex-player who clearly could have kicked Sandusky’s ass but did nothing.
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Please. Offering up the ‘holier than thou’ and ‘judge not’ card doesn’t make you enlightened, sophisticated or an especially nuanced thinker. Ignoring basic logic, responibility and compassion for a defenseless child does not require unusually bold heroism — minimal action (call the cops) and concern (follow up w/ authorities to ensure kid was being treated) was all that was required.
Who knows how Richt would have responded if presented with a similar scenario, but I would like to think he would have asked at some point, if not immediately, “who was the child and has he been helped?” Not…. “I guess I will just tell GMac and leave it at that.”
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CDawg,
Legally speaking, JoePa could have yelled what he was told from the highest mountain and the authorities would not have been able to do a whole lot. It’s called hearsay and it ain’t worth squat.
The real tragedy to me is why the DIRECT eyewitness to the whole incident a) didn’t report it to the police, b) didn’t get fired for doing nothing, and c) didn’t intervene during the alleged assault. How the hell does that trifecta occur?
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Agreed on the last paragraph. However, Paterno was in a position of leadership, which has a higher standard — morally if not legally. People can’t cast him as a legend, great man, and builder of men in one breath while explaining away his relative inaction with the excuse that he followed procedure. This is on par with the ‘just following orders’ defense. He was not just some low level functionary who heard some hearsay. He was the leader of multi-million dollar enterprise who had a direct report come to him regarding “inappropriate” activity with a minor by his longtime former employee in Joe’s locker room. A leader does more than just the minimal, box ticking perfunctory act of reporting up the chain of command — especially when that leader is the de factor face of the entire University. A human being with some measure of compassion would require follow-up action be taken by the person they reported it to and if there were no evidence any he would take further action as needed. After telling his AD and President, didn’t it strike him odd that the police were not on-site doing interviews? Did it not occur to him to find out the condition of the child in question? Forget legality, what about basic human compassion?
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A piece of advice…don’t ever start a post with legally speaking, because it makes the rest irrelevant. Want to talk morally speaking?
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I don’t understand giving JoePa a pass on this either. Considering the type of allegations made by McQuery, how could JoePa never follow up with his superiors regarding their findings? How could he continue to see Sandusky on campus and at university functions and never ask about what happened with the allegations?
The answer, sadly, is that he didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to deal with it and, evidently, neither did his superiors.
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jdjrip = Great post.
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what exactly is great about it?
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eh – pass the buck – it’s always up to someone else to do the right thing, right? After all, I’m only one man….not a cop, not superman, what can I do when I’m the boss of an eyewitness who reports to me that he saw a guy raping a child? I mean, I’m just one guy….
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And thank god people who think good deeds make up for enabling a child rapist are in the minority.
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You mean the same player that was given a job by Joe Pa after he witnessed a child being raped by Joe’s long time friend and told Joe about it? Doesn’t take a whole lot of guess work to figure out what went on there. ‘Keep quite young man and a nice job at Happy Valley can be yours’ in practice if not words. Many lives were ruined. I’m not talking about the old men. The defenseless little boys. It sucks that Joe had to make a call. Life ain’t easy. He made the wrong one and little kids will grow up with ruined lives. Screw Joe Pa.
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jdjrip;
NO!! you aren’t in a minority, i am right behind you i just did not know how to say it as well as you, but i did say what i wanted to say!!!~~~
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Wait, so did he pass this morning? Because there were several erroneous reports last night.
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“It’s sad that his life will always be remembered in a more complicated way than he wished. ”
Well said.
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Every time I see Joe I think of the punch line of one of my favorite jokes, “but if you get caught fucking ONE goat!”
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haha. ain’t that the truth.
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Jdjrip: Would you judge if your loved one was in that shower? You can shove the scripture also.
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What you do to the least of them you do to me. That is the proper scripture dbag.
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If ,as I am assuming, dbag stands for dirtbag it would appear that you are exactly the type of judgmental person the Jesus was cautioning the mob about when he prevented the stoning of the adulteress(yes that is what they were going to kill her for) (let he among you who is without sin cast the first stone)Having now used up my bible knowledge I move on to my point, ,If having a different and possibly more forgiving attitude makes me a dirtbag,I plead guilty, but you actually need to actually read my post because I acknowledged I’m in the minority but having a different opinion from a person who immediately resorts to the “what if it was your child”argument makes me glad not to have majority opinion if your the shining representative of same.
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I wonder what that scumbag Sandusky is thinking?
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He probably is not as anxious about shower horseplay as he once was.
just sayin’
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don’t drop the soap
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JoPa NEVER Confronted Sandusky! Claimed he was “Confused and didn’t know how to proceed or what to do”. Try looking in ALL of the newspapers cause the catholic church was having the same problem about that same time. I am sure you could have found something out from them. NEVER is it Acceptable for an Adult to be in the shower with a child. First thing isolate Sandusky from All of the kids. Second get help/counseling for the kids. Did he Ever check on any of the kids or their families? Not that I have heard.
Does anyone else find the “Timing” of all of this more than a little repulsive? Not until After he sets a New NCAA Record does any of this come out. Come on, really… give me a break! If anyone actually believes that this was Not intentionally witheld until his record was set is totally insane. Have no idea who or by what means it was witheld but it was and these kids lives were sacrificed and permanetly emotionally scared for one mans ego.
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YES!! YES< Yes i feel very bad for the children and really hope that they can get the counceling they so desperately need to live productive lives in this troublesome world we all live in today; Chances are what went on with all involved we will NEVER Never know, not even with a trial with all the best crime attorneys to be found & hired, we may not learn too much then.
But as my mom used to tell me when i was a child; "It will all come clean washday, so go ahead and soak all the dirt out you can, and wait til morning for 'WashDay'" What she was trying to tell me was 'We may never find out too much til Jesus comes again and then "Nothing will be hid from his eyes, and we shall know just what we all want to know then..
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Just saw where the Penn State Senate gave JoPa a “moment of silence” today. Strange – that is the same thing he did for those kids!!!
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Jdjrip: Dbag stands for douche bag. Also as a man of such profound faith you should turn the other cheek so I can keep slapping it. As far as your child goes maybe he/she will get lucky and not be molested. However, the chances are 1 in 4 for girls and 1 in 6 for boys. It is an epidemic because of pussies like you.
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You are causing me reflect on how small and inconsequential people behave when they are either in a mob or think that they have the protection of anonymity because you have no idea how reluctant you would be to call me that to my face, My children have been raised in an intact family and would not be the type of child that Sandusky would have the opportunity to groom and molest as you so obviously were. Finis
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I wish nothing but the best for your children pal. Also, I am not questioning you parental skills. Most kids are molested by family friends for your information, so it can happen to anyone. I was not molested thank god but find your lazy attitude about events pussy like.
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