Joe Paterno: Dead

[Kevin W.]

http://deadspin.com/5879688/

Phil Knight doing some huckstering to the jonestown idiots to keep them buying that merch.

What a putz.

[CS85]

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/penn_state/138095758.html

I'm not letting this get buried in the last page. This is Bill Lyon of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Read this garbage and tell me that people aren't delusional.

FAMILY. That will be his enduring legacy. Family.

Family is all. Don't you hear them:

We Are . . . We Are . . .

Family is the cry that echoes through the rolling hills of the Valley of Happy, that spills out from the Fortress Nittany, out into the real world, there tethered to the blue-and-white umbilical cord of thousands upon thousands upon tens of thousands of alumni. Don't you hear them:

We Are . . . We Are . . .

Once a Penn Stater, always and forever a Penn Stater. Don't you hear it, hear the cry, proud, defiant . . . Family:

We Are . . . We Are . . .

That is the enduring legacy of Joseph V. Paterno. Family.

We Are . . . We Are . . .

And it all began early in the last century in a Brooklyn household with a family whose patriarch encouraged his family at every turn to think for themselves, to think their way through a problem, to feel free to disagree but without being disagreeable.

You could be loud but not insulting, loud if the passion rang true and deep, loud if you were defending the indefensible. And so it was on hot summer nights in Brooklyn that the Paterno family would engage in family debate, so spirited that when the windows were up and air conditioning a distant dream, passersby would stop and stand on the sidewalk and listen to the family Paterno as they worked things out.

All those years later, the memories remained.

"I loved the give and take of those nights," Joe Paterno said. "It made the family strong, it reinforced us."

He would take that with him all the way to now, all the way to:

We Are . . . We Are . . .

He came to State College wiry and fiery, with just a hint of c**k-of-the-walk strut in his stride, and a shrill, nasal voice he used to defend his position at every turn, certain he had yet to be wrong about anything. He fully intended to be a lawyer, perhaps the next William Jennings Bryan, but somewhere along the line he got sidetracked. The coach called Rip took him on as an assistant.

He lost track of the times Charles A. "Rip" Engle threw him out of the coaches meetings for mouthy insubordination. The coach called Rip always took him back, of course; otherwise, this story would have ended 61 years ago. And then we wouldn't hear:

We Are . . . We Are . . .

He married. For keeps. That's part of being family. You give your word to be there until you come to that part where it says forever. There is a commitment and it is unconditional.

So then, same wife. Same house. Same job. Same school.

It's Happy Days. It is sublimely old fashioned. It is OK to be naïve.

We Are . . . We Are . . .

And his players, battalions of them now coming forth to testify, tearfully, to the impact he had on their lives.

One of them, Ted Kwalik, an all-American end, said once: "The older I get, the smarter Joe becomes."

He was their patriarch, too. It was family. It was tough love.

You want to play football here, son? Then check your ego at the door. You want decals on your helmet? Go somewhere else. You want your name on the back of your jersey? Go somewhere else. This is a team. This is a family.

We Are . . . We Are . . .

They had children. Those children had children. And by the time Joe Paterno passed Sunday morning, the family Paterno had enough members for a football team and a half.

And along the way they took to calling him JoePa, which he loved so much it made him misty, because it was so fitting: JoePa . . . Pa as in Patriarch. The head of the family.

And family, family is for life.

And so now it is to be hoped that whatever hard feelings there may be will soften and meld, and that the grief and anger will subside, and the healing process begun.

The cry remains long after the man has gone:

We Are . . . We Are . . .

[cshookemHORNS]

http://deadspin.com/5879688/

Phil Knight doing some huckstering to the jonestown idiots to keep them buying that merch.

What a putz.

I completely disagree.

[WSU151]

http://deadspin.com/5879688/

Phil Knight doing some huckstering to the jonestown idiots to keep them buying that merch.

What a putz.

I completely disagree.

So you don't put any blame on Paterno?

[CS85]

I found this hilarious!

[Evil Doctor]

http://deadspin.com/5879688/

Phil Knight doing some huckstering to the jonestown idiots to keep them buying that merch.

I saw that Phil Knight bit on the news tonight. I couldn't believe it. So apparently everyone BUT Joe Paterno is to blame. There isn't a faceplam demotivational poster on 4chan that can describe my feelings on hearing that...

[cshookemHORNS]

http://deadspin.com/5879688/

Phil Knight doing some huckstering to the jonestown idiots to keep them buying that merch.

What a putz.

I completely disagree.

So you don't put any blame on Paterno?

I believe that Paterno had a part in the scandal but, at a memorial there is no need to down play a magnificent career and life time he had. The point of memorials is to reflect on their life not the last 3-4 months that had been dark and horrible for Penn State and the Paterno family.

[Kevin W.]

Then it wasn't right for Knight to use the eulogy to attack those who fired Paterno either.

[IceCap]

http://deadspin.com/5879688/

Phil Knight doing some huckstering to the jonestown idiots to keep them buying that merch.

What a putz.

I completely disagree.

So you don't put any blame on Paterno?

I believe that Paterno had a part in the scandal but, at a memorial there is no need to down play a magnificent career and life time he had. The point of memorials is to reflect on their life not the last 3-4 months that had been dark and horrible for Penn State and the Paterno family.

What don't the Parerno apologists get? It wasn't the last "3-4 months" that were "dark and horrible for Penn State and the Paterno family." It was the last decade that was dark and horrible for those kids who were sexually abused by Jerry Sandusky, thanks in large part to Joe Paterno.

You and others need to come to grips with the fact that this wasn't a single incident that happened recently. It was child rape, ongoing for a decade. Neither Penn State or Joe Paterno deserve and sympathy for having to "endure" the shame of this. Those kids endured far worse because of Paterno and Penn State's inaction.

[DEAD!]

So how many of us are getting lots of Joe Paterno garbage on our facebook feeds? It inspired this conversation with a pal:

friend: DON'T DISAGREE OR WE'RE NOT FRIENDS ANYMORE

THIS IS HOW MUCH I CARE ABOUT DEFENDING SOMEONE I NEVER MET

me: Thank your lucky stars this wasn't in Champaign! Imagine [other friend's name redacted]!

friend: thank god it wasn't the chief raping children. imagine.

me: Now that's a mental picture!

friend: well, as long as he was trained in how to do it by real pedophiles

I'm a bad guy

I am. Two of my cousins went to Penn State and they and their parent all drank the Koolaid. What's worse is that their father went to Ohio State and drank the Tressel koolaid as well. Very delusional my family...

NO, no, the Penn State Kool-Aid was far worse... in hindsight of course.

[nuordr]

http://deadspin.com/5879688/

Phil Knight doing some huckstering to the jonestown idiots to keep them buying that merch.

I am so thankful for Phil Knight for standing up to what he and thousands of players, coaches, fans, and friends of Joe Paterno believe! Phil Knight is the man, and Joe Paterno was PENN STATE!!!!!!!

[Kevin W.]

http://deadspin.com/5879688/

Phil Knight doing some huckstering to the jonestown idiots to keep them buying that merch.

I am so thankful for Phil Knight for standing up to what he and thousands of players, coaches, fans, and friends of Joe Paterno believe! Phil Knight is the man, and Joe Paterno was PENN STATE!!!!!!!

Gotta love the apologists. If Bill Gates was an accessory to murder, his countless charitable contributions and the incalculable effect he's had on the world's economy wouldn't be enough to get him freed.

[nuordr]

http://deadspin.com/5879688/

Phil Knight doing some huckstering to the jonestown idiots to keep them buying that merch.

I am so thankful for Phil Knight for standing up to what he and thousands of players, coaches, fans, and friends of Joe Paterno believe! Phil Knight is the man, and Joe Paterno was PENN STATE!!!!!!!

Gotta love the apologists. If Bill Gates was an accessory to murder, his countless charitable contributions and the incalculable effect he's had on the world's economy wouldn't be enough to get him freed.

That is an opinion and not fact because you have nothing to base that off of, therefore you are being an apologist yourself because you are making a case in writing about what you believe.

[Kevin W.]

Actually, yes, it is a fact. If Bill Gates handed me a gun and I used that gun to kill someone, he'd be an accessory to murder.

[nuordr]

I can show you case files where people have got off for accessory to murder. But none of these people were Bill Gates, therefore, you are making an assumption with no factual evidence to back it up. People do not get charged go to jail for every crime. I have seen a drug dealer that was busted for growing 779 plants walk away because someone messed up the paper work. Therefore, who is to say that someone didn't mess up the paperwork with Papa Joe or your so-called Bill Gates case?

[Kevin W.]

Way to completely miss the point, genius.

You know what? I'm not even going to bother. I'm not interested in getting into an argument.

[nuordr]

Way to completely miss the point, genius.

You know what? I'm not even going to bother. I'm not interested in getting into an argument.

The point? You had no point because you were saying that Gates would go to jail when you had no factual evidence to say that he would. Back your points up with fact and I will see your point.

[Kevin W.]

No, the point was that a lifetime of accomplishments doesn't make up for that unexcusable thing that he did. Knowing that the rapes were going on and not reporting them to the proper authorities is almost as bad as the rapes themselves. You have an obligation to go to the police if you know something like that is happening.

[nuordr]

No, the point was that a lifetime of accomplishments doesn't make up for that unexcusable thing that he did. Knowing that the rapes were going on and not reporting them to the proper authorities is almost as bad as the rapes themselves. You have an obligation to go to the police if you know something like that is happening.

He followed the chain of command, the same chain of command process that the military teaches you. He told his superior, which was the right thing to do. I would love to see one of you guys go into the military and jump the chain of command. That would be priceless when you find out what happens. He was human and humans are not perfect. That is why there is a day of reckoning for us all when he die, a day of judgement. Joe has passed on from this world and you and the rest of the haters just keep on hating. Why don't you just forgive the man and move on? I promise you would be a lot happier about the situation.

If you want to know true forgiveness, do a Google search on Charles Carl Roberts IV, he was the man that went into an Amish community in PA and went on a killing spree. He eventually killed five girls and himself. But get this, the Amish community went to the wife of this murderer and comforted her and the rest of the Roberts family. They forgave the man and his family for his wrong doing the next day. Now if that is not a perfect example of forgiveness than I have nothing more to tell you.

[infrared41]

Dear Paterno Apologists,

What the is wrong with you people?

Signed,

Every Rational Person In The World