Joe Paterno Dead at 85

[+Dave 2,322]

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Joe-Paterno-dies-Penn-State-legendary-football-coach-012112

 

I don't ever remember not hearing his name with college football.

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

I never heard of the dude until the Penn State scandal a few weeks ago. I *never* paid attention to football outside of playing it in 5th grade (boring). Shucks when I was at uni, I tutored until they had a "requirement" that you had to attend a number of uni "functions" one of which was a football game. On principle I stepped down as tutor (physics, calc, etc...) rather than artificially going to some fraudulent university sport thing. I say this because I had a girl come needing help with chemistry and I tutored her and she tells me her COACH told her she had to drop out of chemistry because it and the chem lab took up too much time that she needed to practice basketball. That proved my long hel suspicion that uni sports is a financial fraud, and uni's in general -- watch the student debt.

[von Baur 54]

Then you would have liked Paterno, Lexx. I come from a small town in eastern PA and I can tell you that he was one of the most honored and revered men in the state. And it's not just becasue he was a football coach. His ethics were always top-notch. He would sit any player who didn't meet the academic standards and wouldn't stand for professors rubber-stamping them through their courses. His players who went on to the pro ranks (and there were many) were regularly regarded as among the smartest, most hard-working in the NFL and every one of them credited Coach Paterno with instilling that attitude in them. Don't get me wrong, there were some failures, too, but they were far-and-away the exception rather than the rule. It's a damned shame that his reputation will forever be tarnished by his association with Sandusky.

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

 

I totally screwed up. Thinking about this today, I got a flood of memories of 5th grade football. Boring? uh...we had fun, and I never thought of this stuff in years....best was the shoulder pads, loved them to no end, then staying late after school on the field as the sun neared the horizon. This was Pelahatchie Mississippie. Never mind about that. Don't remember much real games, I have more fond memories of practice, but I saved one game big time (defense). There was this huge dude hauling the ball with nothing between him and the goal but me half his size. All I could do was get in front of him and grab and hang on. He fell onto me CRUNCH. It was beautiful. But overall football did nothing great long term for me, and I quickly left it behind for other things.

 

Yea what I saw at the uni (UNF) made me totally hate uni football - basketball . That girl eventually dropped her chem course. Pissed me off ... as Dave found out here hehe.

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Oh and thanks Baur for the tips.

[+Jug 99]

Quite a few things about the life of JoePa endear him to football fans. The thing that I shall always remember about JoePa is that he took care of his players and did everything he could to see that they got what they came for, an education. He stands tall in the crowd of coaches who have used players up to make themselves famous(e.g. Bear, Nick, and most of the rest), but JoePa made educated men of his players. He was not perfect, but I believe he made few bad choices. The choice he made to cover a long-time friend's perversions caused much harm and I know he took deep regret for that to his grave. Nevertheless, it is important to remember the many, many things he did right. Penn State is a better place for having him.

 

RIP, Joe.

[+Major Lee 18]

He may have been the greatest university coach ever, but I would bet money he NEVER let any of his grand-kids spend the night at Sandusky's house....