With 409 victories, Paterno is the most victorious coach in NCAA FBS history.He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 to 2011.I look around the world and see people who have real problems, serious problems. Are you kidding? I've lived a great life. In final interviews with Posnanski, Paterno came to accept what had happened with his reputation, Posnanski writes. The book details Paterno's struggle with lung cancer from November 2011 through January 2012, when he died. What difference does it make? I just hope there is justice for the victims.'" Maybe they will judge me by what I tried to do. "' really doesn't matter,' said Paterno in our last conversation," Posnanski writes. In the end, however, Paterno seemed to shrug off the criticism. "He had his dark moments, certainly, when he wondered how old friends could turn so suddenly on him and how people at Penn State, the school he had loved and championed for most of his life, could believe such terrible things about him," the book reads. The day after he was fired, Paterno sobbed uncontrollably, the book reports. 'That's it,' D'Elia told Paterno family members. "Later, a rumor surfaced that the university was going to have its own press conference. "About an hour before the scheduled time, a university representative called D'Elia and said the press conference had been canceled by order of the board," the book says. Posnanski also describes the night Paterno was fired by his beloved Penn State, as the board of trustees told him to cancel a press conference Paterno had called to discuss what he knew about the abuse. D'Elia would remember telling him, 'You realize that the people out there think you knew about this? They think you had to know because you knew about everything.' "He objected that he already knew what was in there, but they told him there was no room left for illusion. "On Monday, the family tried to persuade Paterno to read the presentment," the book says. To Paterno, however, it was less clear, according to the book. When Sandusky was arrested, it became apparent to the nation and Paterno's family that the coach would have to explain his role in the abuse that occurred on campus. Posnanski, a former Sports Illustrated journalist, began working with Paterno on the book before the allegations against Sandusky became public. The new, 400-plus page tome covers Paterno's life before the scandal, though its main focus shifts to the fallout from Sandusky in the latter half of the book. He maintained that he never knew about a 1998 investigation into Sandusky, though a report released in July by former FBI chief Louis Freeh found that he had known about it. Paterno, who died in January, said that he wished he had done more to investigate the incident involving Sandusky and the boy in the shower.
Sandusy has been convicted of 45 counts of child sex abuse, and is awaiting sentencing in a Pennsylvania jail. Posnanski notes that after Paterno's family convinced him to read the grand jury presentment outlining the charges against Sandusky and two other Penn State officials, the 85-year-old coach asked his son, Scott Paterno, "What is sodomy, anyway?" And he just wasn't as involved as he used to be,'" the book reads. I think a younger Joe would've said to Tim after a few days, "Hey what's going on with that Sandusky thing? You guys get to the bottom of that? Let's make sure that's taken care of." But he didn't understand it. 'But, to be honest, that's just not how Joe was in the last years,' said one of the people in his inner circle. "Many of the people who had come to admire Joe Paterno believed that, no matter his own legal role, he should have made sure the incident was reported to the police. When Sandusky retired after the 1999 season, Sports Illustrated asked Sandusky if he would miss Paterno.ĭespite the tension, the book maintains that Paterno never knew that Sandusky sexually abused children, and only had a vague idea that Sandusky had acted inappropriately with a boy in the Penn State showers in 2001, based on a description by graduate assistant Mike McQueary.
0 kommentar(er)
