JoePa passes on...

[astrosfanatic]

http://espn.go.com/college-football/...h-cancer-fight

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Joe Paterno, the longtime Penn State coach who won more games than anyone in major college football but was fired amid a child sex abuse scandal that scarred his reputation for winning with integrity, died Sunday of lung cancer. He was 85.

This really all happened so quickly. It is sad to see him go, but even sadder that he had to go under such horrible circumstances. I have so many mixed emotions. I feel bad for him and his family, but i am still holding on to feelings of disappointment in Paterno for the way he handled everything. In any case, i hope his family can find peace and comfort in this time of loss.

[The Edge]

you see this sort of thing a lot in older people. 2 spouses who die really close together. Take JoePa's passion, in football, away from him and its just like he had nothing to live for any longer and just let his body succumb to illness.

With that said, I can't help but think that a major generation gap and some over-reaction has helped lead to this demise. While I think it was terrible that he never reported the incidents to the police, I believe in a way he may have misinterpreted the information he was told and also felt like maybe the Athletic director had investigated and done what he thought was right in it and JoePa just went about business as usual. He should have reported elsewhere but I cannot fault the guy and act so uncivilly to a man like him. He gave everything he had to the game I love so much and in the end I think what he may have interpreted as horseplay because in large part things like what happened didn't happen in his days of growing up is what led him to not take things as seriously. I feel bad that this is going to supercede everything he helped college football become.

[RickD]

It's sad that JoePa has passed and even more sad that the Sandusky crap brought him down. In time his legacy will outweigh the way he went out.

[BobH]

A real loss for college football. I can't add anything to what you guys have covered so well. I'm going to pray for his family to find peace and comfort. After what they've been through in recent months they need it.-BH

[soberdennis]

One of the great gentlemen in sports, Paterno will be missed. It is sad that his career ended the way it did. To me he will be remembered for what his players did both on and off the field.
RIP, JoePa.

[Mex86]

It IS sad that Joe went out the way he did, and he will truly be remembered, and revered, for all the players he helped mold into men, and for holding them to high academic standards, and for all his contributions to college football and the Happy Valley community. No one can take that away from him.

HOWEVER... while I can understand a man like JoePa having a 'generation gap' and failing to fully grasp the implication of what was told to him- we're talking the late 1990s when this happened, not the 1950s... as the most powerful figure at PSU, he had an obligation to do more than he did... not legally, but morally... and he didn't. At the very least, he could've barred Sandusky from the campus. Instead, he turned a blind eye and dismissed it, because he thought he had already notified the proper authorities. Given his stature and power in the community, he had an obligation to know better. The scandal no doubt hastened his death and robbed him of the closure he might've gotten on this part in what happened. Instead of a tidy end, it was messy, not the way anyone would've wanted it. Then again, not everyone coaches till they're 85. RIP Joe, and prayers for his family.