Paterno To Retire

Cobra.....
Once upon a time if you wanted a linebacker you go to the rank and file of anyone coming out of Penn State and you were sure to get a good one. Penn State= Defense. It`s such a shame that a legend like Joe Paterno will retire with any black mark associated with his name...but direct or indirect associations with child molesting is an impossible tag to shake. Shame on Joe, he should have done the right thing...now he`ll be somewhat tarnished in an otherwise spotless career.

AP

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State football coach Joe Paterno will retire at the end of the season, his long and illustrious career brought down because he failed to do all he could about an allegation of child sex abuse against a former assistant.

"This is a tragedy," Paterno said. "It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."

Paterno has been besieged by criticism since former defensive co-ordinator and one-time heir apparent Jerry Sandusky was charged over the weekend with molesting eight young boys between 1994 and 2009. Athletic director Tim Curley and vice-president Gary Schultz have been charged with failing to notify authorities after an eyewitness reported a 2002 assault.

Paterno decided to retire at age 84, in the middle of his 46th season with the Nittany Lions. He won 409 games, a record for major college football, but now, the grandfatherly coach known as "Joe Pa," who had painstakingly burnished a reputation for winning "the right way," leaves the only school he's ever coached in disgrace.

"I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case," he said. "I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief."

But Paterno might not be able to execute his exit strategy as the school's board of trustees is still considering its options, which could include forcing Paterno to leave immediately.

Paterno has not been accused of legal wrongdoing. But he has been assailed, in what the state police commissioner called a lapse of "moral responsibility," for not doing more to stop Sandusky, whose attorney maintains his client's innocence.

Paterno has been questioned over his apparent failure to follow up on a report of the 2002 incident, in which Sandusky allegedly sodomized a 10-year-old boy in the showers at the team's football complex. A witness, Mike McQueary, is currently receivers coach for the team but was a graduate assistant at the time.

Paterno told the athletic director, Tim Curley, who has since stepped down and has charged with lying to the state grand jury investigating the case. The Penn State vice-president has also been charged, and the university president could follow.


"If this is true we were all fooled, along with scores of professionals trained in such things, and we grieve for the victims and their families," Paterno said Sunday, after the news broke, in a prepared statement. "They are in our prayers."




Paterno's requirement that his players not just achieve success but adhere to a moral code, that they win with honour, transcended his sport. Mike Krzyzewski, the Duke basketball coach, said in June for an ESPN special on Paterno: "Values are never compromised. That's the bottom line."

His sudden departure leaves both his fans and detractors to ask who the real "Joe Pa" was.





It will be a debate for years, and history will decide whether the enduring image will be that of Paterno surrounded by all those reporters as he hurried to practice this week, or his signature look on the sidelines.


"Deep down, I feel I've had an impact. I don't feel I've wasted my career," Paterno once said. "If I did, I would have gotten out a long time ago."




"He will go down as the greatest football coach in the history of the game. Every young coach, in my opinion, can take a lesson from him," former Florida coach Urban Meyer said after his last game with the Gators, a 37-24 win over Penn State at the 2011 Outback Bowl.




On Oct. 29, Penn State beat Illinois 10-7, earning Paterno win No. 409, breaking a tie with Grambling State's Eddie Robinson for most in Division I.

All he wanted to do, he had said two days earlier, was "hopefully have a little luck and have a little fun doing it. I've been lucky enough to be around some great athletes."

He said the success came because "the good Lord kept me healthy, not because I'm better than anybody else. It's because I've been around a lot longer than anybody else."

So long, in fact, that it seemed there was no getting rid of him, even as age and injuries crept up and his famous resistance to modern technology -- tweeting, texting and other so-called must-haves of 21st century recruiting -- turned him into a dinosaur.

But just as much, it was a string of mediocre seasons in the early 2000s that had fans wondering whether it was finally time for Paterno to step aside.






It was, until this week, the biggest question to dog him. That made him no different from the handful of coaching lifers who stay in the game into their 70s and beyond.

"Who knows," Paterno said with a straight face in October, when he was asked how his latest injuries affected his future. "Maybe I'll go 10 years."

The terms of his departure conflict significantly with the reputation he built over nearly a half-century of turning a quaint program into a powerhouse with instant name recognition.

He made it to the big-time without losing a sense of where he was -- State College, population 42,000, a picturesque college town smack-dab in the middle of Pennsylvania.


He was referring, of course, to the social media site Twitter -- and no, the technology-averse Paterno didn't have his own account.

Paterno had no qualms mocking himself or the media, with which he could be abrasive at times. Stubborn to a fault, Paterno also had his share of run-ins with his bosses or administrators, as might be expected for someone who has spent decades with the same employer.

His status didn't make him immune from external criticism. As his reputation grew, so did the spotlight on his on-field decisions and program as a whole.

In 2002, following a stretch of run-ins with officials over controversial calls, an effigy of a football official, yellow flag in hand, was seen hanging on the front door of Paterno's home. Though he never said how the doll got on the door, Paterno hinted his wife, Sue, might be responsible, and it was all done in fun.

After he started the 21st century with four losing seasons in five years, Paterno faced growing calls for his dismissal -- once considered heresy in Happy Valley -- during the 2004 season.

The next year, Penn State went 11-1 and won the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions capped the campaign with a thrilling 26-23 win in triple overtime at the Orange Bowl against Florida State and Paterno's longtime friend coach Bobby Bowden.

Following a messy split, Bowden left the Seminoles after the 2009 season after 34 years, finishing with 389 wins.

Asked in 2010 whether any contemporary coach would stick around as he and Paterno had, Bowden said: "Not likely. It doesn't seem to be the style nowadays." He cited high salaries and the demands that come with the big paycheque as reasons, along with the allure of professional coaching.


In 1963, a fellow Brooklyn native, the late Al Davis, became the general manager-coach of the Oakland Raiders of the AFL and offered Paterno the job of offensive co-ordinator. He turned Davis down in spite of an offer to triple his salary to about $18,000 and a new car.

Three years later, Paterno took over as Penn State's head coach after Engle retired. The New England Patriots offered Paterno the head-coaching job in the early 1970, only to be rebuffed.

When Engle and Paterno arrived, Penn State had seen three coaches in three years and had an offence made up mostly of walk-ons. Engle never had a losing season at Penn State, but when Paterno took over in 1966, the Lions still were considered "Eastern football" -- in other words, inferior.

As the program turned into something much bigger than that, Paterno's fans always insisted it was more than simply about football and winning.

But the program hasn't been a perennial Top 10 contender, like it had been through the 1990s -- not that Paterno measured success entirely by the outcome on the field.

"He teaches us about really just growing up and being a man," former linebacker Paul Posluszny, now with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, once said. "Besides the football, he's preparing us to be good men in life."

Paterno was a frequent speaker on ethics in sports, a conscience for a world often infiltrated by scandal or shady characters. He made sure his players went to class.

As of 2011, Penn State has had 49 academic All-Americans -- 47 under Paterno -- the third-highest total among FBS institutions.

The team's graduation rates consistently ranked among the best in the Big Ten. In 2010, Penn State's 84 per cent rate trailed only Northwestern's 95, according to the NCAA.

In the ESPN special, Krzyzewski said Paterno had been able to "change how you teach ... without changing the values of how you teach."

Joe should have retired moons ago... Poor fellow he can barely walk now... He is a legend..Too bad it had to come down to this to get him to hang'em up........

I don't follow college sports nor do I even follow football, but I have been somewhat following what has been going on. I think this poor guy is taking the fall for all of this. Yes, he should have reported it to the police, but that being said, he did report it to officials at the college. Instead of him taking the fall for this, it should the people that choose not to do anything about it.

Sad way to see him go.....that's for sure...

BPG~

The Penn State board of trustees announced Wednesday the immediate removal Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno and school president Graham Spanier.


"In our view, things had reached a point where we had to make a change for the best long-term interest of Penn State," board member John P. Surma said in making the announcement.

Shurma said the decision of the board was unanimous.

"He's made a great contribution to the university," Shurma said when asked about Paterno.

He said Paterno was informed of the decision on the phone prior to the public announcement, but would not characterize his reaction.

The announcement comes five days after former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was indicted on sex abuse charges and athletics director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz were charged with perjury and failure to report a crime.

Pressure had mounted on Paterno's status this week as details of the case emerged. Receivers coach Mike McQueary testified he informed Paterno he witnessed a sexual incident between Sandusky and a 10-year-old boy in the showers of the football complex in 2002. Paterno told Curley, however, police contend Curley and Schultz did not report the incident to authorities.

Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley will serve as interim coach. School provost Rodney Erickson will serve as interim president.

Paterno, 84, had announced earlier Wednesday he would resign after the season. The Nittany Lions are 8-1 and ranked No. 12 in the country. They will play No. 17 Nebraska in what would have been Paterno's final game with the school.

Paterno arrived at Penn State as a 23-year-old assistant in 1950 and took over the Nittany Lions program as head coach in 1966. His storied tenure has produced five undefeated seasons, the last in 1994, and national championships in 1982 and 1986.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame four years ago, and a bronze, life-size statue of the coach running onto the field, right index finger raised, stands outside Beaver Stadium.

Paterno finishes his career with 409 victories, the most of any major college football coach. But his involvement in the scandal and subsequent removal as coach will be part of a legacy that includes his charitable gifts to the university he worked for more than 60 years and bears his name on its library.

Spanier, 63, has served as president at the school since 1995. He has been criticized for their role in the sex abuse scandal involving former football assistant Jerry Sandusky.

A Facebook page titled "Fire Graham Spanier" was created after the scandal broke Saturday and he issued controversial statement supporting Curley and Schultz.

"With regard to the other presentments, I wish to say that Tim Curley and Gary Schultz have my unconditional support," the statement said. "I have known and worked daily with Tim and Gary for more than 16 years. I have complete confidence in how they have handled the allegations about a former University employee.

"Tim Curley and Gary Schultz operate at the highest levels of honesty, integrity and compassion. I am confident the record will show that these charges are groundless and that they conducted themselves professionally and appropriately."

Curley is currently on administrative leave to deal with his legal case. Schultz has resigned.

Spanier also serves as chairman of the Bow Championship Series presidential oversight committee, which has authority over the commissioners that run the system that determines the crowning of a BCS football champion.

The group has a meeting scheduled for Monday in San Francisc