We’ve come to expect that, but thanks nevertheless.

For another interesting perspective, Sally Jenkins offers some further reflections on her interview with JoePa. You may not agree with everything she did with that story, but you’ll understand why she wrote it the way she did.

What is happening with Paterno and PSU is really a meditation on aging, mortality, and the pros and cons of loyalty.

You could draw parallels to a work by Thomas Hardy as well IMO.

you sure do have way with them purty words

Particularly this bit:

The common parallel between many eulogies of Paterno has been to call this a Greek tragedy. This seems accurate enough: there is an aging king figure at the end of a long reign, and then something horrible happens, and a satisfactory cataclysm occurs resulting in everyone’s death and a kind of moral lesson. This would be reassuring in a sense: it would follow a pattern, and thus give some meaning to the Sandusky tragedy.

This seems like editing, the kind often done at memorials to make sense of the senseless. There is no sense, no comparison here. Joe Paterno the man became Joe Paterno the institution, a fundraising machine and brand so welded to the institution of Penn State that the two became inseparable. When the Sandusky scandal hit, the institution protected its own in the name of the institution, leaving all responsibility to a chain of command devoid of personal accountability. Cowardice prevailed, and evil skated along on the servility of those abdicating responsibility.

Paterno failed here, and failed badly. I don’t believe in an ultimate judgment for the kind of pain Paterno allowed to happen. That too, seems like a fictional comfort drawn over the deep discomfort of reality. You could kill Jerry Sandusky a thousand times and it undoes nothing. That’s why they call it evil, not “correctable injustice.” It is why the word exists. That Paterno had some small part in fostering it, and allowing one of society’s basic taboos against inhumanity to flourish under his nose, is undoable and unforgivable. Death does not redeem it, and time does not correct it.

Expressing exactly what I was thinking better than I ever could have. Tip of the hat.

A wonderful summary and tribute. Makes me feel foolish for fruitlessly staring at my blank computer screen for a few hours early Sunda morning.

A sad, fitting ending to this season, and here’s to hoping we never have another one like it.

I’m writing my own tribute for Dawg Sports, but you have already put mine to shame.

This is magnificent.

among my first thoughts after seeing the breaking news crawl across ESPN’s ticker was, “I can’t wait to read Spencer’s take.” Bravissimo, Fearless Leader, for delivering far more eloquent and circumspect thoughts on the matter than I could ever manage.

Great job on getting to the heart of a matter that none of us wish was the bow on an already woeful season.

Very well done, thoughtful piece.

I really felt that you captured what JoePa meant to not just Penn St fans but to college football fans in general. Thank you very much.

Very few coaches know when to leave. Bill Walsh and John Madden thankfully knew when to leave. Paterno and Bowden didn’t.

“Paterno could not do this: he had, like Bear Bryant before him, fused his instruments to his person.”

Damn, son.

when I think of Paterno’s life, career, and legacy.

And the only one I needed to read. Fantastic job, as always. Thank you.

It’s like watching someone play checkers and the another person play chess.

RIP Joe.

Never in my wildest imagination could I have come up with this scenario. Very sad.

“He committed to Appalachian State this morning,” said Todd Wofford, Central Gwinnett’s coach. “They are moving to Conference USA in two seasons, and he wanted to be a part of that. He loves their facilities, the guys on the team and the stadium. He likes how they spread the ball out and says he can come in a make an immediate impact.”

Thread this is coming from.

wear pajama bottoms everywhere now? You’d think they’d at least put on some greasy old jeans before approaching the memorial.

/turns into an old fart

i can pay off his ice-cream debt, which, with interest, mush be up to a whole gallon.

“What sort of asshole tramples through the middle of someone’s emotionally heartfelt impromptu memorial to a man…” then I realize it’s his statue. It’s already one of those days folks…

Because I’m not as bitter as I thought I would be about the 49ers loss yesterday but still very bitter about Tosh leaving Cal two weeks before recruits send in their LOI’s.

Like this one?

Read the story about how they came to be.

Headline says it all.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10215853-headless-body-in-topless-bar-killer-seeks-parole

Have a good one ya’ll.

Fuck cancer.

Gotta see?

Worth full price, or only Matinee?

#teamMustang, the ultimate expression of ’Murrican Maleness and badassery.

who came for PSU away games in Morgantown. They were the siblings, cousins, and friends of the western PA kids with whom I attended WVU. I was struck by their near unanimous admiration for Joe Paterno, the man, not the coach. He was always reported to be a genuinely nice person, who took an active interest in what the students had to say about how htier University was being run.

My youngest brother once worked for the Paternos, wallpapering their house. He said JoePa came around every day when he got home to to talk to the crew and always brought them all a glass of wine. This is the man I mourn, even though I am a die-hard WVU loyalist.