Posnanski and the Paterno book

Somewhere on this site.
With a full guard detail.

 

I think that it's possible this could be true, particularly in the last decade. But if that was the case, then inaction was merely a path of least resistance by the leadership at Penn State. He might not have called the shots, but he had the run of the place, and was granted a tremendous amount of deference just because no one wanted to deal with the fallout of crossing him. Which could have been just as dangerous as his active participation in the halls of power, and, if this is accurate speculation on my part, proved to be so.

 

Jeff Pearlman says the book should be shelved for a year or two.

http://www.jeffpearlman.com/

He's right, IMO.

 

Jeff makes some fair points, but that's exactly the kind of thing he'd go ballistic over if someone wrote it about him. I guess he lives up to my ridiculous write a book/rip a book standard.

 

Pearlman must have read my posts in bringing up the Paterno class.

 

Is there a consensus on the veracity of those Posnanski comments to the students at Penn State? DD, you had said a couple pages ago that there was some consider-the-source doubt in your mind at least? If those are true, they're worse than I remembered. Doesn't mean he can't write a good book, though. We'll see.

 

I don't recall any effort by either Posnanski or Forde to disavow those quotes. In fact, IIRC that was the last straw before Pos choosing to go dark for months. (With someone else's urging or advice, maybe?)

If there is doubt about the comments, it is doubt that has been stirred up retroactively.

 

Double Down doesn't believe the quotes need to be defended against, and an anonymous message board poster's word is good enough for me.

I'll base my opinion on statements Posnanski has made. Cryptic Twitter posts aren't good enough to sway me.

 

You know Jeff better than I do, but his reaction if it happened to him doesn't have much bearing on whether it's a good idea or not. Emotional responses don't necessarily convey the correctness of an idea.

I just think it needs to play out. I'm not omnipotent, so I'm not going to declare that the Paternos, for example, have no good response to the Freeh report.

 

I've been having thoughts similar to Pearlman's for a while now. If I were Posnanski, I'd call my publisher and tell him that I need at least another year. You only get one shot. There are tons of new angles. You need to talk to more people. A lot more people. About a lot more things.

 

The Paternos have to change their message if they want a good response, because the response today was pathetic.

 

I don't think Posnanski has the worldview needed to write that book.