RIP Joe Paterno

The point isn't why Bryant died so quickly after retiring. The point is that Paterno at least thought enough of it that he feared retirement.

 

The one nit I would have with the obit is the proclamation of "greatest coach" and "most storied college football program" (the current national champion, along with Notre Dame and USC, might disagree).

I think "one of college football's greatest coaches" would have sufficed in a news story. Or "winningest coach." And also: "one of college football's most storied college football programs."

 

It was horrible. He didn't mention anything about Sanduskygate until graph 6.

 

I'm just glad that we didn't have a writer who would indiscriminately stick "-gate" behind stuff in a failed attempt to sound smarter than they are.

 

Yes he did.

"Unique and never-ending" was all-encompassing way to get to the hard news before getting to the rest.

 

As an aside, you can add "548 games coached at the major college level" to the list of records that will never be broken.

 

Good take by Wetzel.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-wetzel_joe_paterno_obituary_012212

 

Doodah wants Sandusky lede, doodah, doodah...

 

The guy who wrote the Elizabeth Taylor obit for the NY Times, Mel Gussow, died six years before she did.

Despite the way his career ended - Paterno was the first coach who really was bigger than the school he coached at. The Paternos have the right to be upset at the way he was treated (though it doesn't mean they were right).
The thing that still confused me is that if people were so protective of Paterno's legacy, why more wasn't done earlier about Sandusky.
It's like everyone on the bridge of that Italian cruise ship, everyone realizes they are two miles off course, you just don't entrust a half-billion dollar cruise ship to the whims of one person, no matter how much you believe in him.

 

Think I'll wait until his role in enabling the raping of children is known before I pay homage to Joe Paterno.

 

Again, though, good journalism knows the difference. That's what elevates the credibility.

When you do screw up, you have to accept it and work harder, not rationalize it or look for excuses. You lose credibility when you do that, too. It's understandable that mistakes could be made in something like this story. But you've got to charge right out there and say: "We screwed up badly, we apologize, and here's how it happened." Readers will understand and appreciate that approach and thank you for being straightforward about it.

 

Onward's State's detail of what happened Saturday night -- a hoax email and a dishonest reporter.

http://onwardstate.com/2012/01/22/what-happened-last-night/