[NU Sports] Paterno

[hakirsch at aol.com]

Well I do feel for him and his family but it is a jump to conclusions that he would be alive today were it not for the scandal and subsequent responses. He sure  would have had the cancer. Whether he gave up fighting it because of the aftermath of the various revelations, and whether that shortened his life is something that I don't think anyone of us will know unless we hear from his family (or doctors) that they agree or disagree with that assessment and then that alone wouldn't validate it or not

Harry
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: "Dennis W. Brandt" <tbng at comcast.net>
Sender: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:48:24 
To: <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Reply-To: "Dennis W. Brandt" <tbng at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Paterno

I had a aunt who was active into her 86th year.  Always an upbeat person, 
she was, always positive, always living a moral life.  She had nursed her 
husband through a lengthy demise with Altzheimer's until his death finally 
freed her to live the rest of her life unburdened.  One day, she could a 
full laundry basket up the cellar stares without breathing hard.  The next 
day - literally - she could not move her legs.  Cancer got her and overnight 
destroyed all functionality to her lower extremities.  No pain; she just 
couldn't stand or walk anymore.  After a few weeks of treatment revealed 
that she would be forever wheelchair-bound, all spirit vanished from her.  I 
tried to cheer her, to see a spark of her old self, but she told me in a 
defeated voice I had never heard her use, "I just want to die."  A month 
later, she got her wish.  The official cause of death was cancer.  The real 
cause was that she had simply given up the desire to live.

JoePa gave up living too.  All that he had been was stripped from him 
overnight and ignominy put it its place.  For six decades he was a man to be 
admired.  He ran a clean program, and his players had damned well go to 
class.  I know.  I have a friend who was one of his linebackers.  JoePa 
accomplished his mission.  Penn State is the only Big Ten university to 
match Northwestern's graduation rate and has consistently been 
head-and-shoulders above other state universities.  He brooked no nonsense 
from his players and swiftly dealt with issues when they arose, and there 
was never a whiff of scandal surrounding the program.  Then, suddenly, he 
was a pariah.  It didn't matter that JoePa had broken no laws.  Indeed, he 
had followed them to the letter.  It didn't matter that nothing in his past 
ever hinted that he would tolerate what Sandusky allegedly had done.  And, 
of course, Sandusky has been convicted of nothing to this point, guily as he 
looks in the press.

The holier-than-thous so perfect that they throw stones with a clear 
conscience have gotten their wish.  JoePa is dead, and they killed him as 
surely as if they had shot him in the head.  I hope they enjoy his absence. 
The rest of the world won't.

 

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