Posnanski has said he wrote “the most honest book” he could. But that doesn’t make Paterno the right book. Posnanski is determined to show the redemptive side of Paterno. That’s admirable, and fair; Paterno was more than the Sandusky case, and more than what happened in the few months before he died.... Every anecdote about Paterno’s good character, every testimonial to his tough love (and there are dozens) feels like a calculated rebuttal to the accusations that he wasn’t aware enough or caring enough or vigilant enough when it mattered most—that he will be perceived forever by many as a hypocrite who said that football should be secondary to morality and ethics and a life well-lived but, at the moment that will define him, didn’t practice what he preached.Posnanski's new website, Sports on Earth (a co-production of USA Today and MLB Advanced Media), with writers including Will Leitch, Alex Belth, and Mike Tanier, debuted today.
related: It was announced today that PSU football games will no longer blare "Sweet Caroline" on the PA system, because touching me, touching you ... yes, one understands why that's problematic.
So Posnanski is trying his hand at Simmonsing, with Leitch as Klosterman-lite and Tanier covering the Barnwell beat?
ReplyDeleteIn the one excerpt I read, only one thing came across: that Paterno should have quit ten years ago. He came across as woefully out of touch.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were in Rome in July 1980 and saw Paterno with a woman who most definitely was not his wife. My Dad, a Kentucky alumni and die hard fan, recognized Paterno and called out, "Hey, Coach!" Paterno and his friend looked aghast - like deer in headlights, the story goes. They turned tail and literally ran. The woman ran straight into a street light or a statue or something and came away with a bloody lip.
ReplyDeleteI cannot emphasize how much my mother, now an 80 year-old widow who misses my Dad terribly, enjoys telling that story. Bottom line? Paterno was not a nice person.