Remembering A Legend

Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno died on Sunday
after losing a battle with lung cancer. Paterno may be
gone, but the legacy he left at Penn State will live on
for years to come.

What keeps you going in life? For some, it's the desire to be successful. For others, it's the love of family that gets us through each day.

For Joe Paterno, it was his love of college football and Penn State.

Paterno died Sunday morning after a battle with lung cancer. He was 85.

When it comes to coaches, few have had a bigger impact than Paterno. From the 409 wins, 37 bowl games and two national championships in 46 seasons as coach of the Nittany Lions to the thousands of young men he influenced, it's safe to say that there will never be another coach like Joe Paterno.

The past two months have been trying on Paterno — especially for a man who built the Penn State program in the right way. But even in the midst of the scandal involving former assistant Jerry Sandusky, Paterno held his head high.

It wasn't just football. Paterno loved everything about Penn State. He was a crucial part of getting a library at Penn State. Which is why is firing in November came as such a crushing blow to the legendary coach.

While the Sandusky scandal was a stain on the coach's career, most people will remember Paterno for the good things he did at Penn State. He falls in the same category as Paul "Bear" Bryant, Eddie Robinson and Bobby Bowden — both in terms of wins and the things he did for his university.

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said Paterno will go down as the greatest coach in the history of them game, and I can't agree more.

No disrespect to Meyer, Alabama's Nick Saban or any of the other coaches in college football, but they just don't have what JoePa had. His ability to win in a classy style was as strong as his Brooklyn accent.

When the season kicks off, it will be odd not seeing Paterno stalking the sidelines in his traditional garb of a windbreaker and a tie. But I think I can speak for all college football fans when I say, thank you for showing us how to live life the right way, Coach.

Not-So-Happy Valley

Part of the job of being a head coach is to know what's
going on in your program at all times. Because of the
Sandusky scandal, Joe Paterno lost his job when he
failed to report young boys being assaulted by former
coach Jerry Sandusky.

I've always had the upmost respect for Joe Paterno and the program he ran at Penn State. For 50 years, he did everything he could to turn the Nittany Lions into champions — and he did it the right way.

That is until we learned about Jerry Sandusky.

The life of a college football coach is never easy. During the season, most coaches get an average of four hours of sleep a night — even fewer if there's a big game coming up.

What Sandusky did was unconscionable. And while Paterno did report Sandusky's actions to people above him, Paterno could have done a lot more.

For 50 years, parents of athletes have trusted Paterno to protect their kids while they were at college. In fact, I'm sure that's one thing he promised to do when he was recruiting the athlete. But how can you walk into a recruit's living room and make those promises when you know that one of your assistants is sexually assaulting young boys in his home and on campus?

When Paterno was relieved of his duties as head coach at Penn State, no doubt this thought had to cross his mind. He realized that he had a responsibility to those players and to Penn State.

Fans protested the Paterno's firing immediately afterward, but I believe it was absolutely the right move. As a college football fan, you hate to see one of the greatest coaches ever go out like that, but there are more important things in life than football.

When all the smoke clears and the dust settles, maybe some day we can look back on JoePa's career and marvel at what he did for the Nittany Lions. But until then we can't look past what happened at Penn State. Afterall, that's how we got into this mess in the first place.