Joe Paterno, who had seemed so invulnerable to so many for so long, wept uncontrollably the day after he was fired by the Penn State board of trustees in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal, according to excerpts from his biography scheduled to be published on Tuesday.
The book, “Paterno,’’ written by Joe Posnanski, is being excerpted by GQ magazine.
According to the excerpt, the day after Paterno was fired by phone, he talked with his assistant coaches at his home. Later, Brandon Short, a former team captain, came by and asked Paterno how he was doing.
Paterno, according to the excerpt, said “I’m OK,” but the last syllable was muffled by crying. It was then that Paterno broke down saying, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself’’ and began to cry uncontrollably.
The 85-year-old former coach, who would die from lung cancer within two months of his dismissal by the school where he had been the head football coach since 1966, reportedly told his son, Jay, “I have spent my whole life trying to make that name mean something. And now it’s gone.”
According to the magazine, another son, Scott, was the first in the family to understand the Pennsylvania grand jury indictment of Sandusky, who was later convicted on 45 counts of sexual assault on 10 boys during a 14-year period beginning in 1998, could end his father’s career.
Scott had worked as a lawyer and as a lobbyist. He would sometimes tell people, “Hey, don’t kid yourself, I’m the —hole of the family.”
When Scott read the indictment, he called his father and said, “Dad, you have to face the possibility that you will never coach another game.”