The Paternos Have Got To Be Trolling Us Now
Every once in a while, someone from Joe Paterno’s family pops up and says something so completely out of touch, you have to think it was a bit. In an interview to be released in full tomorrow on CBSSports.com, his son Jay Paterno discussed his father’s legacy.
- About his father:
“Here’s a guy who lived his life — no DUIs, didn’t cheat on his wife, no crime. …[Football coaches] don’t have a police force. They can’t investigate things. It’s not the Ox-bow Incident where you go out and round up a bunch of people and hang people. We had that kind of vigilante justice in the South. That’s why we have Civil Rights laws, thank God.”
“One time [former QB] Michael Robinson before practice said, ‘You know Jay I always thought Abraham Lincoln was this great man and I read some things and he was a racist.’ I said ‘Michael, wait a minute, you’re judging him in 2005. For his time, he was seen as radical. You like for him to have the same views on race relations that we have, but he was way ahead of his time.’ He said, ‘I didn’t think of it that way.’ I made that point: It’s very easy to judge Joe Paterno’s actions in 2001 based on what we know in 2012, 2013. It’s not fair.”
- About working for the new football staff:
“One of the things that George W. Bush did was phenomenal for an ex-president: He didn’t weigh in on everything. Coaching’s hard enough. If they feel they want me to come do something [I will].”
- About new coach Bill O’Brien’s successful first year:
“Everybody gets excited by a new guy, but you’ve got to temper it a little bit…The league was down. The league is going to be better.”
To repeat an old joke, it’s amazing that the one Paterno legacy that the family hasn’t held up is keeping quiet.
Read more at CBSSports.com.
