A coach's coach

"If you ever scream about how much you love NaVorro Bowman (San Francisco 49ers), Sean Lee (Dallas Cowboys), Paul Poszluzny (Jacksonville Jaguars) or Aaron Maybin (New York Jets) then think for a moment about who made them the men they are today: Joe Paterno."
Alex Ferguson Quotes of the week

Joe Paterno, the man who had helped to transform the university and the college football program into a behemoth, had been taken off the respirator at the hospital after treatment for lung cancer, and he was coming to his last down.

But also on Saturday night, Beaver Stadium, the 110,000-person 'House That Joe Built' just up the hill from State College was silent.

In fact, God - as he'd already had a quiet word with 'Joe Pa' himself before whisking the old man up to the heavens on Sunday morning - had made the stadium the most perfect, untouched white. And even Penn State students - who pride themselves on wearing white to big-time football games - would have said: "This is the white out of white outs."

Also outside the stadium a memorial was building with candles and flowers outside the statue to Coach Paterno, which stands with his finger raised in silent salute. I remember that statue - I made sure I was parked by it in 2003 when Joe Paterno - football coach, legend and hero to millions got off the bus before my first game at the stadium.

After all, I'd trekked all the way from New York City to Pennsylvania on a Saturday afternoon to watch the Nittany Lions (I'd been galvanized into paying tribute after watching an ESPN documentary on the coach in 2003), and I didn't want to miss my chance before he retired.

In true Paterno fashion, he didn't actually leave until 2011. By the time I started my support in 2003 and the time he was fired in 2011, he had won two conference titles and taken his team to five bowl games. Before that, he'd won two National Championships and another Big Ten title, sent many players (most of them defensive) to the NFL, and created a college football powerhouse and with it, a destination to watch a football game (if you haven't been to a game at Beaver Stadium, then for crying out loud go).

Tributes

But Paterno wasn't just a football coach. He wanted them playing the right way, not making mistakes on the defensive front (one of my friends who went there said: "No-one runs on Penn State!") and more than anything else it seemed, he wanted his players to get a good education and behave themselves. Any academic failures were rewarded with suspensions regardless of game size, and, if things continued - permanent exile from the team. And although Penn State had its disciplinary troubles - namely in the 2004 season when it seemed every week a player was getting arrested for something or other - things calmed down noticeably from then on.

If you ever scream about how much you love NaVorro Bowman (San Francisco 49ers), Sean Lee (Dallas Cowboys), Paul Poszluzny (Jacksonville Jaguars) or Aaron Maybin (New York Jets) then think for a moment about who made them the men they are today: Joe Paterno. he was their college football coach, after all.

Bowman and I met after the San Francisco locker room after the 49ers won at Wembley in 2010. We talked about various things, including Paterno and the decision making made on the field. After all, we always wanted to know if Paterno actually did any play-calling in his latter years. "I can assure you every bit of decision making would go through Paterno," Bowman (who actually left Penn State after his third year to pursue NFL riches) told me in the San Francisco locker room after the 49ers Wembley win in 2010. "And that's how it is."

Paterno was also a coach's coach. His death has brought forth some incredible tributes. Steve Spurrier, the legendary Florida Gators coach said: "I've coached around 300 college games and only once when I've met the other coach at midfield prior to the game have I asked a photographer to take a picture of me with the other coach. That happened in the Citrus Bowl after the '97 season when we were playing Penn State. I had one of our university photographers take the picture with me and Coach Paterno, and I still have that photo in the den at my house. That's the admiration I have for Joe Paterno. It was sad how it ended, but he was a great person and coach."

Nick Saban, former Miami Dolphins coach who has three National Titles under his belt (including this year at Alabama) said: "Joe Paterno gave his life to college football," Saban said. "I'm a guy that always believed in Joe Paterno. Anytime you don't win, there's going to be some reason that you shouldn't be the coach, because all the love that we receive as coaches is conditional on one thing, and that's winning the games. I don't think it had anything to do with his age. They just hit a little dry spot. I knew that if he stayed there, the kind of competitor that he was and the kind of program that he wanted ran, they would bounce back, and they certainly did."

Jeopardize

Legends aren't always golden gods. Michael Jordan will be remembered for his failure on the baseball field as well as his basketball heroics. Muhammad Ali wasn't all sweetness and light outside of the boxing ring. And for Joe Paterno, he had over 400 wins, but he also had a very, very dark ending to his life.

In November Paterno was fired from the program that he built over the course of half a century after former assistant Jerry Sandusky was accused of molesting children in the Penn State building. Paterno was never charged with any wrongdoing, but the critics said that he could have done more. In an interview with The Washington Post before he died, he said: "I didn't know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was," he said. "So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn't work out that way." He added: "In hindsight, we wish we'd have done more".

That's an understatement. And to say his memorial service - I'd recommend Beaver Stadium for it. There will be thousands who'll want to attend.

Rest in peace, Joe Paterno - and I mean that.