Thursday, November 10, 2011

One of Charlotte's own writers and the book he plans on Paterno

Sports Illustrated writer Joe Posnanski, who graduated from UNC Charlotte and began his journalism career at The Charlotte Observer, has been in State College, Pa., this football season working on a book on Joe Paterno.

Posnanski, who recently moved back to Charlotte, is now trying to figure out the direction his book goes after the scandal surfaces this week. I will tell you this -- he will figure out something, because Posnanski is one of the most gifted sportswriters in America. But he is wrestling this week, as so many are, with all the twists this dark story has taken.

In his SI.com blog, Posnanski explained what drew him into writing about Paterno:

"A few months ago, I began working on a book about Penn State coach Joe Paterno. I have spent the last few months living in State College, Pa. Paterno gave me permission to write the book, but plays no editorial role in it. I decided to write about Paterno for a hundred reasons, but mostly because I’m fascinated — fascinated by a 60-year coaching career, fascinated by the Grand Experiment, fascinated by his motivations and values and the apparent and interesting contradictions of his personality. There have been other books written about Paterno, good books. It seems to me that there is more to say…"

Posnanski also included his thoughts on where the book is headed and why he will hold off on writing his opinion on what's happened with Paterno this past week, writing: "I need time. This story, for me at least, needs time. This thing is so vile, so grotesque, that it is human nature to want everyone to pay. Innocent children were hurt, scarred, and as a parent this is something so horrible that I cannot even think of a penalty harsh enough. There is no way to see this thing clearly now, not for me, anyway.

"Writing about Joe Paterno is a challenge for many reasons, but probably the greatest challenge is that his personality attracts extremes. He is called saint. And he is called hypocrite. He is a hero. And he is a villain. He is real. And he is a phony. And I believe deeply that he is none of these things… it wouldn’t be much fun or a challenge to write about him if he were a simple label or a simple man. I came to State College to write about a real man. I won’t tell you anything surprising: This terrible, evil story has made it harder. But I do buy into Tom Hanks’ line about baseball. It’s supposed to be hard …"

In Posnanski's personal blog , he refered to the Sports Illustrated blog and said that's all he planned to write on the situation for now:

"I know there are people who believe that I have a responsibility to write more, to have an opinion, to come out strong, I know this because many, many people have written to tell me that in no uncertain terms.

"I respect their opinion. But I disagree with it. The way I see it: I have a responsibility to write the best, most insightful and most honest book I can possibly write about Joe Paterno. That's what I signed up for. I'm not backing down from that because of this awful, evil situation. I'm also not walking away from a life and a man. When something this horrible happens, it's hard to hear yourself think -- it's impossible for me to hear anything. I won't add to the noise. If you want to read instant and strong opinions about Penn State and Joe Paterno, I can assure you there is no shortage of howling there."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Posnanski is an excellent writer and this is a book I will certainly buy. I'm glad to see him show some restraint, unlike every other member of the media.

Anonymous said...

I went to a Penn State game about 40 years ago. With a 35-0 lead and less than 10 minutes left, Paterno still had his first team in the game, Franco, Lydell and a NFL drafted qb. Paterno was trying to run up the score, apparently to impress voters. The other team was totally outclassed and Paterno had no mercy.
In the years since, I can't watch Penn State football. I cringed, my skin crawled every time Paterno was lauded. Now, everyone knows what I knew all along. His football program is more important than a 10 year old getting molested. He's two faced, a fraud and a phony. RIH, JP.

Anonymous said...

Not too hard to figure out how 150,000 angry fans felt on campus last night about the mistreatment of their beloved hero JoePa and how he has been unfairly railroaded by these incompetent self protectionist directors.

There are millions more who could have the entire Board of Trustees impeached for such an outrageous unwarranted act against the guy who put PSU on the map with his unblemished stellar record having nothing to do with the Sandusky child abuse.


Sue the bastards.

Anonymous said...

Penn State Board of Regents has relayed that Dateline's To Catch a Predator Host, Chris Hansen, will assist with weeding out potential coaching candidates during the upcoming coaching search. This move was expected as the school seeks to repair its reputation.

Anonymous said...

I'm a little shocked Scott was allowed to mention the writer graduated from UNCC. He must have snuck that in without the Sports Editor knowing about it.

Anonymous said...

Insiders say they know Paterno is 100% innocent and his unblemished impeccable record was supposed to remain intact intact but the wheels just saw this as a chance to unload an 84 year old coach who just kept hanging on and refused to quit.

Paterno and his wife still live in the same small white frame 1200 sf home on campus as they have for the past 65 years.

This had nothing to do with any child abuse and they know Joe was totally clean of anything.

The only problem this could backfire as this has tainted Paterno with a character assasination and libelous and slanderous. He needs to file a civil lawsuit to at least clear his image was tarnishment sue to so much typical ignorance in the lib scumbag media.

Sportwriters or wantabes are the lowest form of raw sewage on the planet and the least knowledgable. They need to be sued.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 6:23AM,

You have to be kidding me. Paterno thought his football program was sacrosanct. Nobody wanted any controversy so they buried this with Sandusky.
This was pure evil and they did very little about it. This is not only one episode but multiple.

It was so sacrosanct that apparently they waited until Paterno got the 409 victory to go past Grambling.

It is utterly despicable and Paterno deserved what he got. There are at least 8 ruined lives in this story for Paterno's unwillingness to really get involved.

It is a great stain on PSU. You can't take all the glory and refuse to take the shame when it is time. Tressel from OSU got deservedly booted for much less. Now you fools want to protect child rape.

Good luck with that.