Paterno's career and life intersected with Meyer and Bowden up to its confusing end
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 | Football, Scott Carter
There has been so much said and written about Joe Paterno since news of his death turned from speculation to fact Sunday morning.
More than 48 hours later, confusion still lingers for those trying to put Paterno's life into context.
One of the best accounts I've read is by Michael Weinrab for Grantland.com.
Weinrab grew up in Pennsylvania, lived in State College and attended Penn State, where the iconic Paterno spent the final 62 of his 85 years. Paterno was Penn State and Weinrab grew up like most in Happy Valley, looking toward Paterno with a healthy mix of respect and reverence.
Sadly, Paterno's end at Penn State was engulfed by controversy. For many of his most ardent fans, it was as if the best movie they had ever watched for two hours had the worst two-minute ending in the history of Hollywood.
And now he's gone, 12 weeks after career win No. 409 and a little more than two months since controversy swept him away from the field and ultimately, onto his death bed in a way eerily reminiscent of Bear Bryant.
Regardless of your opinion on Paterno, it's difficult to imagine a faster fall from sainthood and such a complicated ending to an otherwise distinguished life.
In Weinrab's obituary on Paterno, he concluded his thoughts with this final paragraph:
“The ending will simplify the vision for some, but if there's one thing we should take away from the life of Joseph Vincent Paterno, it's that his reality was never as facile as it will become now that he is gone. He may have grown into something larger than life, but he was also the first football coach who truly symbolized complexity and nuance, and in that way, he will always be more man than myth.”
For me, that 76-word summation of Paterno offered as much clarity as anything I've read the past couple of days. Like all of our idols, Paterno was human like we are.
My only time around him was at the final of his 37 bowl games, the 2011 Outback Bowl against the Gators. It was also Urban Meyer's final game as Florida's coach and I was fortunate enough to observe a few behind-the-scene moments with the two.
It was obvious that Paterno was one of Meyer's coaching idols.
“He will go down as the greatest football coach in the history of the game,'' Meyer said on more than one occasion that week.
Paterno also showered praise on Meyer in the weeks leading up to the game.
The two obviously had a good-natured relationship, highlighted by the fake punch to the jaw Paterno gave Meyer prior to the game that ESPN has shown in recent days while covering Paterno's death.
One moment I specifically remember is following an Outback Bowl press conference a few weeks before the game. I flew into a small airport near Raymond James Stadium with Meyer, Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley and Steve McClain, UF's associate AD for communications.
Paterno arrived with Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, another casualty of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal.
After the press conference at the stadium was over, the Florida contingent returned to the small airport first. Soon afterward here comes Paterno, who noticed Meyer still waiting and quipped that the Penn State airplane was ready for departure.
Meyer fired back that he would already be home resting by the time Paterno landed. Both chuckled and off Paterno went shuffling into the dark.
A year later Paterno has passed away, Meyer is at Ohio State and Curley faces perjury charges for allegedly lying before a grand jury in the Sandusky case.
While the 2011 Outback Bowl offered just a tiny glimpse at Paterno, he seemed very familiar due to my days at The Tampa Tribune. In the fall of 2005, as Paterno and Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden battled to finish as major college football's all-time winningest coach, they garnered a lot of national headlines leading up to their meeting in the Orange Bowl that season.
I was looking for a career change around that time after several years of covering professional sports and accepted an assignment to move to Tallahassee to cover the final years of Bowden's career and his race with Paterno.
I never expected Bowden to outlast me but he did thanks to the declining newspaper business. Still, in my four years in Tallahassee, I wrote countless stories that referenced Bowden's race with Paterno and their legacies. I also got to know some of Bowden's Southern charm that always set him apart from the stubborn and crusty facade that the Brooklyn-born Paterno sometimes projected.
Soon after the Tribune decided to stop covering FSU in July 2008, I quickly picked up an assignment to write a cover story on Bowden's nearly finished career for Tallahassee Magazine. The interview was about three weeks after I lost my job and I had not seen Bowden in several weeks.
Tina Dechausay, FSU's sports information director at the time, set up the interview for me in Bowden's office like she had done other times during my time on the beat. Unknowingly to me, she had told Bowden about my situation and that I wasn't writing for the Tribune any longer.
As I walked into Bowden's office, he got up from his office chair and came over to shake my hand like he usually would on trips there. Then the Bowden that countless others have met over the years surprised me by showing real concern about my situation and wondered if he could help, even offering to be a reference if I needed. It's a gesture that I'll never forget.
The first person I thought of Sunday morning when I heard of Paterno's death was Bowden. I couldn't help but think of the irony of Saturday night as Paterno neared his death.
On the very same night as Paterno faded, the 82-year-old Bowden, forced out at Florida State after the 2009 season, was coaching in his first game since leaving FSU. Bowden coached the winning team in Saturday's Battle of Florida All-Star Game in Boca Raton.
He returned home late Sunday morning to hear of Paterno's passing. Paterno outlasted Bowden on the sideline and finished with 20 more career wins, but Bowden, who often said “there's only one big event left after retirement,'' has adjusted well in his post-coaching life by a steady stream of speaking engagements, corporate events and lots of golf to stay fit.
“I hated to hear it,'' Bowden told ESPN.com after hearing of Paterno's death. “It is really sad. The guy had the most illustrious career in the history of college football, probably all of football. To put the years together and have the success he had and then have it all end like this, it's just tragic.''
Amidst the sadness and conflicting emotions that have surfaced from Paterno's death, like those written by Weinrab, Bowden's words hit the mark for many of those still trying to grasp the final chapter of Paterno's life.
