Joe Paterno Speech: Penn State Coach Addresses Football Team After Announcing Retirement

With his role in the revolting sexual abuse scandal at Penn State already forcing a reexamination of his legacy, football coach Joe Paterno announced on Wednesday that he intends to retire at the end of the season.

Although Penn State's board of trustees still has say in the matter (and could show him the door as early as today), Paterno informed the team of his plans shortly after he issued a statement.

Senior safety Drew Astorino later discussed Paterno's emotional speech during a conference call with reporters.

"He just told us he put in a letter of resignation. He thinks that would be best for Penn Sate, best for his family and best for everybody else. He doesn't want to put Penn State through a war or a fight or a media war against anybody," Astorino said, via ESPN's Adam Rittenberg. "He just always wants us to remember that this team will always be a team and always be together, not just for the next so many games and next year but we'll be a team for the rest of our lives."

Junior quarterback Stephon Morris said that some of the players were moved to tears as well and that Paterno's main message was, "Beat Nebraska."

"I still can't believe it," Morris told the Associated Press. "I've never seen Coach Paterno like that in my life."

According to several reports, Paterno was broke down in tears and the players gave him a standing ovation as he walked out of the room.

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Paterno spoke w team for about 10-15 mins. He told players he was leaving&broke down in tears. Players gave him standing ovation as he left

November 9, 2011 5:17 pm via UberSocial for BlackBerry Reply Retweet Favorite

Comments

[joepaforlife]

06:45 PM on 11/11/2011

jimmy walker is gay and likes boys

[mother10]

11:24 PM on 11/10/2011

HERO my AZ...he has a dirty secret of schit in his pocket and hide it ! If it had been his grandson, HE would have found a way to DO MORE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!JUST DIE ALREADY

[GlennWatson]

09:56 PM on 11/10/2011

I thought he was fired.

[ladymcbeth45]

10:29 AM on 11/10/2011

Hey Joe, how bout crying for the 10 year old that was raped?

[mother10]

11:25 PM on 11/10/2011

AMEN !

[GEORGE W TUSH]

08:59 AM on 11/10/2011

Paterno fired by phone. Perfect. The board did the MINIMUM required, just as JoePa did in 2002. Sweet irony...

"Don't feel sorry for Paterno. He's had his life. Feel sorry for these boys, because they may never get one."- Rick Rielly

[Richcrafter]

08:49 AM on 11/10/2011

WawawawawawWA cry baby child molester supporting fraud! You should have done something! Maybe when your grandchildren are raped by an old man you'll get it. Or not.

[garybez]

03:40 AM on 11/10/2011

JOPA shoulsnot be considered one of the guities.He did exactly what responsible do, report the incident to hugher authorities to be investigated. Did they do there part . That's where the question is.It was JOPA's job to call Police, suppose the accuser was ot telling the truth,that is why he went to his superiors for investigation and it was up to them to call Police and JOPA.

reply

[Woodn88s]

04:33 AM on 11/10/2011

excuse me............at PennState there was no higher authority than Joe P
He did the very least he could have done.
time to pay for your thoughtlessness Joe P.
you had a role in ruining young men's lives

[roshni]

08:57 AM on 11/10/2011

Rubbish. He could have prevented the rape of children and did not report to police.

[MrBwood]

12:49 AM on 11/10/2011

He cries about retiring, maybe he should have cried when he found out his right hand man was raping ten year olds. Good riddance

[roshni]

08:57 AM on 11/10/2011

Agree.

[kima]

12:44 AM on 11/10/2011

as a PSU Alumni (1990) I can only say...how sad. How so terribly sad. Not for "JoPa" or the program or the school. How sad for the kids that suffered and were abused and...
WTF?!!?!
really?
I thought I hated college sports while I was in college. this is just eff'ed up!
the 99% are done with the status quo...college sports is bread and circuses. let's try something different....

[Woodn88s]

04:33 AM on 11/10/2011

agreed,
It's time all the abuses of these self proclaimed sports gawds are brought down.
build character?.................not by my definition

[wdog]

06:05 AM on 11/10/2011

Be careful you a heading into the belly of the beast!

[LickMyDecalsOffBaby]

12:27 AM on 11/10/2011

what about the tears of the families of the abused children?

[Jabandit]

10:57 PM on 11/09/2011

Oh, poor poor Joe. It's all about you and Ped State football, isn't it Joe? Good thing you get to hide in the press box with no headset while you're "coaching" your team. Bear Bryant you are not, but you do fit right in with your Pope.

[Grapetrader]

10:51 PM on 11/09/2011

I dont beleive I am reaching too far here when I say that this poor man will be dead within months of retiring. This job was his whole life and he will not know how to cope with the loss of his beloved football program.

[roshni]

08:59 AM on 11/10/2011

Wah wah wah - too bad a few kids had their lives ruined, it's all about Paterno and his ego.

[time2talk]

10:19 PM on 11/09/2011

For a man to have climbed to the heights that Paterno did, I originally felt so bad about his falling to the depths, but now I'm just mad. How many days between 2000 and 2011 did this man go to work and not do the right thing, the honorable thing, the thing that would have protected these children? Did he talk to his wife about this? I doubt it. Did his sons know. Again, I doubt it. I think he knew what he should have done, and out of some warped loyalty to Penn State, he kept it quiet and covered it up. Who couldn't have been senile that long ago.

[magedfoxx]

10:10 PM on 11/09/2011

Paterno, 84, the Nittany Lions coach since 1966, says he'll retire at end of season.

Hey, Paterno - not your decision.
You're out!
You have been replaced with an interim coach.

[tomtor13]

10:05 PM on 11/09/2011

All of you so called experts think you know it all. Why should he resign immediately if his own players want him to stay for 3 more games. Resigning immediately will only make those who always hated him for whatever reason, probably covetousness which is your own sin. Penn State will rise from the ashes of this incident and continue to be a great university. What happened is in no way Joe's fault..those above him are the guilty ones. Sandusky hopefully gets life in prison.

[Winthorpe]

10:41 PM on 11/09/2011

The so-called experts read the news updates. You might want to do the same.

[TJane]

10:55 PM on 11/09/2011

I can't believe you don't grasp what happened here! He and his good old boy football cronies knew sandusky was raping defenseless children and instead of reporting it to the police, they passed the buck and gave him a slap on hand because their precious football team is more important than a child's well-being and they didn't want it to tarnish the school's reputation.