and now, JoPa's take on newspapers and sports.

Ah, here it is:

Game Called — what more is there for us to say?
How dull and drab the field looks to the eye
For one who ruled it in a golden day
Has waved his cap to bid us all good-bye.
The Big Guy’s gone — by land or sea or foam
May the Great Umpire call him “safe at home.”

 

WFW from my grandfather, who was a year older than JoePa and read the paper every day. He died last year.

 

Paterno reads the obits first to make sure he isn't in them.

 

Because 99.9 percent of writers aren't Grantland Rice and an attempt to write like that sounds like incoherent crap, for one reason.

 

The Grantland Rice lede would get killed today because it is flowery garbage. It's important in the same way, say, Robinson Crusoe is important in an English literature class. Tom Perrotta could story tell circles around DeFoe, but historical importance means something.

I read this shit every time someone disagreed with a column I wrote: "In Grantland Rice's day, sports writers had flair! They could write! These guys like Waylon are a pale shadow of that!"

 

Mr. Rice's best quote, IMHO, is in my sig.

RB

 

Two CEO types just twittered one another saying Paterno must go, that he's out of touch with their vision for America.

 

" ...oh, and by the way...
GET OFF MY DAMN LAWN!"

 

I still don't know how reporters feverishly twittering news conferences helps news organizations make money.
If newspapers would concentrate on being newspapers (telling compelling local stories) rather than twittering and blogging newspapers would still be viable. Newspapers stopped being newspapers and now only morons buy them.

 

It's a little disturbing to think that some columnist's smiling picture is staring back at an 80-year-old man taking a dump. And, 10 minutes later, that same picture and the words the columnist spent several hours piecing together are dismissed and at the bottom of a garbage can.
Welcome to the wonderful world of sports writing, kids.

 

Joe Paterno is also old enough to remember when you took the newspaper to the bathroom to do more than read it. You used it. And he probably was using an outhouse too.

 

Joe Paterno:
Champion of newspapers, after stabbing them in the back for 35 years.
He's a first-ballot selection for the Hypocrisy Hall Of Fame.