r/AskReddit • u/DrCompenomics • 12h ago

Who’s the best real-life example of “you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” and what happened?

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u/Beautiful-Cup4161 7h ago

I used to pass by his statue sometimes when I was working. My favourite local restaurant had napkins with a phrase about how we're in Joe's valley. He was a local god.

Many local people defended him rabidly.  Students rioted in support of him. They tipped over a news van, if I remember correctly. It was a very embarassing time.

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u/kjm16216 6h ago

You know they didn't actually remove the statue. They just made it look the other way.

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u/saxguy9345 6h ago

I very much dislike what you said but it made me laugh 

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u/galagapilot 6h ago

I heard they threw a tarp on it and covered it up, similar to how JoePa helped cover things up for Sandusky.

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u/zoeypayne 2h ago

Classic story of a guy who cared too much about make believe that he couldn't see reality. Sports are just a game, folks.

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u/gringo411 6h ago

They almost killed a reporter. I was a senior at the time. To this day I experience shame when I tell people where I went to school.

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u/SkepticMech 5h ago

The news van was local high school students, not PSU students. Not that it negates your point about the local response...

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u/Beautiful-Cup4161 5h ago

Really? Their parents let them go to a riot downtown at night?

I found a video of it on YouTube and it's old and blurry but they look a little old and their voices seem a little deep for high school students.

But I'm a dinosaur with no kids so I don't really know what high schoolers look or sound like

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u/magikarp2122 1h ago

I watched it live, there were kids in PSU shit. I’m pretty sure the other person is wrong, and it was PSU students.

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u/daninlionzden 7h ago

They’re penn state students what do you expect lol

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u/memymomeddit 5h ago

The Sandusky thing was followed by hazing deaths and now the fraternity drug cartel.

Happy Valley is a gorgeous area and I'd have probably loved going to school there, but in retrospect I'm glad I didn't.

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u/Beautiful-Cup4161 2h ago

Sandusky wasn't even the only pedo from that area convicted in the 2010s.

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u/magikarp2122 2h ago

Yep, State College is beautiful, and a nice town, that has grown from what has turned out to be a corrupt shit pile of a college. Now I’m very biased, I’m a Pitt alum, but Penn State should not have a football program anymore, and honestly they should be looking into cutting a lot of funding from it. Also, Joe fucking knew.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 4h ago

The sad part is we have the same exact situation happening today via the Epstein files with barely even a fraction of the public outrage

Penn St students shamed Paterno to death, literally. History could repeat itself

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u/magikarp2122 1h ago

The outrage from Penn State students was that Paterno was fired for covering it up, not that he covered it up.

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u/Financial_Taro_6484 2h ago

My friends got tear gassed. I was out of town for a wedding and was getting called a pedo because I was wearing merch and hadn’t heard the news. Those guys stopped being my friends pretty quickly

My best memory from Penn state was the year before when thousands gathered in the streets the Sunday before finals week to peacefully celebrate the capture of bin Laden. It was the last time I ever felt patriotic. Then the next year, going there felt like going into a very evil place

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u/Exemus 2h ago

It was a weird time. We all hated Sandusky, but many weren't convinced Joe Paterno knew it was happening. He was a very old fashioned guy who would have likely dismissed that kind of talk. But that enabled this stuff to take place while he turned a blind eye.

It doesn't make it right, by any means. And I sincerely hope that's really why he didn't do anything, but we'll likely never truly know his reasons.

One frustrating part was all of the misinformation where people would be like "oh Joe Paterno... Wasnt he that pedo who raped kids?" They'd think it was Paterno rather than Sandusky. So old Paterno fans were really bothered by that.

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u/magikarp2122 1h ago

He grew up in Brooklyn, he 100% knew what that kind of talk meant.

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u/Exemus 10m ago

I get it, and a lot of people feel the way you said. It's how I feel now that I've had time to reflect on it.

My point is that I think most of the people defending him felt the way I mentioned. Many couldn't or wouldn't believe it.

Very few would defend him if they knew he was aware and ignored it. At least I hope.

Maybe I'm the idiot, idk. Just giving my two cents as someone who was around at the time.