The respect is mutual.
The two most common proximal causes of cancer death are infection and bleeding... as the result of a tumor eating through some tissue and destroying a key defense barrier that either keeps bugs out or blood in.
This process happens to many, many people irrespective of the type of cancer they've acquired...including in those people who have a strong will to live.
The natural history of this man's cancer is such that he probably had it well before the scandal broke, that it was growing, spreading and eating into tissue barriers, and it was going to kill him on its schedule and there wasn't going to be a damn thing he could have done to stop all of that.
I've felt, even before the scandal, that there is so much undeserved mythology surrounding the man that it was borderline pathetic....Paterno was more of a cult-like figure than he was a football coach. More of a talisman than game day tactician.
So I'm here to say he didn't die of the sadz. He died because his cancer ate through something. I don't like the idea of him being hailed as just another victim in a sad story..
In fact, I'm not convinced he ever fully understood the gravity of what occurred under his watch. If you go back through the timeline and read his statements and whatnot, you can make a strong case that he was closer to completely out of touch with reality then someone who was profoundly moved by his own failures to act.
My hunch is that for decades before his death, Joe Paterno existed in a limbo, in which he was like a cross between Chance the gardener and
the nose of the Leader of the Aires Project.
jmo, ymmv
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