There are many mixed emotions when it comes to Joe Paterno's death this weekend. There will always be the underlying child rape case that Jerry Sandusky was diddling kids at Penn State and that Joe Paterno didn't do enough to stop it. Joe Paterno did tell people in the University, but he didn't do enough as those people tried to sweep in under the rug. But since I have no emotion connection to Paterno and the University, let's forget the scandal and remember the man.
Joe Paterno was the head coach of Penn State University for 61 years, he has the most bowl wins than any coach in history, 2 National Championships, he ran a relatively clean program, won 409 games, 13+ separate Coach of the Year awards, and a bunch of other stuff.
Joe Paterno is and should be loved by the millions of people he came into contact in his 61 years. Millions of people still support him despite the child rape scandal going on. 61 years is a real long time and one blemish (although it's huge) doesn't make him Jerry Sandusky, and shouldn't take away from all the positive things he did over his lifetimes.
With that being said, if this scandal never came out, it's kind of sickening that Paterno probably would still be coaching Penn State and be looked at as a hero. So although this is a tricky situation, I don't really know how to feel about Joe Paterno or his legacy.