14 DAY TRIAL // Joe Paterno, the famous Penn State coach who was fired after 46 years on the job last November after a massive abuse scandal, has died. The family issued a statement to say JoePa, as he was called, died of cancer.
In November last year, shortly after he was let go from the job amidst claims he knew assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was abusing boys in the locker room, Paterno announced he'd been diagnosed with cancer.
At the time, his family said it was a “treatable” form of lung cancer.
Over the weekend, Paterno was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. It would seem he never recovered.
“He died as he lived. He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been,” his family says in a statement to ESPN.
“His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family, his university, his players and his community,” the statement further reads.
As noted above, Paterno was involved in a very serious scandal just a few months ago, which got the public divided on what side to take.
Several men came forward to say they had been abused by Sandusky and that Paterno knew only too well about it, but never did anything to fix it.
Both men were fired, but it was Paterno's dismissal that got his supporters rallying up in a massive protest.
Actor Ashton Kutcher also got caught up in the scandal – on the wrong side of it, no less. He tweeted his support for Paterno before even knowing the charges that were brought against him, which got his fans and followers terribly upset.
After the incident, Kutcher said he would hand over the management of his Twitter feed to his people, since it was clear a mistake could cost him so dearly, as we also reported at the time.