Former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno is “near death,” the (Wilkes-Barre) Citizens’ Voice reports.
Paterno’s wife, Sue, summoned close friends and longtime staff members this afternoon to the State College hospital where Paterno has been undergoing treatments since last weekend.
Paterno wanted to see them and say a final goodbye, Sue told one of the staff members, the source said.
Paterno has lung cancer and was admitted to the hospital last week. He was fired from his job in November for failing to do to enough to address the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.
It’s important to note at this point that a number of the most reliable sources of Penn State news don’t have anything on this yet, so it might be wise to take it with a grain of salt. The last thing any of us want is to get this wrong, and we at SB Nation Pittsburgh have had contentious discussions about the point at which it would be wise to note this. At this point, though, so many people are reporting some variation on this story that we feel like we ought to mention it.
Paterno was, of course, a legendary coach. His legacy will be complicated tremendously by the scandal.