Leaked! Joe Paterno Recruiting Indoctrination Transcript Part 1

Joe Paterno on Joe Paterno, Football Coach

[Mission: Impossible theme plays in the background]

I think it's a privilege to call yourself a football coach and it's something you have to earn. And because a football coach does, he has the ability to create new and better realities, and improve conditions. You know, when you teach a kid hit someone properly and they get that perfect hit and really concusses someone, they’re seeing things you wouldn’t believe. Uh, being a football coach you look at someone and you know absolutely that you can help them deliver double vision to someone.

So for me it really is the Grand Experiment and it's just, like, it's something that, uh, I don't mince words with that, you know with anything. But that policy with me has really gone, “boy!” There was a time I went through it, I said, you know what, when I read it, to have football players who go to class and get an education. I just thought *poof* this is it. This is exactly it.

Being a football coach, when you’re driving and you see a woman run a stop sign, it's not like anyone else, it's, you drive past, you know you have to do something about it. Because you know you’re the only one who can really help. So, you let her know the reality of the situation, that you can really hurt someone doing that and her husband’s like that’s my wife and I told him that’s your problem, pal.

That's, that’s what drives me is that I know that we have an opportunity and, uh, to really help for the first time and effectively change people's lives, and I'm dedicated to that. I'm gonna, I'm absolutely, uncomprimisingly dedicated to that.

The University is there to help, ok. But we, also as the team, we have a responsibility. It's not just the University. It's not just Graham Spanier. It's not just me. It’s not Tom and Galen and Jay. It's you. It's everybody out there. Re-watching the tapes, and looking to see what needs to be done, saying ok, am I going to do it, or am I not going to do it? Period. And am I going to look at that team, or am I too afraid because my own desire to compete and win isn’t as high as someone else's desire, and that’s all it comes down to.

Because I won't hesitate to putting ethics into someone else, you know because I put it ruthlessly in on myself. And I think that I respect that in others, and, you know, I am there to help. We're here to help. And my opinion is, look, you're either on board or you're not on board, ok? Which is it? If you're on board, you're on board, just like the rest of us. Period. If you’re not I’m gonna make you run all day long, you think you can go out drink, get in fights and not have any consequences. Not here son.

I used to be the authority around here. I get a call in the middle of the night, we picked up so and so doing whatever. Thanks, officer I’ll take care of it. Next morning, it’s time for some rehabilitation. Some say, oh that’s not punishment, but they don’t know. Uh, that once you know these tools and you know that they work, it’s, when they finish running every step in that stadium, it’s like ok coach I get it, I won’t be getting in any more trouble.

Travelling the world and meeting the people that I've met, you know, talking with these parents in various fields, they want help, and they are depending on people who know and who can be effective, and do it, and that's us. That is our responsibility to do that and get their children ready for life, whether it’s in the NFL or not, get them an education. Jay’s still learning, but I’m not ready to give up on him yet.

Being a football coach, these whiny reporters are turning always to you, so you ready to retire yet, and I don't have time for that, you know, so I ask them when are they retiring and I give them my two cents, which is a lot, I remember a day when that was enough to purchase Louisiana, and or whatever. It's like, I’m here to help.

If you're a football coach, you see life, you see things, the way they are, in all it's glory, you know, in all of it's complexity, and the more you know as a football coach, the more you become overwhelmed by the fact I keep having undefeated squads and yet find new ways not to win a national championship.

[Laughs] And, they said, “so, have you met an AP voter?” [Laughter, clapping his hands] And I looked at them and you know and I thought, what a beautiful thing, because, maybe, one day, it will be like that. You know what I’m saying? Maybe one day we’ll have a playoff to decide a champion and it will be that. Wow, AP voters, they'll just read about those in the history books.

Read Part 2 here