Paterno and The Rest Of The Season

Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, the doctor tending to Football-God-Joe-Paterno, held a press conference this afternoon and fully addressed Coach's position. It was very informative because it shed light on a number of interesting subjects, each to be discussed below (or read it all yourself here):

1. When is Joe going to be back on the sidelines?

On the field the rest of the season. As far as being at the game, like I said, if we can make arrangements up in the press box to have his leg elevated and to be comfortable, we can consider that. Frankly, we are going to try to do that if we can.

2. Could Joe be Back for the bowl game?

It is possible.

3. How serious are Joe's injuries?

The most serious complication would be a pulmonary embolism that would interfere with the blood flow in his heart and lead to the demise of the patient. There was a famous professional linebacker from Alabama who broke his back and had that complication develop. It is not something that happens to people just over the age of 40. It happens in youthful people and it is a very significant risk with any type of lower extremity fracture. The further up the leg, the more serious the risk, so at the knee is a moderate-high risk.

4. So are you saying Joe won't be in the stadium? Or, will he just not be back on the field?

No, I am not ruling that out. That is correct. Based on the assessment Saturday morning if he feels and looks like he can be there, I will let him be there.

5. Are there any lingering affects from Joe being run-over in practice a few weeks ago?

He did, actually. He had some rib fractures on his left chest. That interferes with his ability to push with that arm and right now we are working with that. To give you a sense of the mental and physical toughness of this guy, he had three fractured ribs and never missed 10 seconds of practice…10 seconds. He got knocked down, knocked the dust off his pants and kept coaching. I don’t think there are many people who would be willing to do that or have the capability of withstanding that kind of discomfort and do that.

Basically, Joe is an amazingly good shape for nearly being 80 years old and having a few cracked ribs, a broken leg, and some torn knee ligaments. This prompts me to say: "My 80 year old, living god of a football coach can beat up your teams crappy, young coach!"

Seriously though, it seems like if there is any safe way for Joe to be back to coaching he will be. Whether he will be completely confined to the press box has yet to be determined. Of course, you know Joe is so anxious to be back to work that he is being uncooperative:

He basically wants to try to get up longer than he should be when we have him stand at the bedside, non-weight bearing on his leg. He wants to utilize the muscles more and bend the knee more. There is some healing that has to go on soft tissue-wise before you can really do a lot of exercise. You have to let the incision heal, number one; you have to let the tendon area that I opened to get into the joint close up and seal appropriately. If you do too much too fast, you could end up with complications that you don’t want to be contending with.

GO STATE! BEAT TEMPLE!