Joe Paterno was crying.
That's like saying Bobby Knight and Miles Brand shared a handle of gin over a game of poker.
But Saturday afternoon in the glistening Happy Valley sun, there was Joe Pa himself, the godfather of the coaching fraternity, bawling like a baby, tears streaming from behind his ubiquitous shades and spilling onto his parka until they could flow no more.
He wasn't sobbing over his team's hard-fought triumph over No. 19 Purdue. These weren't tears of vindication after his club's woeful 1-4 start, an embarrassing plummet from greatness that transformed almighty Penn State from a Big 10 power into a big-time joke. And though he moved one victory closer to achieving the milestone of milestones as Division I's winningest coach, Paterno entertained no thoughts of Bear Bryant.
No, these were tears of unparalleled joy and hope - hope that somewhere in the halls of Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Adam Taliaferro was watching ... and smiling.
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You and I wouldn't know Taliaferro if he were sipping a Frappucino next to us at Starbucks. Paterno knows him as one of the finest young men and athletes to enroll at Penn State in recent memory. And when, 10 days ago at Ohio State, he helplessly watched as Taliaferro's spine shattered in a violent on-field collision, Joe Pa saw his son David.
Cruel, cruel irony.
Paterno watched his own boy 23 years ago spiral into a coma initially deemed fatal after a trampoline misstep. David fought his way out of the fog. To this day, however, Paterno still sometimes feels the pain of watching his son struggle back from tragedy.
Right there, before his incredulous eyes, was an 18-year-old babe he recruited as a football player and groomed as a man. Taliaferro likely has yet to go on his first college date. In all probability, he can count on one hand the number of times he's cruised over to the Happy Valley's Littlejohn's equivalent for a late-night burger. He hasn't taken a midterm. Now he can't even pick up the pencil to scribble his name at the top of the test.
Perhaps worst of all, he can't play the game that has furnished him with his fondest childhood memories that he now clings to in his hospital bed.
Think football isn't real life? Ask Taliaferro. Ask Paterno. Ask the thousands upon thousands of loyal Lion advocates who packed Beaver Stadium Thursday for a rally in the freshman's honor.
Football may be the best metaphor for life we have. It nearly stripped young Adam's life right out of his hands. When Penn State mustered a little extra gumption to scrounge out an improbable upset win over almighty Drew Brees and his Boilermakers, 92,000 Happy Valley zealots were just that ... happy. And anyone who saw Paterno collapse in a tearful heap afterwards could only smile.
The game giveth, and the game taketh away. It gave Taliaferro a reason to dream. It made that dream a reality. Then it ripped it away from him in one fell swoop. However, as twilight descended on the Keystone State Saturday evening, it gave us all hope - hope that someday, somewhere, Adam Taliaferro will sit up in his bed and once again walk to the local campus hang-out with his friends. Hope that perhaps, as far-fetched as it sounds, he may yet sprint onto the Penn State turf before endless cheers and feel a different kind of numbness.
Maybe Virginia linebacker Yubrenal Isabelle said it best: "Football is an emotional game. Somedays you love it, and other days you hate it."
Ten days ago Paterno cried because he hated the game. Three days ago he cried because he loved it.
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