Anti-Climacus

Allen Barra... what's the proper metaphor here? I'll go with "flenses"... Joe Posnanski for his Joe Paterno biography. Why Posnanski wants to sink his reputation on this particular issue, I'll never know. The sins Barra lists are many, from conspicuously tilting the narrative by claiming not to tilt it, to allowing anonymous sources to trash anyone who Paterno didn't like:

In a disgraceful bit of deflecting responsibility away from Paterno, Posnanski tries to taint Triponey's reputation: "One close friend of Paterno wondered, 'Don't reporters know how to use Google?' If they had, they would have found that Triponey's time at Penn State was not without controversy, including well-publicized clashes with the student government, the campus radio station, and fraternities." Too bad reporters can't Google the name of the anonymous close friend who said this and failed to mention that dealing with controversy is precisely what Triponey's job was all about.

Posnanski closes out his chapter by quoting a player: 'If it was up to that woman"—Triponey—"they would have thrown me out of school and let me rot. That's how she was. ... But now I'm a father, and I have a child, and I have a good job. I owe that to Joe Paterno. He wasn't perfect, but he believed in me. When nobody else did, he believed in me." Unfortunately, the player, like the Paterno friend who suggested Googling Triponey, is unnamed by Posnanski.