On October 29, 2011,
Joe Paterno wins his
409th game as head coach of the
Penn State Nittany Lions football team. During 61 years at
Penn State University, he helped the former "cow college" to quintuple its
financial endowment and build
Paterno Library. At age 84, Paterno is so beloved as "a coach, an educator, and a humanitarian" that a
statue is erected outside of
Beaver Stadium, and so powerful that when
university president Graham Spanier and
athletic director Tim Curley ask Paterno to retire in 2005, he refuses. Inside the stadium, Spanier, Curley and vice president Gary Schultz worry about a
grand jury that is investigating accusations of
child sexual abuse against
Jerry Sandusky, a retired assistant coach. Six days after Penn State defeats
Illinois,
The Patriot-News reporter
Sara Ganim learns that the grand jury's
presentment also indicts Curley and Schultz. Although he is so traumatized by the abuse that he suffered that he does not want his mother to read the presentment, high school student
Aaron Fisher, known in Ganim's articles as "Victim 1", is the first to publicly testify against Sandusky. Rumors spread about "Victim 1"'s identity, and Fisher is attacked at school by other students, but his psychologist tells Ganim that Fisher and his mother repeated his story to many skeptical people to protect other children. Ganim and her editor discuss other allegations against Sandusky from 1998 and beyond, such as the rape of a young boy at the
1999 Alamo Bowl. They realize that the university has protected him for years. Paterno's wife Sue and their adult children, including assistant coach
Jay and lawyer Scott, are horrified by the accusations against Sandusky. They want to help the elderly Paterno but do not understand why he continues to prepare for the upcoming game against
Nebraska instead of reading the presentment. As reporters besiege Paterno's home, the coach tells his family that when a distraught
Mike McQueary told him in 2001 about seeing Sandusky
sexually assaulting a young boy in the men's shower room on campus, he did his legal duty by telling Curley and Schultz. Paterno says that Sandusky's
The Second Mile charity helped many children. Mary Kay Paterno asks her father why he waited two days to report McQueary's account—"You hear about someone diddling my kids? Don't wait the weekend!"—and whether he followed up on his report. Penn State students gather at Paterno's home to support the coach, who announces that he will resign as head coach after the football season.
John Surma and others on the university board of trustees, however, force Spanier to resign and fire Paterno during a phone call. Ganim reports on a riot by students who denounce the media and cheer for Paterno. Sue and Joe Paterno discuss a
Sugar Bowl during the 1970s, at which Sandusky played with their young children at a hotel pool while Paterno was preparing for the game. She presumes that her husband would not have let Sandusky do so had he known that he was a
pedophile; he tells her, "I was working. I wasn't focused on the goddamn pool." That night, however, he has a nightmare about the memory. Not on the sidelines for the first time since 1965, Paterno watches on television as Nebraska defeats Penn State. Paterno is diagnosed with terminal
lung cancer. Driving past the stadium after undergoing an
MRI, he sees people next to the statue arguing about his legacy. Another alleged victim tells Ganim that he told Paterno that Sandusky abused him in 1976. ==Cast==