"At the end of the day...it's about those kids"

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Former Dallas Cowboys player personnel ace Gil Brandt, who helped shaped the team’s successful fortunes in the 60s,70s and 80s, met Joe Paterno on Nov. 9, 1957, when the former was an assistant at Marquette and the latter was an assistant at Penn State.

“And over the years we would have dinners together, as friends, but he was always a different kind of guy,” Brandt told WJLA.com Monday morning.

“With the Cowboys, we would always send letters to the coaches at various school we wanted to visit their players at such-and-such a time. Most coaches would call us back on the phone but Joe would always just send a letter to us saying that was fine. Kind of odd. He never really let anybody in, you know what I mean?”

Asked about the ongoing scandal that cost Paterno his job, Brandt takes a few seconds to measure his response.

“Well, all I can say is I know what I would do in that situation, at least I think I do, and that would be to notify the police,” he says. “But in his defense, I guess you go back to what exactly he was told. Was he told everything? Still, the whole thing is tragic for those kids. At the end of the day, it’s about those kids.”