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MEMO PAD
TOUCHY SUBJECT: Since it was announced last March, Joe Posnanski's biography of disgraced Penn State coach Joe Paterno has become the book no one wants to touch with a 10-foot pole. Its original celebratory premise -- it was pitched as a look at "America's winningest college football coach" -- unraveled as Paterno's complicity in the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal came to light. Paterno as a subject became so controversial that even Sports Illustrated, Posnanski's former employer, rejected an offer from the publisher, Simon & Schuster, to run an excerpt, according to Deadspin.
Step in GQ, which is running a 4,000-word excerpt in the September issue with the headline, "The Secrets and Lies of Joe Paterno." It is online today. The book, "Paterno," comes out Tuesday.
Devin Gordon, articles editor at the magazine, said GQ was interested in Paterno's last days as coach for their dramatic quality. "As a journalist, Paterno at this moment...