The legend that sprung up around Paterno always held that the college graduate had wanted to be a lawyer, but took a job as assistant coach at Penn State to pay off debts and then realized how much he loved it. But Posnanski says that that doesn't seem to have been the case, pointing to an article in the Providence Bulletin announcing Paterno taking the position that read "[Joe] had hoped all along to go into coaching if he found the right opening." In addition, the 1949 Football Press Guide, which listed the current players at Brown University that then included Paterno, read that Paterno "hopes to become a football coach after graduation."
