George Paterno, the brother of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and color analyst for Penn State football, tells the story about his legendary brother. This book is a combination of two novels - the story describes the role effect of Joe's immediate family, his relationship with them, and the importance they played in his future development. The second part of the story deals with Joe's career after he joined Rip Engle's staff and his subsequent marriage. All of the people who helped and contributed to his legend are brought into focus for the first time. "Sibling Rivalry" "Joe Paterno: The Coach From Byzantium is, in George Paterno's own words, 'not a general sports book.' Due in early fall, it is instead equal parts fraternal biography, personal memoir, and philosophical dissertation-the sum of which provides rare familial insight into one of the country's most famous sports figures and, in the process, tells the largely unknown story of a man who has lived a very different life in his legendary brother's wake." "'It is the story I wanted to tell,' Paterno says. 'It's a book about our family, and one of our family becomes a sports legend. This is more about the personal aspect: this Italian kid from Brooklyn, how he got to the point where now he's a national legend, and all the things that happened in between.'" -- Blue and White Illustrated August 29, 1997 Ryan Jones "In the eyes of most Penn State football fans, George Paterno has no stories to tell more interesting than the ones he gleans from his perch in the Nittany Lion radio booth. Boy are they wrong. George turned author this summer, having written a book about his older brother called Joe Paterno: The Coach From Byzantium." "Admirers of Joe Paterno and the Penn State program will find this the most insightful book written about Paterno ... George is not a writer, but he's an extremely intelligent man, like his brother, and doesn't mince words in detailing how Paterno's success took its toll on the rest of the family." "While George is unconditionally supportive, he writes that Joe was rarely around in the days when his coaching career was taking shape and that the coach appreciated reminders to call his mother on holidays ..." "... He's been content to be Joe's sounding board for early-morning walks on game day, regularly attends after-the-game parties at Joe's house and is clearly proud of him ... Joe Paterno said he hasn't read the book, but admitted he's 'nervous' about it." -- Altoona Mirror October 3, 1997 Neil Rudel