Driving by the stadium after the MRI, he sees people next to the statue argue about Paterno's legacy. Paterno is diagnosed with fatal lung cancer. Not on the sidelines for the first time since 1965, Paterno watches on television as Nebraska defeats Penn State. That night, however, he has a nightmare about the memory.

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. 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. Ganim reports on a riot by students who denounce the media and cheer for Paterno. John Surma and others on the university board of trustees, however, force Spanier to resign and fire Paterno during a phone call. 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. 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. Paterno says that Sandusky's The Second Mile charity helped many children.

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. 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.

Paterno's wife Sue and their adult children, including assistant coach Jay and lawyer Scott, are horrified by the accusations against Sandusky. They realize that the university has protected him for years. Ganim and her editor discuss other allegations against Sandusky from 1998 and later, such as the rape of a young boy at the 1999 Alamo Bowl. 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. Although he is so traumatized by the abuse 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', was the first to publicly testify against Sandusky. 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. Inside the stadium, Spanier, Curley, and vice president Gary Schultz worry about a grand jury investigating accusations of child sexual abuse against Jerry Sandusky, a retired assistant coach. At the age of 84, Paterno is so beloved as 'a coach, an educator, and a humanitarian' that a statue is outside Beaver Stadium, and so powerful that when university president Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley asked Paterno to retire in 2005, he refused. During 61 years at Penn State University, he helped the former 'cow college' quintuple its financial endowment and build Paterno Library. On OctoPaterno wins his 409th game as head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions football team. As Joe Paterno enters an MRI machine in November 2011 he recalls events in his life.

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