Yet another post in the continuing saga of the Paterno book:

Jon Wertheim appears on The Sports-Casters podcast this week. Wertheim has been part of Sports Illustrated’s coverage of Penn State and spent time with Joe Posnanski in State College.

When Sports-Casters’ Steve Bennett asked about the growing controversy over Posnanski’s upcoming book about the now tarnished coach, Wertheim emitted a large groan.

Clearly, he didn’t want to weigh in about a sensitive subject regarding his former colleague and somebody greatly admired in the sportswriting fraternity. However, years of enduring athletes and coaches duck the tough questions made Wertheim feel compelled to comment.

Like others, Wertheim, the author of seven books, thinks Posnanski and Simon & Schuster are making a mistake by rushing the book to market in August. He said:

My better instincts are telling me to say “no comment,” but there is something terminally lame about a journalist whose whole job it is to advance stories and get people to talk to play the no comment card.

It is just an impossible situation for Joe. Impossible. I suspect that if he knew any of this, he never would have ever taken this book deal. There is no way to put a good face on this. Whether we want to admit it or not, there are commercial pressures. I think that I would have not have gone along with my publisher’s wishes to capitalize on the timeliness and rush the book out for late this summer. There is no way that was going to end cleanly; it just couldn’t be done. We all knew that this Freeh report was coming; we know there is going to be civil litigation; and more stuff is going to come out.

There is a business decision and I get that. There is a publisher that has made a significant investment. But I think sometimes you need to just fold at the poker table. Joe did not want to be Sara Ganim. Joe had a certain book in mind and his research was geared toward that and this was a huge hairpin turn. He did not want to own the story and start competing with Sara Ganim.

I’m not sure how anyone benefits with rushing a book out. It takes advantage of the timing, but it’s awful timing. It’s timing that basically just obliterates Joe Paterno. If I’m (Posnanski), I may have just cut bait. I also might have said let’s really take a step back and wait…I have a feeling this is not going to be pretty.

The great lesson that Paterno may have taught (a player) pales in comparison to the cover-up. People who read the book will say they don’t care about (his great deeds). I worry this will be the literary version of the Matt Millen fiasco.

It all seems really insignificant in the face of this horrible story. I like Joe (Posnanski) personally. I like Joe professionally. I would love to see him do this book in 2014 when all the facts come out. In 2012, boy, how do you release a book about a guy when bombs are going off? I don’t envy him, but I have a hard time seeing how this plays out when you have a book six weeks after such a damming report comes out.

Like me, Jeff Pearlman, who wrote the bestselling Walter Payton biography, has some concerns about Joe Posnanski’s ability to pull off the Joe Paterno book.

He writes on his blog:

 I scrap the whole thing. I put it aside, maybe wait a year or two, then—when the dust clears and the implications are more understood—I return and write a real biography. Joe is a wonderful writer and, by all accounts, a good guy. I love his blog, and his pieces on infomercials are some of the funniest things I’ve ever read. I can’t say this enough times—Joe is terrific. A genuine wordsmith.

But there is no possible way, one month removed from a report that details Joe Paterno’s knowledge of a pedophile roaming the Penn State campus (and his refusal to do anything about it, when he clearly could/should have), a proper biography can be released. No. Possible. Way.

Can’t happen.

Given that the book is expected to be a bestseller, it is highly unlikely Simon & Schuster will ditch the project at this late date. Publishers like bestsellers.

Pearlman also has concerns about a session Posnanski did with a communications class at Penn State last December. Posnanski defended Paterno at the time.

Pearlman said a person in the class put out the following tweets, quoting Posnanski.

“I think [Paterno] is a scapegoat. I definitely think that…I think he tried to do the right thing, and the right thing didn’t happen.”

“A lot of people came here to bury Joe. As a writer, I’m mad with that, as someone who’s come to know the Paternos, I’m heartbroken.”

“The only thing people remember about Woody Hayes is that he hit a player. I don’t want that to happen to Joe. He didn’t hit a player.”

Pearlman then writes:

Those words might come to haunt Posnanski. And, perhaps, they should. Journalists are allowed to like their subjects, and even become sympathetic (and empathetic) toward them. There is a line, however, that can’t be crossed; the line when you go from enjoying someone to irrationally and inappropriately defending someone. Clearly, at the time Joe Posnanski didn’t know enough, and didn’t have his facts correct. He blasted his peers in the media, without realizing that, just maybe, they were right and he was wrong; that perhaps the coach he had come to admire and (it seems) love wasn’t worthy of the affection.

Again, I’m a great admirer of Posnanski’s work. But I can’t imagine he’s getting much sleep these days.