Well, if Joe Pa can't control himself, how can he control his players

What coach isn't full of shit?

 

Speaking of nothing bad happening ... where's Ray Gricar?

 

Anyone else frightened by the idea of JoePa driving a car?

 

There are degrees of being full of shit.

 

Why anyone would rip Joe Paterno is beyond me.

Yeah, he's old, but so what? Other countries celebrate the older folks.

In the United States, we try to push them aside. What utter bullshit.

I'd rather have a short lunch with Joe Paterno -- and thank him for the great program and the many great teams he led -- than have a long dinner with Nick Saban or Charlie Weis or any other of these hot-shit hotshots who are barking down at anyone who asks them a question these days.

Joe Paterno is not the only god in central Pennsylvania, but he is revered for what he has done and also for being the kind of man and coach he always has been. Anyone screaming for his forced retirement is either from somewhere else -- many asshole columnists come to mind here -- or some johnny-come-lately Nittany Lions fan who has no appreciation of the man who has been Penn State football for such a long time.

Joe Paterno should be celebrated for who he is and what he's done. We've done it for Bear Bryant, Woody Hayes, all the other old coaches. Give JoePa the respect he deserves at this time in his life. God, how we love to push the old people aside.

The rest of the country expects Paterno to be 9-2 or better every year or be gone. Those of us with State College roots just hope JoePa lives to 110 and can walk away happy and satisfied with everything he's tried to accomplish. Hope he goes out 9-2 or better, and with a bowl victory. But so what if he doesn't? If he's happy, I'm happy. I just want him to be happy -- and, more important, satisfied -- when he decides to hang it up.

Yeah, I'm a JoePa fan, and a Nittany Lion too. But that shouldn't matter. Those who clamor and bang for good, solid and beloved coaches to be run out would be the first to take umbrage (look it up, youngsters) at anyone who would try to take his or her own media job away.

Fuckabuncha critics who can't remember what this man has meant to that school, that town and that state. We aren't in this business to get someone fired. We're here to watch and report when someone gets fired.

And if you've never been in State College for less than a month or two, your perspective cannot match mine.

Discuss.

 

Dan, the guy is not pipsqueak clean as you make him out to be.

If anyone's been in the town a month or two and ever talked to anyone who has spent a second covering that program, you'd know that.

Maybe it's just the cynic in me. He has done quite a few good things for the university, yet he also has a bunch of foibles.

 

Quite a few things, Wicked? Give me a fucking break.

I give you Jim Tressel. I give you Bobby Bowden.

A few good things for the university? Give me that break again.

Nobody's clean in college football. Paterno has always tried to be as clean as he could.

You think Bear Bryant was cleaner? Saban? Hayes? Jimmy Johnson? Switzer? Lou Holtz, at all his schools?

 

He's lived by the book pretty much, rule-wise.

But there are anecdotes I've heard second- and third-hand that make the guy look bad.

Do I know if they are true? No. Do I trust the sources? Yes.

I am proud of my alma mater, and on the whole the Joe Paterno era has been a good one for the university. But the guy has done some pretty nasty things to people in the past. He is no saint.

 

I heard Larry Johnson is a huge Joe Paterno fan.

 

Yeah, fine, Paterno has had his peccadilloes............But who else has run such a great program and been so admirable? Or who else has run such an admirable program and been so great?

C'mon, the guy has been the standard of an admirable coach for 40 years.

No coach can be a total saint behind closed doors. Writers know this. It's a tough job, knowing you have to screw some good, young people who wanted to love you.

But who did a better job than Paterno?

 

It's like the old saying about democracy, "our system is the worst -- except for all the others out there."

I'm just saying that the guy ain't a saint, Dan. Your first post seemed to imply that he should have carte blanche. I don't know if I can go that far, knowing what I know.

 

No carte blanche, Wicked. Paterno isn't the program watchdog he used to be, and could have been.

Now, consider this:

People like this piss me off.

Hondo, what the fuck do you really know about Paterno and the great job he's done making boys into men? Or any other great coach?

In any case, I'll say this any time: 20 percent of the coaches anywhere are better people -- and leaders -- than 90 percent of the people I've ever met in journalism or any other media work. And of course that includes me.

Coaches, when they are honest and involved in their players and their programs, set a standard we all should aspire to.

And those who rip coaches often don't have a clue about what they actually watch. They actually think they could call a better game. I doubt that.

Hindsight is easy. Coaching is hard. JoePa did it extremely well. Let the guy do what he wants in his final years.

I'd love to have Penn State go 9-2 or 10-1 from now on.

But I think Joe Paterno has earned whatever exit he desires.