Penn State gives JoePa three-year extension
For those that have ever uttered this over the past couple of years, “It’s gotta be time for Joe Paterno to hang it up,” Penn State just answered with: JoePa can hang it up whenever he damn well pleases.
At least we finally know when Joe Paterno will retire. It will be the day he forgot where he left the football stadium. Either that or the day they stop driving him to practice in a golf cart and start driving him in a coffin.
On Dec. 21, the Man Who Wouldn’t Retire turns 82. But he’s already received his birthday present — a three-year contract extension that will run until he’s 85.
Hooray for JoePa. He’s found a way to win and a way to remain employed at an age when few others are. And now it’s clear he intends to keep right on coaching — or at least being called a coach — until he dies on the sidelines.
It’s his choice. I say let him go for it — as long as his team keeps winning.
Four years ago, Paterno was putting together a 4-7 season on the heels of a 3-9 2003 season and losing records in 2000 and 2001. I was among the blasphemers who said that it was time for the then 78-year-old legend to retire. And if he wouldn’t go quietly, I wrote, Penn State had to fire him.
I wasn’t wrong then. The game had passed Paterno by, and he wasn’t going to start learning new tricks at his age. It was clear he could no longer do the job for which he was hired — to win football games. He still wouldn’t play freshmen. His offensive and defensive systems no longer worked. He was starting to populate a proud program with aspiring felons. He had to go.
But he’s gone 11-1, 9-4, 9-4 and 11-1 since then. His Nittany Lions are the Big Ten champs and are headed to the Rose Bowl to play USC. If he wants to stay forever, I won’t object. He’s winning football games, and that’s his job.
The great thing about Paterno is that he’s never been a coach stuck in his ways. He completely adapted to the spread offense this year and his team flourished. He knows how to roll with the times and as the writer noted, he’s still winning.
In an age where college coaches leave their teams right before bowl games so that they can pursue better jobs, I think JoePa’s career at Penn State should be marveled at. He’s a legend.
Anthony, using your rational, maybe it’s Time for you … to Go. Your Media pals seem so robotic, I get BORED so quickly !! Media has become numbers and stats rather than Flavorable quips and stories that are ‘Outside the Box’ !! Yer Boring me .. Anthony. JoePa is more than STATS; he’s an ICON of how a Class Coach should be; Pro or College !! He developed Penn State into the ‘Beast of the East’, yet Piker columnists, such yer kind, have a Robotic & Dull mindset that simply CAN’T Think outside the Box. Anthony, 4,5, or how many years ago, you would still be as Boring as your Peers. If your Sales declined at ANY TIME, maybe it’s time for you to find another career ….
Hi CJS,
The part in this article that is light gray next to the big, long gray bar isn’t my writing. It’s from MSNBC.com. What that’s called is a “blockquote” and it’s designed to separate what I wrote to what I’m pulling from another article. I know this can be confusing to some people (most people get it right away, but others have trouble with it), so that’s why I’m explaining it now.
So unless I bored you with how little I wrote for this (my writing would only be the black words), I think your venom is at whoever wrote the MSNBC.com article. Furthermore, this is a post from 2 years ago. With you being a sports fan too, you obviously know that times and opinions change, as articles like these are just a snapshot in time.
You seem pretty entrenched in your opinion, but I would implore you to poke around the site a little more and read other articles I may have written. Maybe you won’t be as bored if you checked out the NFL section, where I do most of my original writing.