The Dean of college football is undoubtedly Joe Paterno. I for one have thought he should have gracefully retired five to ten years ago. Yet the age of 81 he continues to coach and produce very competitive teams. Given his record and his contribution to Penn State I have also felt that he should choose the date of his retirement rather than being forced out.
This will be Paterno’s 500th game as head coach at Penn State. This is a laudable achievement. To put it into perspective, since he became head coach at Penn State 42 years ago, there have been 816 head coaching changes in NCAA Div I teams.
On Saturday Penn State and Texas A&M will be playing each other in the Alamo Bowl. In all the build up to bowl games are a series of pep rallies. At one rally Thursday night a student pep leader told the crowd the Paterno was “on his death bed.” He went on to joke with the crown that “someone needs to find him (Paterno) a casket.”
Such comments are not funny. Also, they are disrespectful. A&M has sent the spirit leader home. The President and Athletic Director of A&M have issued apologies to their counterparts and Paterno. The grand old coach took it all in stride by saying, "Some young guy went up there, trying to be funny. Maybe he's accurate, I don't know."
My heart was warmed when the report noted that the Texas A&M students and alumni recognized that the spirit leader was out of line with his comments and shouted him down with boos. These partisan fans immediate response speaks volumes.
2 comments:
Paterno has been a great coach, but I still think it's time for him to retire.
that's quite the accomplishment. Not many can say that they've been at the same job for 40 years.
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