At the end of last year's losing season, many Penn State Lions fans agreed that Joe Paterno's winning days were over and he should resign. The Nittany Lions had lost four of the last five seasons, and Paterno was 78 years old.
A year ago, school president Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley went to visit Paterno at his State College home. They went, according to published reports, to ask Paterno for his resignation.
"I said that I thought that, if I could keep the staff together and we could be stable, that we could get this thing back where it belonged," Paterno said of the meeting. "I was very emphatic about that, and they went along with me. I would think that maybe I had enough clout."
When Joe Paterno is very emphatic, he can lead the nation in emphatic. ... Paterno has always been combative, and, as with everyone who gets a little older, he hasn't really changed, but has simply become a larger, less inhibited version of himself.
Paterno believed that he could achieve a winning season. He wasn't ready to give up, and neither was the team. This year the Nittany Lions "finished off an 11-1 season with a three-overtime Orange Bowl win against Florida State on Tuesday night. The final polls will probably have them ranked No. 3 in the nation."
Paterno's determination and hard work paid off. However Ford feels that there is more to good leadership than winning games, and the end of this winning season is a good time for Paterno to retire:
It really isn't all right to make jokes about the physical appearances of other people, as Joe does, and it really isn't all right to say rude things to one's host, as Joe does, and it really, really, isn't all right to make light of an alleged sexual assault, which Joe also did this week. ("A cute girl knocks on the door, what do you do?" he said, responding to a question about FSU player A.J. Nicholson, who was sent home after being accused of committing rape at the team hotel.)
All of it is waved away because it is Paterno, and he is 79 years old, and the elderly are given a pass on decorum for some reason. It is the he-doesn't-know-any-better defense.
Well, he is the holder of a prestigious position at a state university, and that job is a privilege, not a right. The state and the university both deserve to be represented by someone who does know better and who can be held accountable for what he says and does.
If Paterno is as smart and as sharp as he claims, he will realize that the time has come - before he says something worse, before he grabs a referee and does a Woody Hayes on national television.
Posted on Thu, Jan. 05, 2006
Paterno can leave as a winner now
By Bob Ford, Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/13551585.htm
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