Redemption . . . I think not.

Okay, this post will probably not interest anyone in my family, but I paid the price for it. I watched until 1:00am EST to see the Orange Bowl struggle end on the 29 yard field goal shown above, and I'm gonna write about it, dammit.

For an alum like myself, it felt like the football program at State had finally returned to its former glory . . . that is until I thought about it for about two seconds. Remember, I'm an old timer.



Born and raised in eastern Pennsylvania, I never gave a single thought to another college. Well . . . okay, I did consider the California Institute of Art, but only briefly. Truth is, I was a PA boy and I was gonna go the PSU almost from the time I realized that college was in my future.

Look, I am not a rah-rah kind of guy, but I love Penn State. I loved my experience there, I love my diploma, and I love telling folks I'm a Penn State alum. Maybe it was the position that Penn State holds in the mind of college aged Pennsylvanians, the tradition, the standard of excellence. Or maybe it is the ideal of what Penn State means, especially in the arena of big time college sports. And the one most responsible for that ideal, in my lifetime, is Joe Paterno. Folks, without prejudice, this man can truly be called a legend. JoePa always seemed like a shining example of how things SHOULD be done in college sports. Honesty, integrity, and honor. And he won football games. A LOT of football games. And more often than not, his athletes graduated with degrees. For Joe, it seemed like it was more important that his kids graduate than they play. I don't know if that is true, but it was the way it seemed.

The Nittany Lions were an anachronism. Plain blue and white uniforms. Plain white helmets. No names on their uniforms. No high flying vertical offense. A stone wall defense and an offense of 3 yards and a cloud of dust. And they didn't run up the score on obviously outmatched teams, EVER. (Despite what Syracuse thinks, when you can't stop the fourth string offense, that's YOUR fault) No flash. Well, except for '94 . . .

Their style of play never garnered them a lot of accolades, as shown by the 5 undefeated seasons that did NOT end with a national championship. But as an alum, you were pretty much assured of a winning season and a spot in the top ten. Year after year.

Until a few years ago . . .

And then the losses started piling up. Maybe the biggest blow was when their record of 50 some years without a losing season was snapped. We thought that would never happen to us, not while JoePa roamed the sidelines. Hey, Penn State doesn't rebuild, they reload.

But suddenly the Nittany Lions were not a top ten team. No, now they were a Big Ten team, and they were losing. Sure they had the 1994 team that went 12-0, and then couldn't play in the National Championship game, but even that was becoming a distant memory. And suddenly people were talking about the unimaginable . . . firing JoePa. They said the game had passed him by. College sports was about offense, and Joe just didn't have what it took. They said he was too old, that kids wouldn't go there because they didn't believe that Joe would be there for their whole career, that recruiting was suffering. The truth is that the move to the Big Ten did make things harder. They were playing better teams, other teams were recruiting better, and maybe State's edge had evaporated.

Someone asked me once what I thought, should Penn State fire their long time coach, the man who had brought them so much glory? The answer I gave is the answer I still give.

JoePa has to go out on HIS terms. We owe him that. Even if he had 10 losing seasons in a row, you shouldn't ever fire Joe Paterno. He's meant too much to Penn State, to the whole state. He's meant too much to the students. And maybe . . . maybe we wouldn't know what to do without him.

Last night Joe won his 354th game as a football coach, ALL with Penn State. He beat a team coached by the only man to win more games than himself, Bobby Bowden. As the winning field goal went through the uprights, the ABC announcer told us that this was a season of redemption for JoePa. Like I said . . . after about two seconds I realized that returning to the top ten was not redemption for Joe. He is, and has always been a top ten coach, one that should be judged on the whole of his program, not the wins and losses. While the team may have returned to the rankings this year, JoePa has never left them, not in my book. And truly, Penn State football is forever linked to the stature of this coach.

Congratulations Joe!!


Coach Bowden, by the way, showed such great sportsmanship at the end of that game to prove to me that there are still gentlemen in collegiate sports. My hat's off to him as well. Thanks Coach.

One final thought about that little game they play tonight in Pasadena . . .

Hook 'em Horns!!