Three cheers for three more years

2008-12-17T16:31:21-05:00

<div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/images/12/17/joe-paterno-p1.jpg" alt="Double Click to select a Photo" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">An 82-year-old Joe Paterno led his team to the Rose Bowl. :: AP</div> </div> <p>First, Rose Bowl officials lavished <strong>Joe Paterno</strong> with fragrant bouquets and a BCS invite. Then, doctors equipped him with a surgically repaired hip. Now, Penn State's awarded its 82-year-old head coach <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/ncaa/12/16/paterno.psu.ap/index.html " target="_blank">a three-year contract extension</a>. <br /><br />Clearly, 'tis the season of giving.<br /><br />Now, instead of speculating over JoePa's fate, we can spend our time second-guessing the move and feeling sorry for<strong> Tom Bradley</strong>. Only, we're not going to second guess the move (we are, however, going to feel sorry for Bradley, who's now doomed to three more years of doing a head coach's job without getting head coaching credit or head coaching money). <br /><br />It doesn't take glasses as thick as Paterno's to see he's little more than a figure head now. Paterno's the face of the program, and he's there to provide a link to the past and inspiration for the present. He's not, however, there to call plays or woo recruits. That's for Bradley and Co. Penn State fans may think the extension frustrating and foolish, but at the end of the day, this was an example of an institution doing right by a man who had done right by it for decades, and that's a refreshing thing to see in this era of impatience, turnover and disloyalty. <br /><br />That's our take. Post yours in the comments below.</p> Three cheers for three more years

2008-12-17T15:39:29-05:00

2008-12-17T16:31:20-05:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/557/7/thumb/Bolts.bmp 1748 CA

SafetyBlitz

Calabasas 5597

2 JoePa is a legend. He deserves to be titular HC as long as he wants. (Doesn't mean my Trojans won't kick the Lions' butts all the way back to University Park, though.) 3690698

2008-12-17T16:11:16-05:00

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Mc Lovin

Marshall 631362

1 Mallory, why did they take your name off your byline? Too many marriage proposals coming in? Poor Mallory, getting pestered by dweebs on this site no doubt. Mallory, this is all well and good, but a couple things confuse me. First, you seem to want to praise JoePa, yet you make fun of his "thick glasses". Now Mallory, should you really be making fun of his infirmities and his vision? I mean, maybe he needs those glasses to see with. You really shouldn't be poking fun at crotchety old disabled people---you will be there soon enough and who will be there to comfort you? Second, you spend most of the post kind of dissing Paterno as a pseudo coach and figure head, but then applaud Penn State's move in respecting his long tenure by giving him 3 more years???? So which is it, they are being silly because JoePa is not really coaching the team, or they are acting right in honoring his legacy by keeping this charade up? You don't seem to have clearly made up your mind. I would suggest writing out your blogs as rough drafts first Mallory, and then maybe running them by your Daddy at SI before you go willy nilly posting contradictory stuff like this. 3690460

Mallory Rubin

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