Mr. Paterno! Make 2008 Your Best and Last Year!

Lisa Horne nearly made me cry when she wrote about Joe Paterno and why 2008 should be his best and last year.

She goes into much detail about how Paterno simply can't keep up with the recruiting methods of the likes of Les "Hot Under the Collar" Miles, Greg "After being shite for year, Rutgers now has had two winning seasons and is a powerhouse" Schiano, and Pete "As long as they don't talk about my NFL career (and those losses against Oregon, Stanford, Oregon State, and UCLA) then my record as a coach is second to none" Carroll.

Then she writes:

"Make this season your legacy.  No one is giving Penn State much of a chance to win the Big Ten, so make it count.  The thought of seeing your players carry you off the field on their shoulders after a stellar season will give us shudders.

"Give us a National Championship.

"And when it's all over, I'll have a plate of pasta and cannolis waiting for ya.

"I can't think of anything more special than sitting down with one of the greatest coaches of all time and sharing some good-old fashioned football talk.  I'll even sit on your porch with a glass of lemonade while you mow your lawn, and soak up that 'too country' Pennsylvania air.

"I'll leave my Blackberry at home."

I'll put this to you guys, my wonderful readers for whom I am incredibly grateful.

Joe Paterno, go when you are ready.  You have won 372 games.  You turned a sleepy nothing in the middle of Pennsylvania into the mecca for football we see today.  You have graduated 80 percent of your students.

And if you look at Penn State's recruiting record for the 2009 year (15 so far, of which three are in the nation's top 10), you sure can recruit, too.

Oh, and I've just been watching the ABC interview between Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno before the 2006 Orange Bowl, and it moved me.  I wish Penn State AND Florida State would return to being national powers.  I wish that both coaches would live forever, where the kids can be treated and looked after.

And the sad thing?  The arrest record of JoePa's football team is not pretty.  Then again, nor is the school scandal for the football team where a couple of dozen players were implicated.

It's not about you, Mr Paterno and Mr Bowden, it's your ****ing kids that think that just because they play football, they are gods.  Where's the humility that their coaches show day in, day out?

Anyway, rant over.  Go Penn State.

Here's Joe Paterno's Hall of Fame speech and a link to a bit of Bowden's in 2006.