Penn State Football: Noted Columnist Finebaum Says Joe Paterno Should Retire

There are sports writers from coast to coast who have a certain column they write on an annual basis about Philadelphia sports fans. Every time the playoff season rolls around, it does not matter the sport, these writers load up the document they originally crafted in 1995 and update a couple key names to make it read a little more current.

You know the events they drag into the picture.

The booing of Santa. Throwing batteries at J.D. Drew. Booing Donovan McNabb at the NFL draft.

These individual events have been exaggerated through the years and will never seem to go away. It turns out, college football writers have a similar pattern, and that is to suggest that Joe Paterno should retire.

So, should I have been surprised when I read newly-hired Sports Illustrated writer Paul Finebaum, host of one of the most famous college football talk shows in radio and a noted columnist in the college football world, went so far as to call for Paterno's retirement? I was a bit surprised, because I didn't think Finebaum would do what so many writers have tried saying before.

"Even if Penn State manages to pull off an upset over the third-ranked Crimson Tide, it will only prolong the longest, saddest and most heartbreaking farewell in sports history," Finebaum writes about this weekend's matchup with Alabama.

"Who doesn't love Joseph Vincent Paterno?" Finebaum asks. "Who doesn't have a favorite JoePa story? Lately, though, college football's winningest coach, now in his 46th season, has become another punch line. This is particularly true to a younger generation who don't remember what put Paterno on college football's version of Mount Rushmore."

Finebaum says Paterno has become a "runaway train" and criticizes those who argue he has earned the right to retire on his own terms. To support his argument, Finebaum uses Paterno's age and compares him to Bobby Bowden at Florida State. Bowden and Paterno are similar in some ways and stark contrasts in others. Bowden had the Seminoles under multiple NCAA violations while he was in Tallahassee, and the program had named a successor for the program ahead of time: Jimbo Fisher. At Penn State, it is a completely different tale.

So, just because Florida State is a top-five program means that Penn State should do the same? This logic is inherently flawed, because it is easier to turn around a program in the state of Florida, and Finebaum fails to recognize the fact that Paterno has won multiple Big Ten championships in the same time period that saw Florida State win just one (and were defeated by Penn State in that season's Orange Bowl in case anyone forgot).

I am not suggesting that Penn State would not become a national power worthy of top five consideration when a new head coach is in charge, but to suggest that it should be done based on what Florida State has done (and really, they have yet to really prove anything other than they can generate preseason hype) seems a tad weak to me.

Finebaum says that the debate about Paterno has turned to "whether he would be well enough to coach from the field rather than the press box, where he seemingly spends as much time during the games as the scribes who cover him." Paterno coached form upstairs in Week 1 against Indiana State and could be up there again in Week 2. Paterno has only coached a handful of games from upstairs in the last couple of years. Dave Jones and Bob Flounders have a good head start on Paterno in terms of press box time (and for the record, I have been in the press box more times than Paterno in one season in the Beaver Stadium press box).

I want to say right now that I have a deep respect for Finebaum and his work covering college football. I consider myself a big fan, but he then says a few things that I really have a hard time taking too seriously.

"Honestly, why would a top recruit commit right now to Penn State unless his father or grandfather played for Paterno?" Finebaum asks.

It is a fair question to ask despite Penn State putting together a Class of 2012 that is moving up the recruiting rankings with every addition. "How many players in recent years have chosen elsewhere (like Terrelle Pryor) thinking Paterno would not be around long?" If you are going to use Terrelle Pryor to support your case, then I think you have done more than enough to discredit your argument.

I give you the argument that high school student-athletes cannot rationally expect Joe Paterno to be there by the time their college career is done, but tell that to the recruits Penn State is getting. They are all looking for a chance to play for a legend and to learn lessons from him both on and off the football field. Maybe Paterno does not have what it takes to build a BCS championship squad, but he still has the ability to build champions off the field—and that is something most schools, coaches, and players recognize. For Paterno, of course he wants to win, but he is more concerned about transforming lives.

He is so selfish that way.

Finebaum says, "What Paterno needs to do now is simply announce he is done at the end of the season and get the royal treatment he so richly deserves."

But being the center of attention just would not be the Paterno way. It never has been, and it never will be.

Kevin McGuire is the national college football writer for Examiner.com. Follow his college football discussion on Google+ and Twitter. Become a fan of him on Facebook.