oh…wait….

So apparently we have an 82 year old coach who can put together a program that can still win games and still lure in top recruits. Man, let’s get rid of him soon!

It’s the same, very simple math used for Mark Mays, etc.

Though I like Peter King, these people bleed football football football, the high testosterone, cut throat business and everything that comes with it. Sensibility has gone out the door.

It’s JUST football.

What worries me even more is this mentality bleeding into our everyday life. We will be a sad, sorry country if we do.

I generally enjoy reading Peter King’s articles. He provides generally good insight on the NFL, aside from his occasional puff piece on Brett Favre (though most NFL columnists do that anyway). Don’t get me started on his other pieces of his columns. I don’t care about his damn kids or what movie he thinks is really funny.

However, Peter King consistently laments that he doesn’t really care for college football. That’s fine… he’s entitled to his opinion, and he’s not a college football columnist. However, in the business world of the NFL, 99.9% of all your decisions are strictly business, not personal decisions. This is not true in college football.

Clearly, keeping Joe Paterno at Penn State is not based entirely on business reasons. We could debate semantics and talk about his donations, booster donations, and NLC memberships, but keeping Joe Paterno is a personal issue. Even when Joe can rattle off a pretty shitty start to the decade, as was the case from 2000-2004, and still receive an extension, it’s a personal decision. Most fans (myself admittedly included) wouldn’t have had too many qualms with Joe being gone after 2004. In retrospect, we’re glad he isn’t.

Personally, I’m fine with that. I’d rather be a consistently good program with a legendary coach then a program that goes from the (insert current hot coach name here) method of firing coaches after one bad season. Is it the best decision from a pure business standpoint? Maybe not. But anytime you can pull off an 11-1 season, land some pretty good recruits, and still drag your ass out to the sidelines at age 82, you deserve to be rewarded for that work. Joe has earned this extension.

Many media companies have encouraged their columnists to comment on topics outside of their focus. I’ve been in a few newspapers where they are trying to build internal momentum around “personalities” (even if you’re the “food critic” in shittown hartford). It’s another way that misguided publishers are trying to prevent their product from becoming a commodity – you might get the same news anywhere, but if you really like this “personality” you’ll return to their source.

In my experience, you end up having a lot of people who are expert at one thing wasting my time commenting on something that they know nothing about, and as in the case here, just repeating the opinion of the loudest/least educated majority.

Don’t we hear the same stuff about Bowden? They are essentially the same age, and while JoePa has more health problems, PSU is regularly winning more games then Florida State (as of the last 4-5 years), so why not the talk about how Bowden can’t get it done anymore? Maybe FSU’s recruiting is “better” (everyone knows the star system is flawed), but as mentioned many times, JoePa is recruiting to a cow college. I just don’t understand why the hate for one coach but not the other?

As a side note, I still have tremendous respect for Bowden and wish not to see him gone either until he’s ready, I was just trying to make a point.

Joe’s sandbagging versus Bowden’s folksy stupidity any day.
I’ll agree, joe’s responses often leave you guessing – I’m of the belief that’s intentional

One of my favorite sports-related blogs, Kissing Suzy Kolber, has been spoofing Peter King’s columns for some time. They seem to enjoy focusing on King’s apparent man-crush on Brett Favre, but they did happen to effectively destroy him for his comments on Paterno.

King – “Penn State is insane. A three-year contract extension for an 82-year-old coach who has had recent health problems? Why is there no one at this august institution who can tell a man whom the school isn’t positive can even STAND on the sideline every week that it’s time to step down? Can anyone who bleeds Nittany blue honestly tell me Paterno has the energy to out-recruit coaches 40 years his junior for the best football players in the country?”

KSK- “For real. It’s not like they went to the Rose Bowl this year. And it’s not like JoePa could just go hire talented people to go recruit for him while he remains an effective figurehead. Or like he helped build half of the school. STOP FOOLING YOURSELVES, YOU PEOPLE! HOW CAN ANYONE POSSIBLY LEAD WITHOUT THE POWER TO STAND?” (Note: They then link to a photo of FDR)

Peter King Loves Men Who Work the Land

Lavar and JoePa simultaneously said…..“Who’s Peter King?”