Even if Joe was retired, I’m fairly certain people would listen to his opinion and respect it simply because he is Joe Paterno. His job status has nothing to do with the credibility of what he says. None. If you look at what Joe says and say “O who cares what he says, he is going to get strong armed out of his job” then you aren’t a legitimate college football fan.

Did I say I don’t listen to what Joe Paterno says? No I did not. I said that I FEAR that some MIGHT view his statements in that particularly unfavorable light I mentioned.

And I only say that because…well, let’s face it. Joe Paterno has unfortunately become the butt of many jokes among younger college football fans because of his age and because of recent occurrences such as him having to leave the field at Ohio State to go back to the locker room, the so-called “road rage” incident and his increasing rancor towards the media at his press conferences. His coaching colleagues no doubt respect what he has to say and so do the media for the most part, but all one has to do is check out the Every Day Should Be Saturday blog to see that many do view him as that old man which is a sad and heartbreaking and wrong portrayal of a legend. I don’t subscribe to any of this of course, but there is that unfortunate perception out there and one has to be incredibly naive to not acknowledge it.

I never said that I myself viewed his statements that way. I’m a PSU alumnus and have been watching PSU football since 1984! There is no bigger Joe Paterno fan than I. Learn to read before you type outlandish replies to innocent threads.

was intended to be a reply to nitlion007’s response to Fugi.

Unfortunately, this is what I was talking about. Instead of talking about what he said, let’s poke fun at him. Look at Joe. HE’S OLD! Let’s make fun of him for that. Every time Joe Paterno is mentioned on EDSBS, it’s to make fun of him. Yeah, EDSBS is more of a comedy site for college football, but they’ll never make fun of Urban Meyer or any of their beloved Florida brethren.

http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2008/05/23/joe-pa-aint-give-a-what/#comments

I wouldn’t worry about the satire too much. Its funny, and most of the time, good natured. As much as we complain about not having a rival, I’m always amazed by the amount of people from all over the country that say “Nothing but respect” to me all the time. Now while it might seem like a put down from and OSU or UM fan, coming from most everyone else, it means Joe is running a program a lot of people are jealous of. I they make some age jokes every once and a while, I’m not going to sweat it.