Joe Pa losing his grip?

I personally have never cared too much about the whole "Is Joe Paterno too old?" debate that has dominated message boards, water coolers, and bar room talk of college football fans not even associated with Penn State. Frankly, Penn State can do whatever they want with the guy as far as I'm concerned. But his recent interview on ESPN's Outside the Lines got me thinking maybe his time has passed. It isn't so much his players have been in a lot of trouble lately (although the numbers since 2002 are staggering). Sure since 2002 46 Penn State football players have faced 163 criminal charges, according to an ESPN analysis of Pennsylvania court records and reports. Twenty-seven players have been convicted of or have pleaded guilty to a combined 45 counts*. But hey we all hit a rough patch, right? What got me was his answers in the interview. Such gems as "They're very aggressive kids or they wouldn't be guys who can compete in front of 110,000 people." Gee, I guess somebody should tell Northwestern to get a little more crunk. A few terroristic threats and they too can achieve middle of the road Big 10 team status. Shouldn't we all aim so high. I also found it interesting he referred to this as a "witch hunt", just completely blowing this off as is ESPN has nothing better to do. Most troubling was the accusation that Joe Pa and/or somebody from the athletic department stepped in and helped get the kids out of trouble.

But hey, ridiculous excuses aside, it just seemed Joe Pa was not concerned. Watching the interview reminded of 60 year old parent who had an "accident" late in life and is stuck raising their 12 year old kid. We all grew up with somebody whose parent-to-child age ratio was a bit out of whack. And didn't it always seem their kid was a prick? I mean seriously, at that age in life, parents are just too old to put up with Little Johnny's crap and are thinking about retiring to Florida as soon as Little Johnny turns 18 and Little Johnny knows this; and in turn Little Johnny is generally a spoiled prick. That's what I think is happening at Penn State. Joe Pa just doesn't have the energy to police all these "aggressive" guys like he used to. And it doesn't help that these kids are getting slaps on the wrist as punishments. I mean really, suspended for summer school? Damn, no sociology for you this summer young man! Oh, but you can still practice. Take that!

Now don't get me wrong, I understand a coach can't keep his eye on 95 kids at once. There is definitely some self accountability lacking. But if the kids realize Joe Pa just doesn't want to deal with any of this, as his actions in the interview suggested, they aren't exactly going to fall in line, either. And if he doesn't want to deal with the types of things head coaches have to deal with, and thinks he can just live in a fantasy world coaching until he drops, he does need to step down. Do himself, Penn State, and these players a favor. Because getting punishments reduced, claiming everybody is just out to get you, and acting like nothing is wrong, isn't helping anybody.