Pros and Cons

The athletic director at Penn State is faced with a unique situation in accommodating Joe Paterno. The 82-year old coach is a legend of college football, but he's definitely shown signs of "slipping" a bit. So let's weigh the Pros and Cons of having a coach like JoePa at Penn State, shall we?

Pro: Paterno provides the Penn State football program with a strong sense of tradition and pride which helps in recruiting and building up fan support. Its hard to argue with the results as the Penn State program is usually pretty strong; most recently, they posted an 11-1 regular season record and won the Big Ten title before getting blown out in the Rose Bowl by USC.

Con: He'll occasionally do things like join Bill Raferty at the broadcast table at Penn State's NIT Semifinal game against Notre Dame to make some comments that definitely had to make the school's AD cringe a bit. Take a listen:

"Its a black man's game now. When I grew up it was a Jewish game"
- Joe Paterno on the cultural evolution of basketball.

Do you think Penn State regrets keeping JoePa around? I mean, its like letting your grandpa be the symbol for your institution of higher education. You know, that one grandpa everyone has that doesn't mean any harm, but always seems to make some slightly off-color comments at the most embarrassing times?

Oh, JoePa, what will you say next?