The Cincinnati Enquirer

If Joe Paterno weren't Joe Paterno, Joe Paterno would be looking for work or retired. The Joe Paterno of 20 years ago would tell the Joe Paterno of today, It's time.

Ohio State is going to Happy Valley Saturday, favored to hand 2-6 Penn State its fifth consecutive loss. "I haven't been around a 2-6 football team in 60 years," the 76-year-old Paterno said Tuesday.

Since Paterno began coaching the Nittany Lions in 1966, there have been 728 head coaching changes in Division I football. The coaching wheel spins like a tire at Daytona, driven by money and winning. There is little patience for a good man now, unless he wins.

Penn State's Joe Paterno has had little to celebrate since breaking Paul "Bear" Bryant's win record two years ago. (Associated Press photo)

Paterno is a good man. Great, even. "If you aren't a man when you get there, you'll be a man when you leave," former Penn State and current Washington Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington once said of Paterno. That should be enough for a lifetime contract in any league. The reality: It doesn't mean as much as 2-6 in 2003.

Or 21-23 since 2000.

How do you tell the legends goodbye? What's the right way to show them the sunset when they still believe it's the middle of the afternoon?

It's relevant here; Joe Nuxhall is standing at the same crossroads. One day, maybe, Bob Huggins will be there as well, though the UC basketball coach swears he'll be bass-fishing before the decade is out.

Leaving at the right time is an art form - Sandy Koufax. Red Auerbach, John Wooden, Paul Brown.

Woody Hayes couldn't do it. Bob Knight couldn't. Neither could Mike Tyson, Michael Jordan and Willie Mays. The same traits that made them great eventually made them blind. Same with Joe Paterno.

"He knows what's going on. He'll know when to say when," said Bengals tight end Tony Stewart, Penn State '01. Stewart played high school ball in Allentown, Pa., deep in the heart of JoePa country. "Everything he told me came true. He said I was a good athlete. He said I'd get the chance to start for two years and the chance to catch some balls. I started two years and I still hold the (PSU receptions) record for tight ends. I have no complaints."

The game hasn't passed Paterno by. Football is still about blocking, tackling and not backing down. It's the players. The kids have passed him by. Great players don't go to Penn State much.

The eternal verities that should keep Paterno current for life - hard work, schoolwork, character, responsibility, the whole man-making catalog - aren't relevant anymore. They've been replaced by Me priorities: Money, fame, TV face time. Obligations to teammates and coaches are loose-fitting, which could explain why Paterno on Tuesday suspended his best wide receiver for drunken driving and kicked an offensive lineman off the team amid allegations of public drunkenness and slapping a woman. Several other players have been cited this fall, most on alcohol-related charges.

Should Paterno be allowed to call his own shot? He signed a five-year deal in 2000. Should Penn State allow Paterno to coach when the deal's up? It doesn't look like Joe will quit on his own.

Great players who stay too long are cut or are benched. Coaches remain front and center. Maybe they should have term limits.

"One of the lessons I learned from Penn State was, never cross an old Italian," Tony Stewart said. "That's nothing derogatory. He's fair, but if you do something against what he teaches, he won't put up with it."

Odds are, Penn State will lose its fifth straight game Saturday. Joe Paterno's sunset is here. Should he be allowed more than that?

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com