Before the revelation of “The List,” Penn State football was considered to be a classy program, rich with tradition. Frankly, we were a lot like Notre Dame, except not as many people hated us. And while no man could ever claim that Joe Paterno was a media darling, I think he was really held with great esteem and reverence by the national media. True, some called for his head during the bleak years in the early parts of this decade. But since the Orange Bowl win back in 2005, he won back the respect of a lot of college football fans. When he was enshrined, just weeks ago, in the College Football Hall of Fame, it was just a validation of the fact that Joe Paterno has been the face, and the soul, of the Penn State football program.

Since the Outside the Lines episode aired, however, Paterno’s image has taken a huge hit. Everyone, it seems, has been lining up to bash him for his program’s highly overstated controversies. The most contentious of the articles was written by Bob Smizik over at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. We know, the Post hasn’t exactly ever been effusive in its praise for Penn State, but this piece was written with tremendous disrespect for Paterno. In his validation of every claim by ESPN, including text-messagegate, Smizik essentially opines that Penn State should push Paterno out the door.

Joe Paterno put this organization on the map, and at 81 years old, just keeps on producing quality teams. He deserves every right to choose when he will retire. No journalist or even administrator should interfere with that. Every reporter who degrades and belittles this program solely on the OTL report (and trust me, there are plenty more than Bob Smizik) needs to look at the facts, not just the actualities of Penn State’s off-field issues but also what Paterno has done for the Penn State football program. Joe Paterno is a more than just a football coach. He is an institution at Penn State. Hell, Joe Paterno is Penn State. And he’s more than earned the right to go out on his own terms.

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