Time for Him to Put Age Before Duty, and Quit

Is it time for Joe Paterno to start working on his retirement speech?

Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette thinks it is, and he thinks it’s time Paterno’s wife, Sue, and his son and Penn State quarterbacks coach, Jay, work on their speeches too.

Paterno, 74, said recently “there are enough people around me who will tell me” when it’s time to retire.

“It’s up to Sue and Jay Paterno,” Cook wrote. “If they’re smart, they are working on their speeches.”

Cook added: “There are plenty of warning signals that the end is near--or should be--for Paterno. They go beyond the fact it’s increasingly difficult for an old coach to relate to kids. They go beyond even Penn State’s 5-7 record last season--its bad loss to Pitt, its worse loss to Toledo and its 45-6 annihilation at Ohio State.

“It’s kind of sad. The last thing anyone wants to see--aside from a few Pitt fans, perhaps--is Paterno embarrass himself at the end of his marvelous career.”

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Trivia time: What did recent Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Kirby Puckett do in his first major league game, in 1984?

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Take that! Bruce Bebb, writing in Professional Boxing Update, recently told of one of the too-many boxing governing bodies, this one called the World Athletic Assn., started by an Oklahoma couple, Pat and Jeanie O’Grady.

Naturally, they declared their son-in-law, Monte Masters, their world heavyweight champion--until he divorced their daughter.

Then, Bebb wrote, they stripped him of his title.

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Steel City guy: At his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony, former USC Trojan and Steeler wide receiver Lynn Swann said all the right things about Pittsburgh, prompting the following from the Post-Gazette’s Chuck Finder:

“Amazing, isn’t it, how a SoCal cool dude could turn into a Pittsburgh guy?”

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As good as it gets: Jack Newfield, writing in the New York Post, was almost offended by the highly hyped June match between Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier-Lyde.

Newfield: “The trilogy of fights between their fathers, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, was as great as boxing gets. The [fight] between their daughters was a burlesque, a P.T. Barnum hustle to exploit two sacred names--can Freeda Foreman be far behind?”

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At least he’s honest: Shane Mosley, on his chances against Roy Jones Jr. at 168 pounds:

“I can’t make 168 pounds and I don’t want to fight Roy Jones Jr.”

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Boxing brief(s): Former heavyweight champion Ingemar Johansson has gone into the men’s underwear business. Check out his line at https://www.ingoboxers.com .

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Looking back: On this day in 1994, major league baseball players went on strike in the sport’s eighth work stoppage since 1972.

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Trivia answer: Four for four, all singles.

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And finally: Former Raider Bo Jackson shared with Fox Sports Net commentator Jim Rome the advice he has given his asthmatic teenage son about football practice, in light of the deaths of Korey Stringer and Rashidi Wheeler:

“If you get hot, if you overexert yourself, go and sit down. Take off your helmet, go and sit down and if the coach don’t like it, tell him to call Dad. Period.”