When will the Penn State Charade End?

Ok, the Dawg has had enough. I just can't take it anymore. I'm finally worn out. I just don't care anymore.

I hate to say it: but I could care less if Pitt and Penn State every play each other again.

That's it, the weight is officially off my chest. But some of you who have been reading me for some time now will be confused. Especially since I have been a vocal supporter of bringing the rivalry back and an often even louder critic of PSU and more importantly Joe Paterno's reluctance to not even consider it, or even historically talk about it in a fair matter.

But once he did start talking about it, boy I wish he never did.

Because once he did, what he has said about it has been so insulting that I can't believe these two teams once actually had a deeply intense and much anticipated rivalry game. But I guess that's what Joe Pa and his devoted nation wanted us all to believe all this time anyway. So in the end, they win. Because the last thing Pitt needs is another program artificially looking down their collective noses at it, especially when that program isn't the lion of college football they used to be...and still falsely think they are.

Is it me, or does it seem like every time Penn State nation needs a jolt in the arm, Joe Paterno brings up the defunct rivalry with Pitt? It's eerily similar to the pattern we've seen from politicians recently. Republicans who don't want to talk about the Iraq War bring up gay marriage or immigration. Democrats who don't want to talk about their inability to fulfill their promise to end the war bring up health care and tax cuts for the rich. For Joe Paterno, its a lot easier acting like he controls the fate of a historic rivalry than answer questions regarding the lawlessness of his supposedly pristine grand experiment of a football program.

It's not Pitt's responsibility to acquiesce in this situation and agree to an unfair deal. Pitt does not need Penn State. It has not played Penn State in six seasons and has still been able to make four bowl games, including the Fiesta Bowl, and be on national television and in the rankings since that day in 2000 that Pitt won the final game in the series 12-0. Yes, Pitt has publicly admitted it would be more than willing to accommodate PSU in any fair way possible to resume the series. This should not be interpreted as a measure born out of necessity or desperation. Just because Pitt wants to play fair to re institute a legendary rivalry doesn't mean Pitt needs to ever play PSU again, as Joe Starkey inaccurately suggests in his most recent column.

So let PSU make all their grand announcements about not needing to play Pitt unless its on their terms. Pitt has nothing to prove to PSU or anyone else. For a medium size intercity college football program, Pitt has done an incredible job staying relevant in college since the shift of successful programs from inner urban campuses to larger state schools in the late fifties/early sixties. After Miami and USC, it's hard to find a more successful program in the inner city than the Panthers. Pitt has to bow to no one, especially PSU.

Maybe its just my own flawed opinion, but I think Joe Pa is still bitter about his less than agreeable dealings with Pitt over the years. Until recently, Joe Pa always maintained that if Pitt was willing to agree to a two game, home and home series, he would do it. It was always his way to say he tried when he know Pitt wouldn't accept anything less than a long-term deal. Yet now he's saying he wouldn't even accept that, as I'm sure Pitt has put out feelers that the arrangement would now be agreeable to them if it could possibly kick start the series again.

This constantly moving target of what he would agree to merely suggests the obvious. Joe Paterno is a man who holds grudges, and yet won't admit to them. He'll suggest any reason for not continuing the rivalry and than switches it when the objection is met. It's a sure sign that a petty grudge by one man holds up the rivalry...which is a shame for all college football fans.