FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- There he was yesterday, insulting the Orange Bowl people who are paying about $15 million for his Penn State team to be here, complaining about his hotel, complaining about the demands on his time, complaining about just about everything including being stuck here in paradise for too long.

And those were Joe Paterno's lighter moments.

Later, he would insult all sensibility when asked about Florida State linebacker A.J. Nicholson, who will miss the game against Penn State tonight because of a sexual assault accusation. Though his answer didn't approach the moronic level of Bobby Knight's infamous "if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it" observation, it was instructive about what Paterno has become in his old age and how out of touch, in some ways, he really is.

"It's so tough. There are so many people gravitating to these kids. [Nicholson] may not even have known what he was getting into. Somebody may have knocked on the door. A cute little girl knocks on the door. What do you do? Geez ... thank God, they don't knock on my door."

Sorry, but it's hard to see much humor there.

All in all, Paterno said just one thing that made perfect sense during his final day of public appearances before the big game.

"I'm a dinosaur."

You know what happened to those that came before him.

They became extinct.

So, too, it should be for Paterno.

It seemed like a real shame that, on a day when he came across, more than ever, as a bitter, cranky old man, he stressed again that he has no plans to leave coaching. "I like to coach. I'm enjoying it. I'm healthy. I don't see any reason to give it up right now."

It's a shame because there never will be a better time for Paterno, 79, to retire. Things never will be this good for him again at Penn State. His players, who are better than Florida State's, should give him his 21st bowl victory tonight. They already gave him, against all odds, a 10-1 season and the Big Ten Conference championship. He could go out on top, which, despite his erratic behavior in this particular century, is what he deserves after his extraordinary contributions to college football in general and to Penn State in particular.

He wouldn't put himself in a position again when so many people want him out. He could bask in the warm glow of a remarkable year, which happened because he turned over a lot of the coaching duties to his staff, especially offensive coordinator Galen Hall, because he was able to recruit such terrific freshmen as Derrick Williams and Justin King and because he had the wisdom to use them in prominent roles against his long-standing policy that older is better.

And, of course, as an added bonus, the significance of which shouldn't be underestimated, Paterno could spend the rest of his life thumbing his nose at his many detractors who thought he couldn't get it done like this again.

Believe me, we all know who we are.

The most prominent of us naysayers were Penn State president Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley. The Post-Gazette reported that they went to Paterno's house after the 2004 season and asked for his resignation. They ended up slinking away after being repulsed and are left now to finish their careers in shame with the Penn State Nation knowing with absolute certainty what it long had suspected -- they don't have anywhere near the clout that their football coach does.

It should be pointed out that Spanier and Curley weren't wrong to ask Paterno to retire, no matter how this season turned out. They made their big mistake by not ringing the Paterno doorbell four, five, even 10 years before. It's fair to think that if they had, Penn State wouldn't have had to endure four losing seasons in five years, a period in which the Nittany Lions went 26-33 and Paterno, in an irrational rant, brought a measure of disgrace to the university by accusing Big Ten officials of an anti-Penn State bias.

That was the time to ask for Paterno's resignation.

Now, after this season, there will be no stopping him.

It's pretty clear Paterno won't have to worry about Spanier and Curley taking him on again even if the Penn State program slides backward. They don't have the nerve for that.

It's just as clear Paterno will get out only when he wants to get out. He'll never get out as long as he's able to take a breath.

That leaves a couple of troubling questions to be answered that have nothing to do with how many more games Paterno wins:

How many more good people will he insult?

And how much worse is he going to make himself look?