Rich Rodriguez makes a tumultuous break from West Virginia to go to Michigan.

Joe Paterno regards retirement as if it means going from Penn State to the state pen.

Neil Gordon doesn't even get a warning about where the door might hit him as he is pushed through it.

Three football coaches in the news.

Three cases close to home that illustrate what has to be the wackiest employee-boss relationship in the working world.

In college and high school, you've got the coach as the face of a team and you've got the coach's superiors, who usually are much lesser known but have the power to hire and fire coaches and hold them accountable.

Players can come and go, management can come and go, but coaches are the ones who get credit or blame for their team's performance over the long run.

It's a version of the tail wagging the dog. Unless or until the dog comes charging off the sideline and takes a bite out of the equation.

It's not quite the same in the pros. General managers have a strong public presence because of trades, drafts and free agency, and team owners often are visible members of the sports world and local communities.

But with athletic directors and other university officials and with school boards, things can get interesting if there's an issue with a coach.

Consider the twists and turns between Rodriguez and his former bosses at West Virginia, a nasty scenario still playing out.

Stung to the core by Pitt's upset of the Mountaineers, which knocked them out of the Bowl Championship Series title game, Rodriguez left his alma mater and home state to take the coaching job at Michigan.

It's a breakup so ugly you almost would expect the West Virginia folks to plant a sign out front:

Coach and files missing

Reward for files

We learned this week of evidence that Rodriguez had been unhappy with athletic department officials, perhaps even trying to stage a coup, for some time. Only after he left did details start to spill out for public consumption.

West Virginia is suing to get the $4 million buyout in Rodriguez's contract, and there have been reports the university suspects Rodriguez took or destroyed athletes' files.

Rodriguez denied any theft or vandalism and, in turn, charged that the university did not fulfill promises about upgrades to the facilities and other aspects of the program. Those type of onerous office politics between coaches and management often don't surface until there's a problem.

Sometimes, the problem is not so much direct conflict as it is an uncomfortable situation.

That seems to be the case at Penn State, where Paterno has so much power that he has long blurred the line between who is the boss and who is the employee.

Paterno, 81, has more than earned the right to retire on his terms.

It's just that more and more people -- probably including some of those who, on paper, are his bosses -- hope he exercises that right sooner rather than later.

He has said he hopes to coach until the end of the decade or beyond, although his contract has just one year remaining and university president Graham Spanier recently told trustees Paterno will coach in 2008 but that negotiations have not begun on a contract extension.

Paterno is second all-time in Division I-A with 372 victories in 42 seasons, but probably would like to finish ahead of Florida State's Bobby Bowden, who has 373.

But just how do you orchestrate the ouster of a legend, even if he does technically work for you?

If that happens and Paterno is nudged out before he leaves on his own, at least he will have seen it coming.

That's not always the case for high school coaches.

Gordon found out there doesn't have to be a public sign of distress for your bosses to act.

He also found out -- as high school coaches unfortunately do -- that disgruntled parents sometimes are elevated to the rank of boss when they have the ear of those in charge.

Gordon was humming along at 156-74-2 with a string of playoff appearances, a couple of championships and a team ready to peak this fall when, after 21 years, the Penn Hills school board dumped him earlier this month.

School board president Erin Vecchio told the Post-Gazette she was swayed by parents and students who wanted a new coach.

Because, you know, vocal minorities such as loudmouth parents and worldly scholars such as high school students know that coaches who can deliver championships every year grow on trees around here.