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 Mike HlasHi, I'm Gazette/TheGazette.com sports columnist Mike Hlas. This is the Hlog. We will meet here, discuss things, and then go [...] |
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Hlas column: This Penn State team deserves a respectful welcome in Kinnick Saturday night
Hlas: Under Bill O'Brien, Nittany Lions have been an admirable squad
This, I never expected.
I never thought that on this coming Saturday in October, it wouldn’t be totally uncomfortable to see Penn State’s football team in Kinnick Stadium.
In July, I hoped the NCAA was dead serious about punishing Penn State football with a death penalty for the school’s absence of institutional control regarding Jerry Sandusky’s crimes of sexually abusing children.
Penn State RB Zach Zwinak dives for a touchdown vs. Northwestern (AP photo)
Like so many of you, I was Penn Stated-out. Just get rid of the school’s football program for a few years, let everyone know the buck does stop somewhere in college athletics, and make the Big Ten live with 11 football teams for a while.
Life would go on in college football, a better life than those damaged by Sandusky and the blind eyes turned by high-ranking Penn State administrators.
In my mind at that time, any compromise that would have kept Nittany Lion football in business in 2012 would have been a cop-out to keep the Big Ten whole and save a marquee college football program from total collapse. I never thought a death penalty would happen. Too many dollars were at stake.
But NCAA President Mark Emmert told new Penn State President Rodney Erickson that most of the NCAA’s leadership wanted to impose a 4-year death penalty on Nittany Lions football. Erickson said the school would have gotten that penalty had it not agreed to the severe NCAA sanctions it is now under. And severe, they are.
So here we are, with this prime-time football game between Penn State and Iowa. Business as usual, it isn’t.
This is the post-Joe Paterno era. This is the post-scandal era. A wounded football program, a wounded university.
Yet, at midseason this Penn State team is likable. It began the season with a home loss to Ohio and a road defeat to Virginia, and it looked like the Lions would be punching bags all season. But here they are with a 4-game winning streak, playing with purpose, spirit, and a nothing-to-lose demeanor.
Whatever new coach Bill O’Brien has done in motivating and instructing his team, it should be bottled and sold to leaders everywhere.
Bill O'Brien (AP photo)
When Penn State rallied from a 28-17 fourth-quarter hole two Saturdays ago to peel off three touchdown drives and defeat previously unbeaten Northwestern, 39-28, how could anyone not be impressed?
You can’t go to a bowl game? You can’t compete for a spot in the Big Ten title game? You’ve seen several teammates transfer out before the season started, including star running back Silas Redd? You’ve witnessed the unusual sight of empty seats at Beaver Stadium this season?
Shrug it all off, as well as that 0-2 start. O’Brien’s team has played for the joy and pride and satisfaction of competing, trying to make the best of a tough situation. How can you not like and respect that?
No one involved with Penn State football today had the remotest connection to the horrors of what happened on that campus. If you feel compelled to jeer the Nittany Lions Saturday night, do so for partisan football fan reasons only.
It will be a tough go for Penn State football for several years. The reduced scholarships and recruiting disadvantages will be felt for a long time.
But today, not everything associated with the phrase “Penn State football” feels disgusting or discouraging. That’s a victory in itself, one that seemed so unlikely just a couple months ago.
Agree wholeheartedly! I only wish everyone, including the NCAA, journalists like the author of this article and Penn State’s board of Trustees, had allowed legal proceedings to run their course before anyone called for punishment for a football team, and a university community, that had absolutely nothing to do with anything that happened. The only evidence of this terrible cover up lies in the pages of a deeply flawed report which even Bob Costas (who also originally called for the death penalty) now admits might have gone too far in placing blame and motive on administrators and the football program. Yet, programs that are actually breaking NCAA rules are being given a free pass on technicalities. And Syracuse, who had an alleged pedophile still actively coaching, and ESPN, who held evidence of the allegations against that coach, also get a free pass. It’s astounding that you would NEED to write an article to talk about how a team of outstanding young men, who consistently graduate at higher levels than almost any other Division 1 team, who have never broken 1 rule, and who uphold the highest level of sportsmanship deserve to be treated with respect and welcomed into your stadium. Why on Earth would anyone treat them in any other way?
Why, Linda? Because people, and bureaucrats in particular, tend to be self-righteous and hypocritical. The NCAA has no jurisdiction where felony crimes are concerned, but boy, howdy, did they ever “respond”! It is true that student athletes can be expelled from school for felony crimes, but not one member of the present team or coaching staff was involved with the child rape or its coverup. But look who is being punished. The NCAA cries bitter tears over the childen that Sandusky brutally exploited (and they should), but they have no trouble with exploiting the images and names of the athletes they are now punishing, while telling the same athletes that they cannot profit from their own images and reputations as athletes. I will certainly offer Penn State a warm welcome. They have done NOTHING to deserve anything less.
Couldn’t agree more!
With respect to the title, PSU deserves no special treatment just because of their situation. They’re not special. They deserve and should expect the same heckling every team that visits Kinnick gets. My comment rules!
You’re not wrong Travis, but what you’re talking about is just good natured team spirit and friendly competition. What some PSU athletes and students have faced over the past year goes far beyond that. The basketball team was greeted by Duquesne last year with chants of “We Are…Ped State”. The kids out collecting for Thon were forced to cancel canning dates due to threats. Even the Blue Band has been censored in what they can play. If you’re going to be in Kinnick stadium on Saturday, we all fully expect you to cheer loud and proud for your team. By the way, my husband is an Iowa fan and we manage to co-exist quite nicely
. Good luck on Saturday!
I think the nicest and most effective thing Iowa fans could do Saturday night would be to give the PSU team a standing ovation when it comes onto the field. It would shock the world, and it would unnerve Penn State in the most positive way. Talk about Iowa nice. THAT would be NICE.
My husband is from Iowa and his parents grew up in a farming community in Iowa and so I’ve visited many, many times. Iowa is, indeed, very nice. I’ve even learrned the pick up truck “hello”….the index finger extended from the steering wheel by the oncoming driver. I love the state of Iowa and, in the recent past, the Hawkeyes have owned the Nittany Lions. But, I’ll certainly be cheering for a Nittany Lion victory on Saturday!
I’m not planning to boo anyone on Saturday, but I can’t agree with the reasoning here. The team represents Penn State. Penn State certainly is deserving of it punishment and any criticism it receives over what happened, including criticism at football games. These kids, while not involved in the horrid acts or the cover-up, still have chosen to represent a university that deserves criticism.
This cover up of which you speak….have you any proof that this actually happened??
Are you serious?? Did you read Mike McQueary’s description of what he saw in the shower? The e-mails between Curley, Spanier, and others discussing what to do about the situation? The court testimony that convinced a jury made up of Pennsylvanians to put Sandusky away for 30-60 years? In spite of the warning signs, no serious action was taken for years? Continued denial of the problem does not reflect well at all on your school!
Mike,
Call me crazy here…but isn’t this a HOME game for Iowa? I mean, this game is being played in Iowa City, not Happy Valley, right?
Maybe you have forgotten a little thing called “home field advantage”, Mike. You see…we DON’T want Penn State to feel “welcome” at Kinnick Stadium tomorrow.
Our goal should be to make them feel out of their element, make them feel like they’re playing the 70,000+ fans PLUS the 11 guys from Iowa on the field.
I mean cmon Mike, there’s a reason why those visitor locker rooms are painted PINK for cryin out loud!
Yes, we understand that people are tired of the whole Sandusky affair. Yet, the football team still remains a symbol of how one school went to massive lengths to cover up and protect a child predator for the sake of “the program”. That’s something that is not easily forgotten, Mike.