This coming from a Penn State Student
by jdj5045 on Nov 6, 2011 9:41 AM EST
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I'm a 5th year senior at Penn State, but I've bled blue and white long before my enrollment. The Penn State Football program has meant a great deal to me since my first game at Beaver Stadium in 1993 and this news has deeply saddened/angered me beyond words of explanation.
But despite the number of people who take a fall for this (and rightfully so), I refuse to change my perception about a University that has provided me with some of the greatest, and most important, times of my life.
On football Saturdays there is a lot more going on than the presence of Joe Paterno, Tim Curley, and Graham Spanier. We see 40,000+ students band together. We watch 60,000+ others fill the seats of Beaver Stadium. State College becomes the 3rd largest city in PA because a horde of fans make the trip to SC to share their love for the University and be around others who can reciprocate that love. Then, after all the preparation and festivities, we watch young men (18-22 years old) play their hearts out on the field in a sport they love; and they do it for each other, for us, and for the university.
I am upset at the number of people who are ready to give up on Penn State. Penn State is not just football. Penn State is the collection of students, alumni, Facutly, staff, and fans (University Park, Abington, Altoona, Beaver, Berks, Brandywine, DuBois, Erie, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Harrisburg, Hazleton, Lehigh VAlley, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and York) who believe/believed that this university provides the opportunities to develop and mature as professionals and individuals. Along the way, great things are accomplished (THON is only 1 example).
I have read any and all articles on the situation. I tirelessly scoured this website yesterday to read opinions on the matter. I will be taking a break from BSD so that I can enjoy these beautiful fall days on Penn State's campus. I'm no expert on anything, but I would like to say this:
Jerry Sandusky, Tim Curley, Garry Schultz, and Graham Spanier did not write the Alma Mater. Believe it or not, neither did Joe Paterno.
I will always believe in Penn State.
For the Glory.
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Well said and thank you
As a recent graduate who grew up also bleeding blue and white, I’ve been sick to my stomach much like everyone else over teh last few days. But I appreciate you making me get a little choked up for a good reason for the first time since this news hit! This whole mess is despicable, but I hope we remember that PSU is more than just one monster and a couple of two faced administrators. It’s all of us on BSD, it’s our current students and student-athletes, and a whole mess of future Nittany Lions that will help us rebound from this terrible incident.
So once again, thanks jdj5045 for allowing me to put my anger/depression away for a few minutes and hopefully a few thousand Penn Staters will still join me this Saturday in rooting on a great group of student athletes who still deserve our support.
I get the paper. I go to the bathroom. I take the paper in there and I scan it. I look at it. The first thing I do is look at who died. All right. Second thing I look at are headlines. Something that says, "Paterno is the Greatest," I read it. -JVP
by wek5000lion09 on Nov 6, 2011 10:45 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
The voice of reason should and will prevail.....
It will just take a long time to do so…..trials, plea-bargaining, and tap-dancing around the issues are just some of the matters we, as proponents of this great institution, will have to deal with….cooler and saner heads will have to preside over this tragedy until ALL of the facts are to be presented. We are in for a dark era for PSU unfortunately that included cover-ups and CYAs….the TRUTH will set us free.
"The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God." The Government is like the Mob, you can check out, but never leave.
Hooah.
Well said. We do need to separate the University from the people who created the scandal and we surely need to leave the team out of it as well. All of this happened before any of the players ever enrolled at PSU.
"Illegitimus non Carborundum!" (Don't let the bastards wear you down)
Easiest rec of the day. Good luck and enjoy your final year.
You without me is like Harold Melvin without the Blue Notes . . . you'll never go platinum.
#OccupyESPN
No love for Hershey or Dickinson School of Law either
I guess the grad students don’t count. j/k
This was a sight for sore eyes, so thanks.
I am a Penn State Nittany Lion, and I played for the legendary Joe Paterno, and more importantly, I am a man because of it. - Lavar Arrington
Well said
As sad and as sick as this is, The Pennsylvania State University is bigger than this, it is bigger than the sick man who committed these unthinkable acts (God bless the victims) and anyone who may have been involved with a cover up. This too will pass into the abyss of time with punishment paid by those who deserve it. Ten or Twenty years from now Penn State will still be among the most respected institutions in world, as it will survive this tradegy because of what it is and the foundation on which it’s built.
As an outsider, I'd like to share my thoughts, if you don't mind.
Penn State, as a football and wrestling rivalry, I have a ton of respect for. Your coaches, players and fans are not cut from a cloth similar to the Ohio States of the world. Upstanding coaches, clean and aggressive players and respectful fans are what I think of when I think of PSU. The events that have unfolded in the last few days have done nothing to tarnish that image in my eyes. The players had nothing to do with it. It was the actions of one man, and the possible in-actions of two others. To condemn the entire university for these actions would do a great injustice to those that had no part in this whatsoever.
Stay strong, Penn State.
"No I'm not going to 'limber up'. You ever see a lion stretching before it takes down a gazelle?"
by Swarley on Nov 7, 2011 4:55 PM EST reply actions 6 recs
Thanks for the post.
Very well said…agree 100%.
Thanks for taking the time to post this
I just wish others felt the same way.
by archerbullseye on Nov 7, 2011 5:16 PM EST up reply actions
Others do...
It breaks my heart to see this happening at PSU. Despite what some may believe, the rest of the country, including those of us down here in the heart of Dixie, largely have utmost respect for Penn State. We at UA have always considered PSU to be a school after our own heart- full of tradition, pride, and old school values.
I hope to all that is holy and sacred in the world that this horrible thing is limited to just the coach in question and the couple of folks who kept it quiet. They deserve whatever they get if the charges turn out to be true.
If, however, (and god forbid) it turns out that more coaches and staff were aware of the situation and did nothing…I don’t have words for it. It will signal the end a kind of innocence for me.
I’ve always looked up to Penn State not only because of the success on the field, but because of the quality of character off the field. I’ve always hoped that Alabama could follow that example, and one of the things I’ve loved the most about our resurgence in the past few years is that we seemed to be on our way to exactly that.
If Penn State, of all programs, can truly have this sort of rot permeating its ranks…what hope is there for the rest of us?
I’m not a praying man, but somewhere in me, I’m praying to whatever may be out there for this not to be true.
"You have to create six seconds of hell, every time the ball is snapped..."
-Nick Saban
by KongAtTheGates on Nov 7, 2011 10:22 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
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