Football still rules at Penn State

[tweeterhawk]

UNIVERSITY PARK: Penn State fans 'Rise and Rally' for Nittany Lions football team | Football | CentreDaily.com

UNIVERSITY PARK — A estimated crowd of 3,000 welcomed the Penn State football players for their first preseason practice this morning, just a week after the program was hit with severe NCAA violations.

The gathering outside the Lasch Building cheered and clapped as the players arrived — greeted at the door of the football building by Sue Paterno, wife of the late Joe Paterno...

Edit: I just hope at some point PSU fans understand what happened there.

 

[DexterMorgan]

I really have no problem with the fans supporting the players.

 

[theboat]

I really have no problem with the fans supporting the players.

Ditto. They SHOULD be rallying around the players. Rallying around the Paterno's is the only thing that bothers me.

 

[ChosenChildren]

Not sure what the problem is here. Iowa fans would do exactly the same thing. The young people on the team had nothing to do with what Sandusky, Paterno and others did

 

[Hawkeye11en1]

If they don't want an extreme exodus, they better show up in swarms trying to get them to stay.

 

[ssckelley]

Aw poor poor football team, poor players, they have been through so much. Who gives a sh!t about the victims. The PSU fan base keeps looking worse and worse.

wear them with pride!

 

[Hawkeye11en1]

Aw poor poor football team, poor players, they have been through so much. Who gives a sh!t about the victims. The PSU fan base keeps looking worse and worse.

wear them with pride!

yikes

 

[eveningnewsteam]

When's the rally for the victims from the PSU faithful?? Those PSU people are a ******* disgrace

 

[BlckNGldHwk]

This is why the punishment by the NCAA was a failure.

Ultimately, this will be more punitive to the Penn State football program.

But the football program is not the problem at Penn State. The problem is the culture that worships football and success and achievement.

In order to reset the culture, the football program needed to be benched for one year. There would still be rallying and support but less frequent, less official and less important.

By allowing PSU to play this year, it allows the culture to persist and if anything, it has been a rallying cry for Penn State and the fanbase is getting MORE fanatical and MORE cohesive and boisterous. The punishment did not attack the biggest problem.

It was appropriately punitive but I think ultimately it is ineffective in addressing the root problem.

 

[74Hunter]

When's the rally for the victims from the PSU faithful?? Those PSU people are a ******* disgrace

Should have nuked the whole program.

 

[homes]

This is why the punishment by the NCAA was a failure.

Ultimately, this will be more punitive to the Penn State football program.

But the football program is not the problem at Penn State. The problem is the culture that worships football and success and achievement.

In order to reset the culture, the football program needed to be benched for one year. There would still be rallying and support but less frequent, less official and less important.

By allowing PSU to play this year, it allows the culture to persist and if anything, it has been a rallying cry for Penn State and the fanbase is getting MORE fanatical and MORE cohesive and boisterous. The punishment did not attack the biggest problem.

It was appropriately punitive but I think ultimately it is ineffective in addressing the root problem.

What is the culture that needs to be reset? No more enabling and covering up for a molesting creep? I think that's been/being handled.

But if the culture that needs to be reset is an overemphasis on college football and winning, then they ought to shut down all of college football for 5 years, because most schools are invested in the same culture. Why does Penn State need to be singled out for that culture, and their attitude readjusted, when everyone else gets to continue doing the same thing?

Penn State is being punished for the egregious acts (or inaction) of those in charge, plain and simple. They deserve it for that alone, not because they had (like everyone else) a desire to be successful in football.

 

[ChosenChildren]

This is why the punishment by the NCAA was a failure.

Ultimately, this will be more punitive to the Penn State football program.

But the football program is not the problem at Penn State. The problem is the culture that worships football and success and achievement.

In order to reset the culture, the football program needed to be benched for one year. There would still be rallying and support but less frequent, less official and less important.

By allowing PSU to play this year, it allows the culture to persist and if anything, it has been a rallying cry for Penn State and the fanbase is getting MORE fanatical and MORE cohesive and boisterous. The punishment did not attack the biggest problem.

It was appropriately punitive but I think ultimately it is ineffective in addressing the root problem.

You nailed it - it is Division I football that is out of control. The genie is out of the bottle and you won't be able to put it back in. Penn State isn't any different than any other Big Ten campus.

If you want to see college football being played for all of the RIGHT reasons, go to a Division III game. Go to Simpson v. Central. You'll see something completely different. Those games are about the kids competing for the love of the game and the love of competition and the effort to excel. In those games, it is not about dollars, or rabid fans, or BCS bowl games, or TV revenue.

 

[Sparky]

You nailed it - it is Division I football that is out of control. The genie is out of the bottle and you won't be able to put it back in. Penn State isn't any different than any other Big Ten campus.

If you want to see college football being played for all of the RIGHT reasons, go to a Division III game. Go to Simpson v. Central. You'll see something completely different. Those games are about the kids competing for the love of the game and the love of competition and the effort to excel. In those games, it is not about dollars, or rabid fans, or BCS bowl games, or TV revenue.

I couldn't agree more with this statement. When I played for Central we played because we loved the game and because we wanted to be the absolute best. We were always taught to be humble and thankful for having the opportunity to play a game we loved.

 

[theboat]

You nailed it - it is Division I football that is out of control. The genie is out of the bottle and you won't be able to put it back in. Penn State isn't any different than any other Big Ten campus.

If you want to see college football being played for all of the RIGHT reasons, go to a Division III game. Go to Simpson v. Central. You'll see something completely different. Those games are about the kids competing for the love of the game and the love of competition and the effort to excel. In those games, it is not about dollars, or rabid fans, or BCS bowl games, or TV revenue.

Those games are also not very good.

Basketball fundamentalists try to tell me that women's b-ball is awesome too, but I don't buy it.

 

[JHHawk]

The whole Big Ten needed to take 5 years off to really change the football culture.

Otherwise, singling out PSU is meaningless. The same culture exists at all big time football programs,not just at PSU. And the playoff just adds to that culture...that should be scrapped immediately by the NCAA if they are serious.

 

[homes]

The whole Big Ten needed to take 5 years off to really change the football culture.

Otherwise, singling out PSU is meaningless. The same culture exists at all big time football programs,not just at PSU. And the playoff just adds to that culture...that should be scrapped immediately by the NCAA if they are serious.

IF the intent is to change the culture. Of course, that isn't the intent, so nothing will change (and I am not advocating that it should change, nor do the vast, vast majority of people want it to change).

The grandstanding about changing the culture of college football, from the NCAA, commissioners, columnists, and everyone in between, is a crock.

 

[hawkfan33]

You nailed it - it is Division I football that is out of control. The genie is out of the bottle and you won't be able to put it back in. Penn State isn't any different than any other Big Ten campus.

If you want to see college football being played for all of the RIGHT reasons, go to a Division III game. Go to Simpson v. Central. You'll see something completely different. Those games are about the kids competing for the love of the game and the love of competition and the effort to excel. In those games, it is not about dollars, or rabid fans, or BCS bowl games, or TV revenue.

Everytime you hear someone talk about people playing a sport for the "right" reasons, it's code for saying they aren't very good. Every kid at Simpson or Central would love to be getting paid under the table by boosters, and worshipped by a rabid fan base, they just weren't good enough to play for a real football program.