Greetings, readers. I was hooting and hollering at close to midnight this past Saturday evening as the Penn State Nittany Lion football team pulled off its biggest upset since 1964. We beat the Ohio State Buckeyes who were ranked #2. I’m going to describe what happened directly after the game, though I wasn’t a witness to the worst of it.
When the game was over, it didn’t take long for the happy and enthusiastic students to run down into town from the stadium. On my street, there was the usual We Are Penn State chant, lots of whoops, hollers, and other expressions of joy. There was a police presence downtown ready to go in case something happened, and boy, did it.
Though the folks were peaceful on my street, one block down a bunch of rowdy, probably drunk, students committed many acts of vandalism, including smashing many, if not all, the street lights on the major artery in town. How stupid can they be? Rebecca told me that she saw a comment somewhere on the internet making the point that Penn State had the opportunity with this amazing win to be seen by the rest of the world for something other than the Jerry Sandusky scandal. They threw that chance away by rioting instead.
My solution? No more night games. All that happens is these children are given an opportunity to party and get drunk all day long, then arrive at the game for an 8:00 kickoff. Yes, you heard right, I did say children. Most of these juvenile delinquents are not 21 years of age, and shouldn’t be drinking anyway. That is another topic for another blog post. If I had my way, all the games would begin at noon for three years. Call it a preventive action. If other teams cannot oblige that time, too damn bad, we’ll take a loss. Students have to be held accountable for their actions and if those actions lead to destruction, consequences must be forthcoming. Penn State University and its students must learn that you cannot drink underage and if you do, you cannot riot and/or destroy property.
Will this solution be taken? Of course not. Why? Because it makes too much sense. We have to have our night-time white-out game every year. It brings in the cash, and I will admit it is kind of cool-looking to see everyone in the stadium, less the opposing team’s fans, with their white shirts on. Let’s give it one more year and see what happens. I don’t know who the opponent is for next year’s 8:00 game, but I hope they will not riot if we pull off another upset.
Okay, I’m done venting now. Until tomorrow, go PSU, We Are Penn State, and all that good fun stuff. Take care, and happy reading.