Clearly it’s been a tough week for not only the Rutgers football program but everyone associated with the school. Saturday night the Scarlet Knights take the field against another school that knows what it’s like to deal with off the field distractions which can at times get ugly and my guess is Penn State fans will not have a lot of sympathy for the 4,000 or so Rutgers fans who make the trip to Happy Valley. 

I’m sure many of you know about my love (and I’m not ashamed to call it that) for The Pennsylvania State University.  It goes way back to my father’s friendship with George Paterno who was the brother of the late, great Nittany Lions coach.  However it was during the eight years my son and daughter spent on the Penn State campus that I drank the Kool-Aid and was drawn into the circle of diehard fans and supporters.  I often say with the exception of the tuition payments I think I enjoyed those years as much as my children.

A Penn State fan t-shirt
A Penn State fan t-shirt (Kevin Williams, Townsquare Media NJ)
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It was at this time last year that Penn State paid a visit to Rutgers in the first-ever meeting between the schools as members of the Big Ten Conference.  We planned a rather large tailgate with the families of several of my daughter’s friends and when you throw in friends of my son and others we had quite a turnout in a parking lot not too far from the stadium. 

What we witnessed was often crude and brutal behavior by Rutgers students (and others) who used the well documented child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State to mock those wearing blue and white in a variety of ways.  It was nasty and what angered me the most was the lack of action taken by security personnel who often just ignored the unruly behavior.  The only thing that made it bearable was the fact that Penn State rallied in the final minutes to win the game.

I know many of the Penn State fans in attendance that day will be making the trip to a more-friendly Beaver Stadium tomorrow night and some will be looking for payback especially in light of recent developments.  I hope they take the high road and stick to rooting for their team on a night when they hold their first-ever stripe out as over 100,000 fans will wear blue or white depending of where they are sitting. 

It should be an impressive sight and a lesson to Rutgers faithful on how you support your school and team because nobody knows better than Penn Staters what it’s like to deal with negativity and cruelness.

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