At the risk of sounding trite, I wanted to get into that whole “Penn State students dropped the F bomb at the Temple game” issue this week. I know anyone with a Facebook has seen countless news posts and poorly worded comment-wars on the subject, but I wanted to throw in my two cents anyway.
I get it – Temple did the same thing to us last year, it’s just a part of college football (or any sport) to do a fair share of bashing the opposing team. I don’t think it was necessarily “out of line” that foul language started to fly – in the past, that would be completely acceptable.
However, this isn’t the past. After last year’s scandal, Penn State and the students here are under a microscope. There are signs and t-shirts all over campus bearing the logo “Restore the Roar” – and it’s going to take more than pride and a good football season to recover from all the bad press we’ve received. Our “Roar” isn’t coming back without a fight.
Other universities may be able to afford to be rude, they can afford to curse at opposing teams. But when we (the class of 2016 especially) made the decision to come here, we became citizens of the Penn State community – and therefore it is our civic duty to do everything in our power to restore the reputation of that community.
I think it’s funny how so many students here are so willing to talk about their Penn State pride, to talk about how we’re not falling back no matter what, but when it comes time to represent their school they are unwilling to make small sacrifices – even as small as holding back the “F” bomb in a public setting like a football game.
Being civic involves at least a touch of selflessness – or at least the absence of selfishness. We are all part of a larger community, and, as such, we as individuals must be willing to compromise for the good of that community.