“It’s special here.”

Nancy Nall has something to say to the students and alumni of Penn State and residents of State College and Nittany Lion football fans who seem to think something has been done to them.

“Get over yourself.”

What exists in State College exists in many, many other places. Columbus and Ann Arbor, to name but two of my immediate experience. Let’s think of some more, starting with the easy ones — virtually any city with a Big 10 school in it, with the obvious exception of Bloomington, although if you’re talking basketball, that’s another story. Tuscaloosa, Gainesville, Tallahassee. Wherever Texas A&M is. Oklahoma. Et-freakin’-cetera. All have vigorous football programs and devout fan bases, and aren’t so different from central Pennsylvania. Maybe they don’t have coaches they refer to as Pop-Pop or Baba or Gramps or whatever, but the depth of feeling for the team and the experience of going to the games? The same. Your stadium’s smaller than Michigan’s and less grand than Ohio State’s. They party hard elsewhere, they have beloved rituals and favorite chants and jeez, have you even been to a football game elsewhere? Ever met a Notre Dame fan, a Domer? They’re as bad as you guys. I’m sure you’d get along like aces.

All this you-don’t-understand-stuff is part of the collective defense mechanism. Every 19-year-old kid who had a mic stuck in his face in the last week and said, “It’s different here,” needs to learn it’s not true. Because while it’s benign coming out of his mouth, it’s only the flip side of the justification that allowed everyone who participated in this coverup to do so in the name of the special-special Penn State football program and special-special-special State College, which must be preserved at any cost.

You’ve got to read the whole of Nance’s post.

And make sure you also read the Grantland column by Charles Pierce she mentions, The Brutal Truth About Penn State.

Comments

[Ken Houghton]

Quibble: the two private Big Ten schools (I was going to say non-Land Grant/Morrill Act, but I'm not absolutely certain), and especially Northwestern (East Lansing, in fairness, is East Lansing, but their life doesn't revolve around football, or even losing to Duke in basketball), don't have the same atmosphere as State College/Columbus/Ann Arbor/Champagne-Urbana.

Otoh, as I think I noted a week or so, an old friend turned down Oklahoma for graduate work in part because he asked what they do for fun and the answer was, roughly, "During football season, or at other times?"

[Nancy Nall]

I think Northwestern was finally booted from the Big Ten. Last I checked, they were playing the Rice Owls, which sounds like a breakfast cereal.

What's the other private Big 10 school?

BTW, there are now 12 schools in the Big 10. Don't think about it too hard.

[Ken Muldrew]

Nancy Nall wrote, "Every 19-year-old kid who had a mic stuck in his face in the last week and said, “It’s different here,” needs to learn it’s not true. "

Sadly, every sports fan in all those other cities with big 10 schools in them needs also to suspect that Penn State style shenanigans are going on within their hallowed halls too. Because they aren't different, and the empowerment of would-be saints is only the beginning of a lengthy collaboration. Much like the collaboration between a magician and his audience, a willing suspension of belief makes the illusion so much more satisfying. And therefore people will not adopt a skeptical attitude, else the magic will disappear and they will be left with nothing. The powerful know this, and they will press forward with ever more audacious acts of power just to see where the boundary lies. And what greater demonstration of power than the conspicuous consumption of humans.

[Sherri]

Northwestern is still a member of the Big 10, and they're the only private school in the Big 10.

[Nancy Nall]

I stand corrected (a few days later).