This guest post from our friend Daddy Big Bucks was originally posted on Buckeye Planet during the week that the Penn State story was developing and as the Buckeyes were preparing for Purdue. However, given this Saturday’s game, the sentiment is still incredibly appropriate.
To All Ohio State Fans, especially those going to the game this Saturday:
Some have observed that, given their reputation, Wisconsin fans will be merciless toward Penn State and their fans on the final Saturday of the regular season. I do not doubt this. The person posting it did not act as if they were going out on a limb. They were simply stating something that we all accept as fact.
And, given the circumstances swirling in Happy Valley, it’s within consideration to assume that this might actually get worse. Some would even say “deservedly so”, remembering road games in Beaver Stadium from past seasons. But I think this is a mistake.
Whether it was during Saturday’s telecast of the Nebraska contest or during replays of the riot that occurred when Paterno was dismissed; our ears will, no doubt, are assaulted with the 2nd most annoying chant in all of college football. When you hear it; I implore you to hear something else. While they lay proud claim to who they are, let it remind you of who we are not. Our cheer this weekend is, “We Are – Not Them!”.
No, I am not saying that we are not Penn State. While this is true, and while we can be grateful for it, it is not where our focus should be. The point of all this is, “We Are – NOT WISCONSIN!”.
We are not drunken, bottle-throwing fools who delight in other peoples’ misfortune and publicly disgrace ourselves. We are not classless simpletons who parade classless banners before television cameras, bringing shame on our university. We are not them, Columbus is not Madison, The Ohio State University is not Wisconsin.
If we were to behave like Wisconsin fans when Penn State rolls into town, the Blue & White clad visitors would leave feeling defensive and self-righteous. If we behave like true Buckeyes and show the visitors cordial hospitality, if we act like we are reasonable enough to realize that they are NOT (for the most part) the same people who rioted last night and that they had nothing to do with the failure to protect the innocence of the innocents; then the visitors will return to Pennsylvania thinking not about how they were treated, but about how their own university has been utterly disgraced, and rightly so.
Let the disney channel say what they will. Let them make all the comparisons they want. Let them disgrace themselves. But do not let them compare our behavior to that of the Happy Valley rioters. I harbor no illusions about Buckeye fans doing anything that would actually be as deplorable as much of what was seen last night. None of us however, harbor any illusions about the mickey mouse club portraying ANY misbehavior on our part as being just as bad if not worse.
If we behave like true Buckeyes, if we cheer our Seniors (ALL of our Seniors) on Senior Day and cheer the team during and after the game, if we leave everything else out of it; then nothing ESPN says will matter. At the end of that game every viewer will be thinking that Ohio State is a better place than Penn State (and Madison). And rightly so.
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