Wednesday, October 31, 2007

More fan interactions from PSU v. OSU weekend

I didn't voice these before but after all of this, I figure I might as well spill it all. Much of what I saw was also seen by Tas so I'm sure he could echo these statements as well. While what happened outside of the frat honestly seems like the tip of the iceberg to me, the point blank beer can throw definitely beats anything I saw.

I was out tailgating in the IM Fields for quite some time before the game. Every time an OSU fan walked by on Park Avenue, he/she would expectedly get showered with boos. However, if said OSU fan took the extra step of walking towards the tailgating crowds in a taunting manner/make a not so nice gesture/mouth back, you would see dozens of beer cans soar towards the fan. When I say dozens, I'm not kidding. It reminds me of those movies where armies fire off tons of arrows at the opposing army. It was like that, but with beer cans.

Another fan was stupid enough to walk down Park Avenue with a giant OSU flag. That guy took the brunt of many beer cans soaring his way as well as multiple people running at him in an attempt to steal his flag.

Finally, there was an older guy who was stupid enough to come to the student entrance and start taunting them. Expectedly, he received an aluminum shower.

Now, I'm not really sure what provoked this whole thing that was on the video but what I've noticed is that in all of the cases that PSU fans showed this kind of behavior (that I personally witnessed) was after some sort of taunting or classless behavior by OSU fans. I am in no way condoning what PSU fans did. Violence against other fans is flat out stupid and wrong but OSU fans were always the ones provoking the situation (again, that I witnessed). I know, free speech and you should be able to do whatever you want, blah blah blah. But just use some common sense people. You don't go into another person's house and mock/taunt them and tell them how much better you are (especially if the host is drunk). I saw plenty OSU tailgates existing peacefully amongst a ton of PSU tailgates because they kept to themselves, as did the PSU fans. Either way, when one side brings violence into the equation, that side is very wrong and in this case, that side is Penn State fans. I don't want to sound like I'm defending the PSU fans that threw stuff. I'm not. What I'm simply trying to say is that it's not like they were always saying "hey, there's an OSU fan, let's just start throwing stuff at him/her."

When it comes right down to it, nobody won. Fans from both sides pretty much looked like a--h---- all weekend. While ultimately everyone is responsible for their own actions, I'd say the University/State College Police did a pretty poor job of protecting OSU fans. I mean, I saw the brunt of things occur around the intersection of Park and University; a very, very busy intersection/place to be on game day. A cop or two should be stationed there all day on such a weekend. Why weren't they? Oh that's right...they were busy busting people for underage drinking, nailing ~70 people in all. I'm pretty sure that beer getting thrown at someone is more of a hazard than someone under 21 drinking it.

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