Okay, so this is going to be a bit of a rant post, because things need to change in the college world today. As most of you know, Pitt and Penn State met at Heinz Field for the Keystone Classic on Saturday, September 10th, which was the first time the two teams have met in 16 years. So all of last week was #PittHateWeek and #PennStateHateWeek, which was to be expected, and to be honest, a lot of the jokes were pretty funny. In spite of that, there was one very common joke from the Pitt side that bothered me, and many other Penn State fans, which leads me to the inspiration behind this post.
Unless you live under a rock, you probably know what awful thing happened at Penn State five years ago. Jerry Sandusky molested, to say the least, over 50 young men in the showers of the Penn State locker room. To make it worse, the cases were long drawn out, some of which remain unsettled today. As if the event were not bad enough for the victims, their families and the Penn State family, this is what prompted some of Pitt's jokes for the week. I've seen many posts from my friends that go to Pitt (one who has been a PSU fan since birth, but "converted" when she got into Pitt) with the words "Joe Knew" as the caption.
First of all, rape is nothing to joke about. Many lives were ruined as a result of one person, not the whole university, and the fact that he was associated with Penn State means that this will never go away completely, which is half good and half bad. Bad because people will judge the whole university based on one thing that happened, but good because we are able to learn from things like this to make sure they never happen again. Second, any Pitt fan would be just as upset as we are if the same thing would've happened to them. Lastly, if the only thing you have to insult us on is something like this, which has nothing to do with sports or the school in general, then you really need to step up the game, because it's honestly pathetic.
Penn State is an amazing school, and I can't wait to spend the next three years of my life here; growing, getting an education, and meeting people I will cherish for the rest of my life. We Are, because he was and I will stand by my school every step of the way. There is allowed to be a rivalry between schools, that's what makes sporting events that much more intense, but honestly the rape jokes need to stop. There is so much more to this school than being known for what Jerry Sandusky did to those innocent young men. These jokes are not okay, nor will they ever be. So next time before you make a joke about what happened here, imagine if that was you everyone was joking about, and see how funny it is then.
(I apologize for the rant, but someone needed to say it)
