The Human Drama Of Athletic Competition

"A riot is an ugly thing." That's the first thing that Inspector Kemp says, through a thick German accent in "Young Frankenstein." Then he finishes with, "and I think it's about time we had one." Why not? Riots are very much in vogue right now. It used to be a more isolated tactic, used primarily to celebrate the end of a championship season by the local sports franchise. The release of all that tension that feels like celebration at first turns into ugly unchecked violence after all the beer is gone. The curiosity being, of course, that you would expect that the losing team would be the ones whose fans would take exception to the outcome, but generally that's not the case.
Then there are those nutty soccer fans: the ones who can't wait for the game to be over before the tumult is unleashed. These guys might just burn down the stadium before the match can be completed. That's how committed they are. Or perhaps they should be committed, that's the answer.
Which brings us to the unrest last week in State College, Pennsylvania. Upon hearing that their football coach and semi-major demigod, Joe Paterno, had been fired for his part in an expanding the scandal surrounding accusations that a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, sexually assaulted young boys. To be clear, these students were not enraged by the football program's involvement in the abuse of children, they were incensed that their beloved leader, "JoPa," had been relieved of his position. That's when they took to the streets.
“Of course we’re going to riot,” said Paul Howard, twenty-four, an aerospace engineering student. “What do they expect when they tell us at ten o’clock that they fired our football coach?”
“We got rowdy, and we got Maced,” said Jeff Heim, nineteen, rubbing his red, teary eyes. “But make no mistake, the board started this riot by firing our coach. They tarnished a legend.”
Tarnished legend? I guess they don't teach irony at Penn State.