Penn State Football: Catharsis Found As Nittany Lions Take Home Bowl Victory

BRONX, N.Y. –Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and for Penn State a Saturday night in the Bronx was the most beautiful place in the world.

There is a lot to be said about the Jerry Sandusky scandal and its impact on Penn State. In its most basic form it was a horrible sequence of events that have changed the history of both the university, the football program and the lives of men, women and children who will never be the same again.

But as nearly 130 student athletes filed down an empty Yankee Stadium stairway toward the locker room on Saturday afternoon, it was hard to pick out which one of them should carry the burden of those sins. Difficult to tell who exactly should be punished for the horrible things that had taken place.

The NCAA’s role in the scandal will always be a point of debate, but Penn State will never simply outlive the tragedy of what Jerry Sandusky did. There will never be a moment where society decides that Penn State has been shamed long enough. Never a moment where people just forget what happened. And so in its own way fans, students and athletes shouldn’t have to be eternally condemned to rooting for their team in silent, enjoying their successes in private and never hoping that bigger and better days lie ahead.

So as just shy of 50,000 football fans walked into Yankee Stadium on Saturday evening, there was a tangible excitement in the air. A chance to win a bowl game, a chance to just play in a bowl game. A chance for Penn State to do something that would matter. All in the backyard of one of the world’s largest cities and one of Penn State’s largest alumni strongholds. The Pinstripe Bowl will never be the peak of the bowl mountain. It will never be a sign of unparalleled success, but a bowl game is always better than no bowl game.

Hours later, Sam Ficken would complete his own comeback story with an extra point that would seal the victory and send a historic Yankee Stadium into a frenzy. The moment of impact was perhaps the quietest the stadium experienced all night. Seconds ticked away like minutes, but as the ball flipped through the uprights in center field the crowd roared.

Catharsis.

Penn State isn’t “back”, and there is a lot of work for the program in the months and years ahead, but for the first time in a long time Penn State won a bowl game. The Nittany Lions won a game that mattered, took a step forward and put the darkest years of its history officially in the past. It’s a chance to move on.

“It has very little to do with James Franklin,” Franklin would say following the game, remarking on the return of Penn State football. “It has to do with the fans, with the alumni. … it has to do with all the former players, the current players, the assistant coaches, the trainers, the doctors, the video. It has to do with our fans that show up and sell out every single game.”

“We’re all a part of this. I think we’ve been fractured in the last probably three years. But I think experiences and games like this has restored the hope. Everybody has a part in that. I believe that when Penn State is together, we’re all pulling the rope in the same direction. Doing what’s best for the students, doing what’s best for the players, doing what’s best for the community a a whole, then the sky is very high at Penn State.”

Penn State didn’t erase its past on Saturday night. But it took a step towards making sure its past wouldn’t define its future.

And that’s a bowl worth winning.