Blue White Illustrated

Players��� prank may have backfired, but the joke���s on us L ate on Easter Sunday, Allen Robinson and Bill Belton hinted via Twitter that they would no longer be playing football at Penn State. The series of ominous-sounding messages began when Belton, a junior running back, tweeted this: ���Picking up and leaving is the toughest thing to do.��� A short time later, Robinson came back with the full-on news. ���I love my bros, and we will continue to be like family, I���m sorry I had to do this but I will no longer be attending penn state,��� Robinson���s first message read. ���It was a tough decision��� but I think it is what���s right, much love and respect for the school.��� Two minutes later, just minutes after midnight, the payoff: April Fools! Belton and Robinson weren���t going anywhere, other than maybe to Bill O���Brien���s office the next morning. With the crisis having been averted ��� and crisis isn���t too strong a word for the potential impact if Penn State were to lose Robinson and Belton ��� the gag is much more interesting to talk about as a media phenomenon. If it was aimed primarily at reporters, then without question, this was a nicely executed, highly believable and well-deserved payback for nine months of relentless questioning following the announcement of the NCAA���s sanctions last July. ���Have you considered transferring from Penn State?��� ���What goes through your mind when deciding whether or not to stay at Penn State?��� ���Even if you stay through the season, will you revisit your decision after it���s over?��� These are the types of questions that Penn State���s underclassmen have faced on a near-weekly basis, with Robinson, Belton, Donovan Smith, Kyle Carter, Deion Barnes and Adrian Amos receiving even more scrutiny than the rest of their teammates. Though many of the players have done their best to quash speculation that they are less than fully committed to Penn State, they face renewed skepticism every time a nugget of new information emerges suggesting the opposite. Though journalists have a job to do, even on a highly competitive beat like Penn State���s, an answer is an answer. Without some solid evidence to the contrary, players��� assurances should be accepted as fact. Kids no older than 20 are being asked to publicly paint themselves into a corner with no opportunity for a change of heart down the road, regardless of the circumstances. The repeated questioning is unfair and unnecessary. For that reason alone, Penn State���s players deserve to be able to have some fun with the media on occasion. It���s not the first time (remember Rich Ohrnberger pretending to be A.Q. Shipley on a conference call a few years ago?) and it certainly won���t be the last. Of course, with Twitter as the medium of delivery, the joke can���t be contained to just its intended target. Even though the episode was over soon after it began, it revealed a few fascinating truths to Penn State fans, the media, and probably the players themselves. The relationship between fans/media and the players they follow/cover has never had fewer barriers. Twitter has allowed unprecedented access, to the benefit and detriment of nearly everyone involved. At many football programs, athletes are free to speak their mind on any subject. And unlike their fellow students, whose ramblings are ignored by the public, prominent athletes have their every tweet and sound bite parsed by fans and media alike. (Don���t count on Penn State remaining one of those football programs after this stunt; O���Brien has been quick to point out the dangers of ���Spacebook��� and ���Tweeter��� and seems to understand and dread the pitfalls of social media���s misuse.) Still, these are college students. And although Belton and Robinson didn���t show the best judgment by rattling a Penn State fan base that has been on edge for the past 18 months, they didn���t deserve the vicious blowback they received in the form of tweets from followers who felt as though they had been deceived. It���s a lesson these players are unlikely to forget anytime soon. Of course, Penn State���s strength and conditioning coach, Craig Fitzgerald, isn���t likely to let them forget any other lessons from this practical joke. Fitzgerald arrives at Penn State���s weight room by 4 a.m. most days, so supervising a few impromptu 5 a.m. disciplinary workouts probably wouldn���t be much of an inconvenience. One need only imagine O���Brien���s cellphone blowing up shortly before midnight on Easter Sunday to understand the reasoning. But even if the price is a succession of ���run until you hurl" drills, the joke will probably still be worth a few smiles. In a sports/media environment that can sometimes be suffocatingly serious, a little levity could be a good thing, even a somewhat misguided attempt at humor like this one.

• Cover