Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1305106
at Freiermuth had some dead- lines in his head as the Big Ten wavered on whether there was going to be a football season this fall. There were days when the All-Big Ten tight end was certain that he was going to be leaving, that there was no sub- stance to reports of the season's im- pending revival, that it was time to begin the next chapter in his life. But he couldn't quite bring himself to say goodbye to college football. "I kept telling my parents and the coaches that if there's not a season by this deadline, I'm going to leave. If there's not a season by this deadline, I'm going to leave," Freiermuth recalled. "But I just kept pushing it back because I still wanted to play for Penn State." That patience was rewarded on Sept. 16 when the league announced there would be a season beginning in late Oc- tober. Freiermuth said he was "like a baby on Christmas morning" when he heard the news. "I was so happy. Me and my roommates started jumping and hugging each other. "It's football," he added. "Everyone on this team loves football. I think the whole country loves football, and it's great to have the game of football back and have some normalcy. So I'm just ex- cited to get going." Freiermuth became the subject of feverish speculation when the Big Ten announced in early August that it was not going to play a season in the fall of 2020. There were rumors that he had withdrawn from classes and that he had already made up his mind that he wouldn't be returning. As it turned out, none of that was true. In fact, he was fully committed to playing a season if there was going to be one. He had al- ready passed up an opportunity to enter the 2020 NFL Draft because he wanted one more year of Penn State football, and he wasn't going to abandon those plans as long as there was still hope. "I made a commitment to Penn State that I would come here and get my de- gree and play as long as I could," he said. "Last year, I could have left, and who knows, maybe I could have been a po- tential day two draft pick. But at the end of the day, I'm very happy with my deci- sion to stay, and I still owe so much more to this Penn State community. It's just an amazing experience at Penn State. I love every aspect of it, and I just think that I can never repay the stuff that Penn State has given to me. I think that I need to play another year to show my gratitude to Penn State and continue to boost my draft stock and all that. But I love Penn State." That players should feel deeply indebted to their universities used to be the con- ventional wisdom in college football. PAID IN FULL P Pat Freiermuth returned for his junior season partly out of gratitude to Penn State. His decision won praise but also raised a question: What do college football players owe to their schools, and what do their schools owe to them? >>