SIGN FROM
ABOVE Millen
swoops down
on Ohio State
quarterback Art
Schlichter.
Pho-
to courtesy of
Penn State Ath-
letics
These Penn State greats had a mean streak
I
n watching the Penn State football
team over the past several years, there
is a missing ingredient that once
made opponents wary and had the Nit-
tany Lion coaches occasionally cringing.
Meanness.
I'm not talking about being "cruel,
spiteful, or malicious," as one dictionary
defines the word.
"Causing trouble," is the definition in
Webster's Dictionary that best describes
my reference point.
Perhaps the absence of meanness is
the result of the scandal that erupted in
the fall of 2011 and the continuing pub-
lic animosity toward Penn State since
then. The university and especially the
football team have been under intense
scrutiny for four years. And despite the
emergence of facts that increasingly
discredit the Freeh report and the
NCAA sanctions that followed, all it
takes is one obscure incident on cam-
pus or on the field to bring out the
anti-Penn State mob again.
Actually, the lack of meanness pre-
dates the scandal and has no bearing on
toughness, passion and a willingness to
hit hard. A lot of players have those at-
tributes. Tamba Hali, Paul Posluszny
and Dan Connor had them, and all three
became All-Americans. But they
weren't mean.
Nor am I equating meanness with a
dirty, over-the-top playing style exem-
plified by Nebraska's Richie Incognito
HISTORY
