I encountered on young man walking with beers in each hand as he chanted, “suck my ass, Temple.”

Well, I finally made it to a Temple football game, and what a game it was! Temple was facing the might Nitanny Lions from Penn State, led by their venerable coach, Joe Paterno. They are a strong team that has suffered some unfortunate losses this season. What better way than to boost morale than by sharpening the Lion’s claws against a weaker Temple Owls?

It was around 35 degrees outside, so I bundled up and took the subway to Lincoln Stadium (The Linc). Prior to the game, I stood outside eating gentlemen’s burgers. I walked to the stadium. By the time I got to my seat, the Lions had already scored. Temple did show some signs of life by making a couple of drives and almost successfully executing a simulated field goal that would have resulted in a touchdown.

The game became rather one-sided and boring relatively quickly, so I turned my attention to a more dynamic form of entertainment, the fans. The Penn State fans I encountered seemed to have a collective anger management problem. Temple fans endured comments such as, “you suck, Temple,” and, “Hey Temple, fuck you!” Various Penn State fans addressed me as “Temple” as if I represented the physical embodiment of the school. I encountered on young man walking with beers in each hand as he chanted, “suck my ass, Temple.”

I thought Temple fans were even more fascinating. Here you have a school with a football squadron clearly inferior to the Penn State team, and yet drunken Temple fans were trying to act tough. One Temple fan with a dime-sized chin stud in his lip started yelling all manner of anti-Penn Penn State sexual comments at some girls. They turned around and ridiculed the chin stud. He apologized for his lack of retorts and removed the stud in shame. Another fan with a camouflage hat yelled about Penn’s loss to #1 Ohio State earlier in the year. The Penn Penn State fans were unfazed by this bizarre choice of insults. Making fun of Penn Penn State for losing to the #1 team is like being beaten up by a large man while laughing at him for once being having been beaten up by Superman.

This behavior set the tone for an entertaining crowd show, with one set of people sensitive about their team’s disappointments and another group with a collective Napoleon complex. Keep up the good work, Temple.