Penn State Fans Are Not Happy With Addition Of 'CFB 150' Patch On Nittany Lions Jerseys
GLENDALE, AZ - DECEMBER 30: (L-R) Grant Haley #15, Nick Scott #4, head coach James Franklin, Marcus Allen #2 and Troy Apke #28 of the Penn State Nittany Lions walk out to field arm in arm before the start of the second half of the Playstation Fiesta Bowl against the Washington Huskies at University of Phoenix Stadium on December 30, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona. The Nittany Lions defeated the Huskies 35-28. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
There aren't many college football looks that carry more tradition than Penn State's uniforms. As we've learned in a few instances over the last few years, Nittany Lion fans do not like when you make even minor alterations to their team's look.
This year is the 150th anniversary of the first college football games. Princeton and Rutgers faced off for the first game back on November 6, 1869.
To celebrate, college football teams will be wearing a patch to commemorate the 150th year of the sport. Admittedly, it is a pretty big patch, that takes up a lot of real estate on the front of teams' jerseys.
For Penn State, the patch is sizably bigger than the school logo, the Nike logo, or the Big Ten patch. It is noticeable.
As you can imagine, fans had some things to say in reaction to that tweet by Penn State site Onward State earlier this month.
The noise has been so loud with Penn State's patch, that James Franklin actually responded to a question about them a few days ago. He claims that the feedback hasn't really reached him. From 247Sports:
“I have not — I know we don’t like anything other than what we have,” Franklin said. “I think everybody is wearing them. I guess they can’t mandate it, but everybody in college football is wearing them. I haven’t seen or heard a lot. But now, after this question, I’ll probably get 100 emails.
“But I get it,” he added. “Our uniforms, we take great pride in our history and our tradition — we should. But there’s also paying respect to the birth of college football, the history of college football. So I get it. But again, we’re not going off the rails here.”
Is is almost universally the case in sports, if Penn State comes out and plays well, public opinion could start to shift on this new look. Still, with how big the patch is, some of the outrage is understandable.
