Name your price, Pat Kraft.
Tell me how much.
$10,000? $20,000? $409,000?
How much will it take to get rid of it? How much do we have to donate to THON and Happy Valley United to never see the “4th Quarter” flag again?
Last year, I complained about what I thought was the worst addition to the Beaver Stadium gameday experience. There is no question the question of “Are You Ready For The Fourth Quarter” is tired, boring and lame. And by now, you’re probably tired of me being tired of it too.
But then you all went out and bought a flag to somehow make the whole experience worse. The “4th Quarter” flag is an affront to my eyeballs, waving in our collective faces as a fledgling attempt to create a new tradition that just isn’t working.
So again I want to know what the is a price point is to make it go away.
From the get-go, I do not understand why there is a flag that just says “4th Quarter” on it but I do think I have an understanding of where this whole tradition came from though.
My theory is that Kraft is an Indiana Hoosier, and if you’re not familiar with the Hoosiers, they don’t have many traditions beside a coach that could throw a chair across the basketball court. They don’t have a mascot like The Nittany Lion, Brutus The Buckeye or even terrifying Boiler Pete. What they do have, however, is “The Greatest Timeout in College Basketball.”
At every Indiana home basketball game during the under-8 timeout, every cheerleader and dance team member comes out on the court and runs around while the William Tell Overture plays.
Why? I have no clue.
But then there’s flags. A lot of them. They’re everywhere. So many that this article officially sourced from Indiana University about the tradition calls out the fact there are 18 of them. In fact, that is more flags than there are players on the court during any of Indiana’s overhyped basketball seasons.
That tradition also trickled into football games where something similar happens between the third and fourth quarter across the parking lot at Memorial Stadium.
In sum, it’s a fine tradition. It’s not Jump Around. It’s not the Kinnick Wave. But Indiana’s thing for flags and theme songs from old TV shows is very much fine.
What is not fine is that Kraft and company are trying to bring that love of flags and mediocre fourth quarter traditions into Beaver Stadium.
I was finally ready to let my angst about the fourth quarter question go. Until I saw the damn flag.
I have several issues with it.
First and foremost, where are the second and third quarter flags? Even the first quarter flag. I will not stand for quarter erasure. It takes 60 minutes to win a football game after all. Penn State would have won a lot more pivotal football games if it didn’t take 60 minutes for a full football game to be played.
My other issue is the point of the flag. It just says “4th Quarter.”
We know. We’re aware. Our basic understanding of the rules of college football let us know so. Plus the scoreboard shows so, the official just announced so, the pump-up video told us so, and yes, even the mic man just said so – even if it was painfully in the form of a question.
If you’re going to be the one asking me questions, let me ask a few too.
Why that text choice? Was “Are You Ready For The 4th Quarter” too tiny to read? And why did you take it to the Wisconsin game? Why are you trying to force this on the fine cheese curd producing state when they’ve already got their own tradition?
I think in a more serious sense – even if this is college football and not that serious at all – this boils down to Kraft’s continued attempt to find new ways to put his imprint on the look and feel of Penn State athletics.
It’s why the end zone font was changed a few weeks ago. It’s why the scoreboard graphics were updated this season – and then tweaked (appreciatively) mid-season. It’s Kraft and his crew trying to move the Penn State gameday experience forward.
In many aspects, it’s welcomed. Some of those changes feel fresh and new and different and exciting. They’re still largely simplistic but a touch flashier than yesteryear. Changes like that are how you move forward.
But in one aspect, the flag – like the ask – falls flat and continuing it beyond this season will only make me angrier about it. I don’t understand it. It doesn’t enhance the gameday experience and still it annoys me immensely.
So that’s why I ask if there is a price point to which we who hate the flag – because I individually don’t have that kind of money – can reach to see the flag shoved away in an off-campus storage facility to never be seen again.
We’ll do something good with the money by sending a large portion of it to THON and send some of it to the NIL collective if you want, too.
I’ll even concede the battle of the “Are You Ready For The 4th Quarter” question while I’m at it.
But there’s got to be something we can do about the flag.
So Pat Kraft, I have one question for you: How much to make the flag go away?
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