Penn State football gets blistered on Twitter for Super Bowl tweet
The offseason is proving to be every bit as brutal for the Penn State football program as the 2020 season was.
Only this time, instead of an 0-5 start and a 4-5 finish, this pain is self-inflicted — by the program’s own Twitter account.
The official Penn State football Twitter account, with more than 400,000 followers, tweeted an image Thursday night with large text that read “A Penn Stater has appeared in every Super Bowl” and then fine print — almost unreadable — underneath read “except for five since 1967.”
The tweet was accompanied by the obligatory #MadeInHappyValley and #WeAre hashtags.
That's a lot of Super Bowls...#MadeInHappyValley#WeAre pic.twitter.com/4k2OyXuvEM
— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) February 5, 2021
On the surface, the tweet could be deemed a bit disingenuous, as the large EVERY gives the indication that, in fact, a Penn State football player has appeared in every Super Bowl, which isn’t the case.
Certainly others took notice and wasted no time mocking Penn State.
Hold my solo cup. https://t.co/qSJM5XXMlg pic.twitter.com/PKGg6LyoSz
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) February 5, 2021
Once again, we’re making history pic.twitter.com/yZkfayzznt
— UMBC Athletics (@UMBCAthletics) February 5, 2021
— New Hampshire Fisher Cats (@FisherCats) February 5, 2021
One response came from SEC Mike, whose bio says he covers SEC football, took a shot by also poking at Vanderbilt football.
Not to be outdone by anyone, Big Ten rival Michigan’s football twitter account used alum Tom Brady to add yet another shot to the Nittany Lions.
https://t.co/yWVELTnj4R pic.twitter.com/SXknBH9Vzg
— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) February 5, 2021
By Friday afternoon, the Penn State tweet had gained over 800 comments, been shared more than 3,100 times and been liked more than 3,700 times.
A former Allentown Morning Call journalist who covered Penn State and now works for Sports Illustrated observed Penn State could have easily avoided the mocking.
Penn State could have avoided the quote-tweet barrage by instead highlighting that this is the 50th Super Bowl featuring a Nittany Lion. https://t.co/FAg1FNsG3v
— Mark Wogenrich (@MarkWogenrich) February 5, 2021
In all, the PSU account seemed to take the gaffe in stride. At around 5:45 p.m. Friday, the team issued a new tweet, seemingly following Mark Wogenrich’s advice:
“No magnifying glass needed for this one,” it read, followed by a crying laughing face emoji.
“A Penn Stater has reached 50 out of 55 Super Bowls.”
It only took them 20 hours to get it right… “Go, Blue!”
No magnifying glass needed for this one... ? pic.twitter.com/vtp6zDIjEa
— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) February 5, 2021
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