Football is one win away from Ivy crown

Penn football players and students alike are disgusted that Penn Police wants the posts up. The University administration thinks that tearing down the goal posts is a tradition that should end. Now. Members of the football team beg to differ. "One of the reasons why a lot of the guys came here was to win a championship and throw these damn goal posts in the goddamned river," Penn senior offensive lineman Jesse Simonin said. Tomorrow the Quakers, sitting atop the Ivy League with a 4-1 conference record, will face Harvard (3-2) on Franklin Field. If the Quakers win, they will clinch at least a share of the Ivy League title -- their first since 1994, when they shut out the Crimson for sole possession of the Ivy title. That year, fans rushed the field and tossed the western goal post into the Schuylkill River. Two police officers and around seven students were injured in the incident. According to University Police Chief Maureen Rush, stricter precautions will be taken to ensure that students do not go near the goal posts or even on the field. "Anyone who would even dare to attempt to get close to the goal posts will be arrested," Rush said, adding that hand-held videocameras will enable officers to identify students after the game. Besides angering the fans, the policy also bothers several of the football players -- many of whom feel slighted that their title season would end without an important tradition. "Fans should be able to tear down the goal posts. It might be bad luck to break the tradition," Roy Aneed the Penn sophomore offensive lineman said. Aneed also didn't feel that students would be in immediate danger if the goal posts came down. "I played in a championship game in high school where they tore the goal posts down and no one got hurt," Aneed said. Jason Maehr, a senior defensive lineman, agreed that the administration's preparations are excessive, even disproportionate, to the actual danger of the incident. "I hope [University Police Chief] Maureen Rush and [University President] Judith Rodin would put more emphasis on security in Steinberg-Dietrich than here," Maehr said, referring to the reported attack of a Wharton sophomore student in the bathroom of Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Although Rush has not officially specified how she plans to keep fans off of the field at the end of the game, Simonin was visibly dismayed by the police chief's plans. "I think it's a travesty if they [the fans] are not allowed to [throw the posts in the river]," Simonin said. "It's one of those traditions that they should just let stand," Mike Pikiel, a senior offensive tackle and short snapper, said. Nonetheless, University spokesperson Ken Wildes said that students can still enjoy the game without stepping foot on the field. "One doesn't need to tear down the goal posts to celebrate,"Wildes said, who has also said no one is even allowed on he field. But Aneed countered that some company after the game, especially from family members, wouldn't hurt. "It's a pretty touching moment to be on the field with your family," he said. "It allows fathers to be on the field and hug their sons."