College football teams take enormous pride in whatever they feel that they can claim for their school. It’s a sense of belonging to the best, or having something that nobody else can have.
So when NFL Network ran a poll for the best linebacker school in the nation, Miami, Tennessee, Georgia, USC, and Penn State were listed, with Penn State edging out Miami for the most votes.
Best LB school? The fans say: @PennStateFball pic.twitter.com/rTb9JNrwNy
— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) April 25, 2016
Penn State is not a terrible choice by any means. The school has produced some great linebackers over the years, such as Jack Ham, Paul Posluszny, Tamba Hali, NaVorro Bowman, among countless others.
But when former Ohio State linebackers James Laurinaitis and Darron Lee saw the poll, they were not exactly pleased.
Hmmmm 🤔🤔🤔 https://t.co/1PvjVgWKzw
— James Laurinaitis (@JLaurinaitis55) April 25, 2016
https://twitter.com/DLeeMG8/status/724687858682998789?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The Buckeyes have a pretty good gripe here. If people don’t want to vote them in, that’s fine. But the NFL Network didn’t even give them a chance.
More recently, Ohio State has produced A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, Anthony Schlegel, James Laurinaitis, Ryan Shazier, and plenty of others over the years that punished rival Big Ten schools for years. Darron Lee is expected to be one of the first linebackers off the board in the NFL Draft this week.
You can certainly make the case that the Buckeyes would have received more votes than Tennessee, Georgia, or USC, who received nine, 10, and seven percent of the votes respectively.
For good measure, Ohio State Football’s Twitter account tweeted out an ESPN article that claims the school to be the real Linebacker U.
Linebacker U. The numbers don't lie. #LBU https://t.co/JO7yE6fJnA
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) April 26, 2016
This is why we love college athletics, the passion that goes into absolutely everything, no matter how big or small.
