In a sad turn of events for one of the nations oldest and crappiest looking mascots, the Penn State Nittany Lion mascot was arrested on a DUI charge this week and his status for the Rose Bowl is in doubt, police and school officials said.

The scarf-wearing, now-extinct Nittany mountain lion was pulled over on campus around 3:15 a.m. on November 22, hours before Penn State’s 49-18 win over Michigan State, University Park Police Capt. Bill Moerschbacher said Monday. The driving behavior that lead to the stop was that the vehicle was overloaded, with passengers piled onto each other and blocking the driver’s view. I’d assume that when the driver told the officer that he was “THE nittany lion” he only assumed the driver was confused from being intoxicated but had the driver been wearing the school’s signature mascot head he probably would have been let go with a warning and a severe scolding from Jo Pa on Monday morning.

The Hokies once disciplined Hokie Bird for going downtown in costume during one of the Main street psudeo-riots and we even commemorated it on a class ring (class of 2004 I think). The Nittany Lion of course far exceeds Hokie Bird’s behavior however I think you have to be a bit nuts to wear that febreeze soaked sweat factory a couple hundred times a year, I know from personal experience, and if he needs to drink with a car load of friends to deal with it - so be it. BUT come on man, you’re a mascot… you should be driving a segway, or an ATV, or a pogo stick.