In a rivalry that sometimes brings out the worst in fans, it's refreshing to see an unquestionably positive interaction between two former players from opposing sides.
Before top-ranked Ohio State and No. 24 Penn State square off tomorrow afternoon, there will be a far quieter, but equally important meeting in Columbus.
Former Penn State cornerback Adam Taliaferro, exactly six years to the day since the tackle that broke his neck in Ohio Stadium, will be in town for the game, and will meet with Tyson Gentry and his family over breakfast.
Gentry was a backup punter for Ohio State who began working at receiver in practice last spring. On April 14 he was brought down on what appeared to be a routine hit.
He didn't get up.
The Buckeye was rushed to Ohio State Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with a fractured C-4 vertebra. Gentry underwent two spinal fusion surgeries in four days while his distressed coach, Jim Tressel, began working the phones for advice on how to deal with such a situation.
Tressel, recalling the play in which Taliaferro fractured his C-5 vertebra and bruised his spinal cord in 2000, spoke with Joe Paterno, who suggested Tressel get in touch with the former Nittany Lion.
A few nights later, Taliaferro received a call from Tressel, who happened to be standing a few feet away from Gentry -- in the same ward where Taliaferro spent five days in the immediate aftermath of his injury -- in OSU Medical Center.
Taliaferro, from his home in Voorhees, NJ, talked to the coach and then to Gentry, to whom he spoke for a good 10 minutes. Taliaferro told him what to expect on the long road to recovery.
"It's very helpful to talk to someone who's been there before," Taliaferro said back in April. "I look back to when I was in that situation, and whenever I had the opportunity to talk to somebody who recovered from the injury it really brightened my day and motivated me to want to get better myself."
Taliaferro, now a second-year law student at Rutgers with plans to go into corporate litigation, has spoken to Gentry three or four times since, but tomorrow will be the first time the two meet in person.
"Each time I talk to him it sounds like he's doing a little bit better," Taliaferro said this week. "It'll be nice to actually see him in person as opposed to talking to him as a voice across a phone line."
Because the C-4 vertebra is located directly above the C-5, Gentry's recovery efforts have been slower and more arduous than those of Taliaferro.
Four months after his injury (which doctors said would leave the then-teenager with a 3 percent chance of ever walking again), Taliaferro walked out of his rehabilitation center with the help of crutches. Nine months after that, using nothing more than his two legs, he led Penn State onto the Beaver Stadium field for the opener against Miami.
Still in a wheelchair, Gentry has no lower-body movement and only limited feeling in his arms.
Before the start of tomorrow's third quarter, Gentry and Taliaferro will take the field together, sharing the same turf where they had both lay motionless at one time.
Gentry will get a chance to acknowledge the fans and well wishers who've encouraged him over the past five months. Ohio State and Taliaferro, who set up a foundation to aid those with similar football injuries to his own, will use the opportunity to promote spinal cord injury research.
"It is going to be wonderful for Tyson Gentry to have that opportunity to learn from Adam," Tressel said.
Perhaps some of those on either end of the border clash could learn a thing or two from Gentry and Taliaferro, and then maybe display such civility toward the other side.
