A spelling error caused Maryland fans to unintentionally cheer for infections

Deciding to paint your chest before going to a sporting event has never seemed that weird by fandom standards. It does, however, present some logistical issues that need to be addressed well before game day.

After all, if you’re going through the effort of buying the paint, getting someone to apply it to you and committing to stand with your shirt off for four hours in fall weather, you’re going to have to make some other decisions in advance. Like “what letter will I have on my chest?”, “who am I standing next to?” and, maybe most importantly, “who must I avoid at all costs to not accidentally spell a different word?”.

A few Maryland fans learned this lesson on national television Saturday as the Terrapins were getting crushed by Penn State in College Park.

The fans were spelling out “TERPS!” earlier in the game, but by the middle of the third quarter the ‘S’ had moved down to hang out with the ‘T’ and, well, they probably regret it.

“Terps!” to “Strep!” Seems about right pic.twitter.com/Ukuie7JulW

— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) November 4, 2023

That is not what you want, literally or metaphorically. Hopefully Penn State packed some penicillin along for the road trip.