When the Penn State football team wins, most students thank Saquon Barkley, but Sean Corcoran likes to thank a temporary tattoo instead.
Corcoran is currently a Penn State senior who is majoring in Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering. However, before Corcoran ever game to Penn State he was at home in Illinois playing football for ten years. This love for football followed him to Penn State and during his freshman he became a preferred walk on long snapper for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State Football laying in the grass before Corcoran is going to long snap it like he did when he was a player on the team. (Photo by Kendal Higdon)Throughout the 2013 and 2014 season Corcoran was on the team where even though he did not get to play he still worked out and practiced with the team. Unfortunately, after his second season Corcoran started to fall behind the others athletically and could not pass his conditioning test. James Franklin, Head Coach for Penn State Football noticed this and brought him in to talk about being a manager instead of a player.
“I had a meeting with Coach Franklin and he was like look Sean we like you we think you are a great kid but athletically your just not there you’re 40 times not fast enough, you’re not making gains in the weight room. I was always too small I never had enough weight,” Corcoran said.
Corcoran then worked as a manager for the next year before he started to feel ill. While home Corcoran went to the doctors to get checked out and he found out he had Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which is a cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes.
For the 2016 season Corcoran stayed home to get treatment and now this school year is his first season back working for the team. However, instead of hanging out with the football team like before Corcoran now finds himself hanging out with the other football managers. One thing they enjoy to do together is to go to a local bar and listen to a cover band by the name My Hero Zero. They started watching them at Saloon on Thursday and then followed them to Champs on Friday.
“Sean absolutely loved them basically from the beginning. At first most of weren’t necessarily as into it as he was but he kind of just like got a whole group it and then now we all just love going on Fridays now,” Corcoran’s roommate Mike Brown said.
The My Hero Zero tattoo that Corcoran wears each game for good luck placed on his bicep. (Photo by Kendal Higdon)However, Corcoran’s connection to the band does not stop there it also follows him to the sidelines on game day. During the first show of this year the lead singer of My Hero Zero was giving out temporary tattoos with the name of the band on them. Corcoran decided to take a handful so he could wear one on his bicep while he worked each game.
At first Corcoran did it as a joke, but then it became a superstition. If Corcoran did not have the tattoo on for every game then he was scared they were going to lose.
“I do it every game now. Every game I have it on even if you can’t see it I put it on and its kind of our good luck charm,” Corcoran said.
Video: Meeting the Band
Sean Corcoran’s roommate, friend, and fellow football manager Michael Brown was with Corcoran when he first discovered My Hero Zero. After many trips to the bar and encouragement from his friend, Brown has become fond of the Friday night tradition.
Video: Family Banding
After multiple trips to the bar to see My Hero Zero, Sean Corcoran was finally able to talk his mom into going with him. Corcoran’s roommate, friend, and fellow football manager Michael Brown loved seeing them together at the bar because they were both having the time of their life.
(Photos and video by Kendal Higdon. Additional photos courtesy of Sean Corcoran.)