The Lions' Pride

The defensive line takes it to the offensive line in the combo tire flip. Ton of energy out here, more of a team competition than in years past.

Secondary and kickers having trouble keeping pace with QBs and RBs in the weight carry event. Did someone say depth issues?

Zwinak looked very good in this drill, btw.

At midway point, offense pulling away -- 90-66

Mauti looks good. He and Zordich waging a friendly but entertaining war of words. Lot of emotion out here.

Defense tops offense in contested bag-moving drill.

129-108 offense. One more rotation.

Please tell me that u guys are taking pics.

Atta boy. Hopefully there is a dual fitz pic so we can see how much more ripped you are than him.

Offense wins Jets round of tug of war easily.

Clean sweep in tug of war for Offense, which wins 176-136.

Great event. So much more energy and much more fun than in past years.

That's pretty much the gist of it. It was created by former players Dave Costlow, Damone Jones and Scott Shirley in 2003 as a way to raise money to battle kidney cancer, the disease that claimed Shirley's father. Shirley went on to found Uplifting Athletes and has created chapters at major universities all over the country.

Penn State's chapter of Uplifting Athletes is predominantly run by players. They collect donations for LFL throughout the year and a lot more on the day of the event itself (they also have other fundraising events such as a dunk tank during Blue-White weekend). For the first nine years, the lifting challenge was coordinated by John Thomas. This year, obviously, it was Craig Fitzgerald.

Attached is the advance story I did for this year's event describing some of the changes.

Hope this helps.