a bag of pork rinds, ready to indulge myself in a gridiron matchup fully worthy of such cuisine.

I'm ready.

Fall weekends are not to be missed. The best weather of the year should not be wasted by watching a football game indoors.

Record the game, watch it after dinner fast forwarding through the commercials. Although this year we won't have to fast forward through the inane bantering of Doug Flutie.

Does that make me a foul-weather fan?

I miss football. I look forward to seeing the team play, and to seeing my daughter in the stadium. This is her last hurrah, and I'm happy that she gets one last season under her belt.

I will give this until about Sept 28th. If ND doesn't have football players getting sick (and hence cancelling game) - Michigan will start scheduling games.

There is no way that go-blue, arrogant, self-entitled, delusional fan base (real or Walmart) will allow ND to play a whole season while they just sat at home and watched us on NBC.

Whether their president is still employed at that point is another story....

I've already committed to taking the boy to the batting cages this Saturday. It may not interfere with my watching, but it might. What bothers me is I'm not worried about it. I certainly used to be, and those were during the Chuck years.

I may or may not have accidentally broken his bat trying to hit 93mph fastballs in the major league batting cage. Having a metal bat disintegrate in your hands is an odd feeling. Anyway... he has a new bat, he's excited, and I wont use it.

Makes them use wood bats, which I don't like. Too heavy for the little guys to swing properly, they drop the back side and drag their hands through the zone. We've only had one broken bat this year.

Our coach pitch CYC was cancelled this year and I have never taken him to a batting cage.

He is in first grade, as I assume your kid is.

Now, I would not step foot in a major league batting cage for any reason and have no idea what was going through your Uncle Rico mind.

though it is soccer season now. And bike riding season. And fishing season. And swimming and golf and just being a normal kid season.

I'd throw my back out getting out of the way.

body of posting work?

You started a thread letting people know you aren't going to watch the game. At least not live. Or maybe you will for the sake of your sons.

I'd say hug it out, but ya know, COVID.

What about my posts leads you to believe I have any animus toward Monsieur Cross? I largely find him to be pretty funny and the reactions to him funny as well.

In all seriousness, I just perused the board going back to the beginning of summer and the only thread we interacted was one where he asked a golf question in the Back Room (and to say he had hundreds of posts in that timeframe is not inaccurate). I thought maybe I'd forgotten something or that there was a subconscious pattern of response.

He strikes me as someone who doesn't have thin skin and can take a friendly hit from time to time. Unlike Jafar Armstrong, AMIRITE?!?!?

emotionally on this team. I wholly understand the detachment felt by many who post on this board -- I've felt it too. For many years after the Alabama game my cynicism of the football program (and, really, the entire University) drowned my fandom and I could no longer enjoy ND football, even after wins. I think most here have felt this.

However, in the past few years I've made the conscious decision (and yes, it is a choice) to discard the nihilism and let myself become emotionally invested again in the team. Yes, Lucy will probably pull that football out from underneath my swinging leg at some point in the season, but I've found that the excitement and subsequent disappointment is way more interesting and fun than the cold, dead perspective of detachment. And when the day comes that ND does win another National Championship, those who choose to be detached will remain detached and the joy will be felt most by those who bought in.

I don't go to movies I don't want to watch and I don't eat bland foods. Why would I pay an ounce of attention to ND Football (and post about it on NDNation) while holding an underlying resentment to the program itself? The choice is yours: retreat further into cynicism and continue letting your fandom die off, or cultivate an excitement and lean into it. While I understand people choosing the former, I think the latter is the proper choice for people who love ND football.

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the decisions he makes alienate large swaths of alumni, and that he doesn't care.

Personally I think it’s a bad look amidst others taking a cautious and prudent approach with sports in general.

I hope it works out because the downside is much worse than embarrassment.

Saying that they should follow the Ivy League, Stanford, Northwestern and put science and morals ahead of profit. I think it's incredibly ironic that they play the first game of the year together.

chance of profit. Crass but true. Ivy League, Stanford, Northwestern...

I can't say I ever read anything from her that I agree with.... I would blame it on her Northwestern background - but I do agree sometimes with Rick Telander.

Like JT said, states have been shifting. Michigan restarted high school football after originally cancelling it. It sure seemed like seeing a whole weekend of HS football on ESPN, including teams from neighboring states, played a role in making it seem ok.
Wouldn't surprise me if the NFL start goes ok, people will just get more used to sports happening. If it goes this way, I agree with JT about a ton of pressure on the Big 10 to play.

and in the past week I've seen stories out of Santa Clara, CA stating that NFL games are "low risk" for covid exposure; it was in an article in the SF Chronicle, of all places. If you can have NFL games with thousands of people in attendance it seems odd that you can't have college football with some minimum standards of variance and quarantine protocols in place.

It appears that CO is also planning on re-starting high school football, to join Kansas, Michigan, and perhaps a few other states re-starting. I think that CA will certainly not do that, nor Washington, or similar states, most likely. I would lump New Mexico in with the states not re-opening, but I am pretty sure that state has been closed for a few centuries as it is.

I agree they all could be lemmings going over a cliff together. But the only one I see not heading over is the Pac 12, and my view is the answer there is most of the conference never cared much about football anyway

The part I'm confused by is the bad look amidst others taking a cautious and prudent approach with sports in general. With the NFL going ahead, the majority of college teams playing, many (most?) high school teams playing, and the big ten mostly worrying about being left behind, there isn't that much left not going forward.

in an industry run by meat heads with no oversight.

As noted below, the PAC 12 can’t field entire divisions due to outbreaks.

Leagues and geographies don’t matter to how this virus spreads.

PGA and NBA largely made the best of it. I can’t see how football can replicate those models, but they have chosen their own doing. Hope it works, but doesn’t seem likely... unless they hide/manipulate data.

But that doesn't explain youth, high school, and adult sports that are by and large continuing on, at least in states that are permitting them to do so.

and believe that your opinion is well grounded, the fact of the matter is that in many/most of these decisions are not, in fact, being made by meat heads but rather after consultation with the various state groups organized by the various governors of those states.

Hell, check this article from the chron which quotes an epidemiologist referring to "low risk" at socially distanced NFL games. If you can maintain an appropriate level of testing, ensure that those who are high risk are quarantined/protected, and do your level best to make sure people who attend and/or officiate are socially distanced and being responsible, it makes sense to try AS LONG AS THE NUMBERS REMAIN REASONABLE.

• Click here for link at https://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Levi-s-Stadium-fans-202

Last nights local broadcast detailed the wacky Baptist mega church has now been fined over $100k.

In person professional events at this point requires sustained stage 4 reopening guidelines. In a county this large, that’s a tough task.

with the plan of adding on as the season goes along.

the epidemiologist quoted in the article was referring to October, so that does give some time.

Oklahoma coach Riley says they won’t be releasing covid data citing “competitive advantage”

I would be somewhat surprised if the Big 10 didn't end up playing later this fall, to be honest.

None of the California and Oregon schools can have full squad practices and that's half the conference.

Also, the Pac-12 is the one who announced that they will be ramping up testing using similar methods to the NBA and NHL.

The parents were also treated like adults and had their own meeting with the conference after the decision was made. The big ten forgot this step.

is that the Pac 12 doesn't give a fuck.

This is from people actively involved in the situation. Now, that might not be the case, and I understand where you're coming from. There is also concern that the players threatening to ask for a piece of the financial pie played a role in this as well, as that basically started with a Pac 12 school and was gaining steam.

It's a fucked up situation; believe me, I completely understand and am in the process of dealing with this daily. That said, this is going to hurt that conference for years.

There's some stuff that we'd have to discuss offline due to other personal connections.

I think that I can see both sides of this situation and I am the first to admit that there is no clear answer here.