Last night was a very nice moment at Notre Dame.
by Bruno95 (2011-03-02 10:54:37)

Tim Abromaitis and Ben Hansbrough each had great games on Senior Night. Abromaitis will be back next year, but he will remember forever this moment in time. Hansbrough left the court with a salute to the fans, including his father and famous brother.



I'm admittedly not much of a basketball fan, so my mind immediately jumped to two ND football scenes. One was Brian Smith and his dad before the Utah game. Again, hard-earned, well-earned emotions overcame both. Smith was able to go out as Abromaitis and Hansbrough did, a respected leader playing his best on Senior Day. I couldn't find that picture, but I did find this one, also post-Utah:



The second image was unhappy. David Bruton, after Syracuse in 2008:



I can live with losing a football game. My kids will still love me and Sunday will be better than Saturday. What wrenches is David Bruton. And Sam Young. Sam Young could have gone anywhere. Alone among his top choices was a team that would lose to UConn, Syracuse, and Navy.

If we seem a little hard on the coaches -- OK, if we seem like unreasonable assholes who expect every season to feel like 1946 -- this is why. I believe elite athletes who pick Notre Dame are better people than elite athletes who pick USC. Deserve has everything to do with it. Our guys deserve success and happiness, and their opponents do not.


No one should ever apologize for demanding excellence
by Chuck84  (2011-03-02 10:54:37)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

One of the most important differences between garden-variety fans of sports franchises and the stakeholders of this unique program is the purpose of those who support the program. ND Football does not exist, as some have recently posited, primarily as a means to entertain fans. It exists first and foremost for the students, then to a lesser extent the school as a whole and the alumni. Of course, this statement is in no way intended to denigrate non-alumni. It is to clarify priorities.

Demanding the best AD's and coaching staff for our student athletes has nothing to do with serving hopes of accumulating foam fingers and trash-talking our Big10 buddies. It has everything to do with demanding that the school hold up its end of the bargain. We ask a lot of our students. We ask even more from our student athletes, more than anyone. We should be adamant that the University, in turn, assure that they have the best to direct them.

This is why everyone should be nothing short of outraged when we see David Bruton's heart torn out because his highly paid coach didn't have the first idea how to assure victory over a two-win team. Our disgust should have nothing to do with facing the inevitable water-cooler grief from our co-workers. It should be rooted in the embarrassment of failure that young men like Bruton are forced to endure.

This is also why, for my money, there was nothing better this entire season than the scene on the field on Nov. 13. After all the disappointment, the horrible tragedy, everything ... this is what it's all about ...