Notre Dame Football

Since I was a wee boy, I have listened to, watched and cheered for Notre Dame. I have attended quite a few of the games around the country and I even considered going to New Orleans for the rescheduled game yesterday. Thankfully I did not, though they won handily; an investment in entertainment does not seem prudent at this time. Instead, I watched it from a Restaurant Bar here in Tyler, had Burger, three beers and desert for $44.00. Notre Dame Football is the only sport that I really care about anymore. MMA is too violent, Golf is too slow and most Professional sports are now filled with babies who make far too much money and act the moron in society. Several NBA players appear to be in hot water over ‘Diddy Parties’. I recently heard about a contract concerning someone I did not care about being over 700 Million dollars! I was reminded of an interview I saw with Micky Mantle in 1969. Mantle stated that, during the early 1950’s, they were paid $100 a week to play professional baseball and the players thought the joke was on the club. “We would have played for free!” Mantle said, laughing. The salaries had yet barely begun to grow in 1969. Micky must be disgusted over what ‘the game’ has become today: Major League Baseball is a Mascot to Materialism. We Americans have gone hog wild over sports in a very sinister way. Raider football games got so violent that, at one point, they threatened to change the name and the Logo. Americans appear to be now addicted to excess and they will beat and kill you for it! So, I enjoy Notre Dame Football because the star quarterback was kept out of a key game for ‘breaking curfew’ on one occasion and, they lost that game. During the 1988 Game against Miami, a newspaper article compared ‘The Catholics and The Convicts’ as the teams were called. Notre Dame’s players had a wide array of personal achievements to their credit throughout their lives; the Miami Hurricanes had more than a dozen FELONS on their roster and a slew of violent crimes that included burglary and rape to their credit. USC has O J Simpson as an Alumnus and that same year the criminals on their then current roster were posted. I fully expect that the United States is about to experience a return to Faith and Morality over the next couple of years. Excess will be returned to the banks and many millions will be humbled. As long as you remain healthy, being humbled is not a bad thing. I do believe that I remember a skirmish at a Notre Dame Football game in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. That got fixed and they have not had one since. We must all remember that Sports and Athletics are games with which character and a work ethic are built. Though I am a staunch Capitalist, I believe that Sports should be treated in a special way. Any annual earnings, in excess of 5,000 times the minimum wage, should be subject to donation in one of many available options. The player could support a Charitable organization or give to his or her community, neighborhood or event. We all need to understand that: it is a game and support should be for the game; not for a superstar whose number we put on our car or garage door. We Americans need to recognize the disease of Materialism so that we do not become victim to it. ‘Competing with the Joneses’ should be put to rest once and for all. It is not healthy.