Grip on Sports: Vow kept after Notre Dame football loss
Thursday: It was 1964, long before Nehru jackets and tie-dyed underwear.
It was the year of Notre Dame’s revival, the Era of Ara, as it was known. The Irish, off the national radar for a decade, were back under first-year coach Ara Parseghian, heading into the (Los Angeles) Coliseum 9-0.
For an 8-year-old upstanding member of the Catholic elementary system, it was heaven. Everyone at St. Rita’s – and I mean everyone, even the Protestant kids – had become Notre Dame fans. Father O’Malley and Father Callahan – yep, those were the two priests – wouldn’t have it any other way.
USC? Hated them.
After all, Notre Dame was headed to a well-deserved national title. The Trojans were just a speed bump on the way. When the Irish jumped ahead 17-0 at halftime, I figured it was over. But then USC started to chip away. I got nervous. A bad holding call on Notre Dame made me angry. And when Rod Sherman broke free in the end zone on a fourth-down play as time wound down, I got positively apoplectic.
Sherman’s catch of Craig Fertig’s pass gave USC a 20-17 win. It cost the Irish a national title – and one L.A.-based fan. I remember running to my bedroom, crying. I couldn’t understand how this could happen. I had gone to Mass that morning, hadn’t I? Shouldn’t that have meant something?
I looked in the mirror and vowed – actually making some sort of movement with my hands – I would never root for Notre Dame again. They had let me down. That’s it. I’m done. And I’ve kept that vow for more than 50 years.
It’s what college football does to you.
Friday: Were you torn a bit last night? The first real night of college football and there was an NFL game on. Not just any NFL game. It featured the local NFL team. Of course, it was an NFL preseason game. The fourth NFL preseason game.
The NFL owns the airways, doesn’t it? But how many of you did what I did, watched the Seahawks’ first defensive possession last night, held on through Russell Wilson’s 63-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Lockett and then spent the rest of the night switching between college games?
The fourth preseason game has been something akin to a spare tire on the Honda. You know it’s there, you know it is needed by some people, but you don’t want to have anything to do with it. The only people who really cared about last night’s 58-0 Seahawks win over the Raiders (OK, the real score was 31-21, but does it really matter?) are the families of the guys who were trying to make the respective teams. And die-hard fans who paint their faces, own six $199 Hawk jerseys and think Kam Chancellor should be paid a gazillion dollars.
The rest of us wanted to know if the defensive changes at Idaho made a difference (the knee-jerk reaction after one game: no), or if Jim Harbaugh would be mellower now that’s he back at Michigan (another knee-jerk reaction: yes), and if Arizona’s Scooby Wright would be as dominant as he was last season (the sad reaction: no, as he injured his knee and it looked to be not good).
College football was back, with all the pomp and circumstance, with all the blocked punts and fumbled snaps, with all the poor throws and breakaway runs. It was a good, no great, Thursday night.