When talking U.S. government shutdown, you wouldn’t expect it to be related to Notre Dame football. If you brought up the words “ND” and “shutdown,” you’d likely think: ‘oh what opposing secondaries have done to Fighting Irish QB Tommy Rees lately?’
Not sure who has lower approval rankings in South Bend right now: Rees or the United States Congress. And it’s ironic that the actions taken by the far-right wing of the American realpolitik will consequently anger a big part of their political base.
At this point, all Notre Dame can do is wait and watch with the Department of Defense announcing Tuesday that all intercollegiate athletics at the service academies are suspended due to the U.S. government shutdown.
The armed forces vote overwhelmingly GOP most of the time, so it’s more than fair to assume that service academy college football fans are mostly Republicans. Therefore making it “collateral damage” from an action perpetrated by House Republicans, that being the U.S. government shutdown, will adversely impact their people.
Notre Dame is not scheduled to play Air Force until October 26th. The annual game with Navy, ND’ s favorite way to pad their schedule with easy wins, is a month away.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan and 1620 The Zone, he also writes for Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and Facebook, subscribe to his RSS feed