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Notre Dame Field Storming: Conflicted is the Only Way to Feel

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What an amazing Saturday! Joe Biden officially ends the Donald Trump Reign of Terror and Notre Dame achieves their biggest win since 1993. So let’s celebrate both! Okay, sure but wear a mask, and keep your distance!

Uhmm, well some people did, but others definitely did not. But what a great moment for these Notre Dame kids! The biggest win of the Brian Kelly era, and it comes during the most watched ND home game in a decade in a half!

Okay, but what about that once in a century global pandemic we’re in? And now we’ve hit the second wave of it, and daily case records are getting broken with repetition.

Yeah, there is that but look at all the big cities on Saturday, everyone dancing in the streets to celebrate Biden’s victory, were they masked? Some were, yes, but many others were not. Was that social distancing? Is that how you’re supposed to act in a pandemic, no, not really.

You can can understand the need for release though, in both situations. Once the proudest of all college football programs, it’s been almost three decades since they’ve actually won a game this big.

And for the part of America that isn’t racist, sexist, bigoted, idiotic or willing to tolerate racism, sexism, bigotry and idiocy in the name of judicial appointments and tax cuts they think they will someday receive, the last four years have been ROUGH!

So you can understand the need to let loose, especially in this, a year that if it were a college football team it’d have a 1-11 or 2-10 season. Right but the left should know better, they’re the side that is treating the pandemic much more seriously and cautiously.

Yes, but Notre Dame should know better, their President contracted COVID-19 and he attended the coronavirus superspreader event in the White House Rose Garden. Not to mention that ND already had a game cancelled because of a COVID outbreak.

Right, but it’s human nature so what can you do? Well, Friedrich Nietzsche once said that “the thinking man has no need for refutation; for that he suffices within himself.” If you think it’s great that these crowds gathered, and it’s simnply a wonderful heart-warming site to behold, well you have no brain.

If you think, omg! awful! what the hell is wrong with people? Well then you lack the empathy of the situation.

It’s complicated, conflicted and to look at it any other way is totally wrong at worst, missing the point completely at best.

So it’s not like how the commercial mainstream media presents everything- black of white? Good or bad? A or B?

No, not at all, as real life doesn’t work that way.

And yes, sports and politics are typically sold to us in that exact manner.  The “official” attendance last night was 11,011. If you thought it looked like more people than that were in attendance, well, you’re not alone.

At the beginning of the season, Notre Dame announced that the stadium would be limited to 20% capacity this season, which is 15,524 spectators.

So 4,513 people had a chance to go to this but didn’t?

Wow, 2020 is very weird if we’re maybe, potentially seeing attendance numbers understated, instead of over inflated.

(also, did that girl steal the other girl’s phone there? I think we can ALL AGREE that’s bad!)

Brian Kelly knew was coming, and prepared for it.

“When we win this thing, our fans are going to storm the field,” he told the team during the pregame walkthrough Friday. “So with covid being what it is, we’ve got to get off the field. We’ve got to get to the tunnel, and I beat ’em all to the tunnel.”

“So that didn’t go over so good, but they did remind me that I told them that, so my skills of prognostication were pretty good today.”

Getting back to this discussion, the one this author is having with himself, you got to pick a lane!

Agreed- health comes first, stay away from crowds. Outdoor crowds are much better than indoor, and a mask is a must, but just stay away from crowds- no matter what you’re celebrating, a football game or an election.

Was it that hard to just say that and reach a decision?

You have to weigh up all the pros and cons first. Stay safe.

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.