Quick Intro: I’m not very good at introductions so I will make it quick. I’m the new guy here at Inside Pulse Sports and will be catering to all of your NCAA Football and Basketball needs. My previous stops were all at places that did not last very long so if Inside Pulse goes under anytime soon, you know who to point the finger at. I’m kicking things off today with a column but in the future this will be more of a preview/recap column with my two cents thrown in. Feedback is welcome, of both the good and bad variety.
Unrelated Chatter: Aside from the Rangers and Yankees respective heists, the MLB Trade Deadline came and went rather quietly. A slew of smaller deals were made and it should be interesting to see if they have any impact. No starting pitcher has been traded at the deadline and went on to win a World Series ring that same year since 1979 so hopefully my New York Mets leave newly-acquired RHP Oliver Perez in Triple-A this year just to play it safe…Fidel Castro apparently is not doing to well and his reign might be coming to an end. You know what that means; Major League Baseball is about to get a major talent influx…Monday Night Raw seems to be getting even more repetitive than usual. With Summerslam just around the corner, I can’t remember the last time I had such an apathetic attitude with a major PPV just around the corner…Former boyband member Lance Bass recently came out of the closet and admitted to being gay. Of course coming out would require people thinking he was actually in the closet in the first place…
Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre Dame
By Neil A. Bisman
As human beings, we tend to have a soft spot in our hearts for the underdog. From the time that we are age four until we are age eighty-four, the main plot for almost all of the books, movies and television shows that we read and watch revolve around rooting for the underdog. To quench our thirst of rooting for the underdog we unveiled the simple concept of “good vs. evil.” Sure the older we get the plots become more complex and the evil becomes a little more evil but regardless of age, good always has the deck stacked against them and uses hard work and principles to triumph in the end. We love happy endings and nothing makes us happier than someone who went against the odds and achieved success.
Perhaps no other entertainment industry has done a better job of playing up the idea of good vs. bad than the sports media. Whether they overplay it or not (and they do), sports writers are constantly reminding us of homefield advantage, point spreads, superior talent, better coaching and revenue differences. One of the bigger villains in all of sports is the University of Notre Dame football team. Ironically enough, Notre Dame has a lot more in common with the good guys as opposed to the bad guys. It is a good-standing Catholic institution which preaches ethics, outstanding academics and runs a very clean athletic program. But much like the New York Yankees in baseball, they are extremely successful and have a much storied history, thus making them unlikable. In turn their success has made them evil.
Last season Notre Dame managed to do the unthinkable, they became an underdog. After nearly a decade of disappointment, new coach Charlie Weis took over the reigns and led them on a magical ride. Weis was an underdog story himself, having never played college football and continuously missed out on NFL head coaching jobs. Expectations may have been high for Weis, but not many could have predicted the team’s 9-3 record and Fiesta Bowl berth. Behind Weis’ terrific coaching and his infectious charm, Notre Dame became media darlings and the rest of the country almost began to root for Notre Dame. Almost.
Folks around College Football were not content with Notre Dame as the underdog. Notre Dame is supposed to be bigger than the sport and as soon as any hint of success showed; the hype machine was turned on full blast. Suddenly Notre Dame was once again invincible. Not because of the talent on the field, but because of the media. Notre Dame went from a nice story to National Title contender. Charlie Weis went from a great coach to the next Knute Rockne. Brady Quinn went from solid quarterback to the next Tom Brady. Jeff Samardzija went from pedestrian wide receiver to a superstar. Safety Tom Zbikowski became a media darling for his June boxing match at Madison Square Garden. And just to make sure that we were back to our full-on hatred of Notre Dame; high school junior quarterback Jimmy Claussen, of the famed Claussen family of disappointing quarterbacks, declared his intent to attend the University of Notre Dame by holding a press conference at the College Football Hall of Fame while arriving in a stretch hummer limousine.
The revival of hatred towards Notre Dame could not have come at a better time. With the USC dynasty apparently coming to an end and Vince Young bolting for the NFL Draft, college football lacks any major story lines this season. Sure USC must find a suitable replacement for Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and company and Texas must do the same with Vince Young but those stories do not hold much weight. Whether JD Booty or Mark Sanchez wins the USC quarterback job does not appeal to me, just like I could care less if Colt McCoy or Jevan Snead takes over for VY at Texas. Hating Notre Dame though, that appeals to me. It appeals to everyone. We need hatred in our lives. Without hatred we cannot fully appreciate what we enjoy.
As the calendar nears the first weekend in September, it’s hard to open up any publication and not hear about how great Notre Dame is going to be. What you will not hear about is how their defense is atrocious or if they can come anywhere near the expectations that have been placed on them, which they will not. The negatives that surround Notre Dame are irrelevant though. But it’s okay. A mortal Notre Dame does us no good. A mortal Notre Dame makes them just another team, which is what we fear. Notre Dame has a very good chance to head into its season finale with USC as a 2 or 3 loss team, but that’s irrelevant. Those losses should come early in the season and the ship will have “been righted” by then, all will be right under the Golden Dome. But it’s okay. We need for Notre Dame to be over hyped and overrated. We need for Notre Dame to be Goliath, because it makes it that much sweeter when David knocks them on their collective asses.
