In the end though it is football that casts Notre Dame in the public

eye. Fred Leahy is dead on there. What a great ending line. I think that is essentially where the Malloy administration had a mis-read. Football gives ND the platform and the bully pulpit from which they can do all the other great things they do. The recent Ex Corde Ecclesiae (V-M, QFF) debate is a good example. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post aren't writing feature stories from Marquette or Seton Hall. The nation looks to ND for the Catholic perspective. Football, for all its minor sins, gave them that prominence, and the power and ability to do so much good in so many ways.