Mine is sad and sums up the last 10 years

Mine is sad and sums up the last 10 years
by OITLinebacker (2005-11-09 01:07:26)

In reply to: The broken link: What has ND's football tradition meant to you? posted by Board Ops

I have been a ND football fan ever since I knew what football was. I remember Tim Brown, and the 88 championship, though most of my friends were still just learning the basics of football at 9yrs old, I could tell them what a flanker was and how to run routes. I begged to go to a home ND football game with my father (an alum) and his friens. He finally let me come in the glorius autumn of '93. I remember the tremendous energy on campus, the real feeling of magic in the air. I remember going deaf as the crowd roared when the #1 Irish took the field. The game wasn't supposed to go that way, I remember praying for a miracle and the way the entire stadium seemed to not want to give up. The glorious touchdown happened right in front of me and I remember thinking that I just saw the greatest comeback ever. I remember how much it hurt when that *@#$^ @#* $@#^$@#$!!! kicker made that FG. I wish I could have kicked their fans ass so bad for stepping on the holy ground of ND stadium.

That was the last time a #1 ranked Notre Dame team took the field. I've been to most of the ND games since then, and it still feels like the kick happened last week. There are a lot of special moments now on football weekends, but the magic has gone. I pray that someday (soon) that magic returns. I want to feel that again.

Blame SI's photogrpaher...

I was a Student Manager working on the field for that game. I was kneeling at the line of scrimmage, on the home sideline as the teams lined up for the final kick.

Just as the play was about to happen, directly behind me, a photographer said "He's gonna miss this kick. ND always wins this type of game". I turned around and shot him a nasty look. I turned back around just in time to see the snap, kick and absolute devastation on our players' faces.

The picture premanently fused to my brain that I saw in those painful moments immediately after the kick went through just so happens to also be the picture that graced the cover of SI the next week. That was the photographer who made the comment. That day, the SI curse came in the form of an actual person. I still hate him.