Tag: COVID-19

Notre Dame to play annual game vs. Navy at Gillette Stadium in 2026

Make your travel plans now.

Whenever Notre Dame goes on the road to play Navy, a large venue always is in order. There’s a great deal that goes into the history of this rivalry, so a stadium worthy of it is a must.

Halloween 2026 will be the next time the Midshipmen act as the home team in this game, and a stadium new to both the rivalry and the Irish will enter the fold. During that season, the teams will meet at Gillette Stadium, the home of the New England Patriots and Revolution in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

The Irish never have played at Gillette Stadium, and this rivalry never has had a game in the New England region. The Midshipmen made their first appearance at the stadium last year for the Army-Navy Game.

This is the second 2026 Irish road game to be scheduled at an NFL stadium. They will open the season against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The Irish and Badgers were to meet at the home of the Packers as part of the 2020 Shamrock Series, but COVID-19 squashed those plans. They ultimately met for that game in 2021 at Soldier Field in Chicago, the home of the Bears.

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The last time the Broncos played the Saints was the Kendall Hinton game

The last time the Broncos and Saints played was the Kendall Hinton COVID-19 game in 2020.

The Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints are set to face off for the 13th time this week. The last time these two teams met, New Orleans won 31-3 in Denver. It wasn’t an ordinary game.

All four of the Broncos’ quarterbacks that week were deemed ineligible to play against the Saints after they violated COVID-19 protocol. Denver wasn’t able to sign a street free agent in time for the game due to the league’s COVID-19 testing rules that season.

The Broncos asked the NFL if assistant coaches Rob Calabrese or Justin Rascati could suit up at QB, but the league would not allow it because of rules that aim to prevent teams from stashing players on the coaching staff. So Denver turned to practice squad wide receiver Kendall Hinton, who was one month removed from working in sales.

Hinton (6-0, 195 pounds) was beaten up by the Saints, going 1-of-9 passing for 13 yards with two interceptions, one sack and a passer rating of 0.0. Despite the loss, Hinton was praised by fans and pundits for gutting it out and taking on an impossible task.

The Broncos and Saints will face off for the first time since that infamous game on Thursday. Denver leads the all-time series against New Orleans 9-3, including five straight wins leading up to the Hinton game.

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Notre Dame reportedly to take part in 2026 Maui Invitational

The Irish are gonna get some sun before they get some turkey in a couple of years.

Imagine being a college basketball fan and knowing part of your team’s schedule two years in advance. It’s not college football when you often know who your team is playing a decade or more in advance. Both sports are just different.

According to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, Notre Dame is among seven teams that will take part in the 2026 Maui Invitational during Thanksgiving week. Also participating are Ole Miss, Maryland, Providence, BYU, VCU and Arizona. The eighth team that will round out the field is not yet known.

This will be the Irish’s fifth appearance in the tournament, in which they have an all-time record of 8-5. They last competed in 2021 when COVID-19 forced the tournament to be relocated from Hawaii to Las Vegas. They won this tournament in 2017 with [autotag]Matt Farrell[/autotag] receiving tournament MVP honors.

So if you love Notre Dame hoops and want to do something during Thanksgiving week two years from now, might we suggest making the trip to Hawaii to watch these games?

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Micah Shrewsberry talks Notre Dame recruiting strategy with CBS Sports

Great job, Coach.

Notre Dame men’s basketball just had a recruiting week most programs only can dream of. Four commits since the beginning of last week, including new all-time highest-rated recruit [autotag]Jalen Haralson[/autotag], have propelled the Irish to the top of 247Sports’ recruiting rankings for the 2025 class.

Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports took notice of this and decided to reach out to [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] for some insights as part of a feature story about the Irish. Faced with a rebuild upon arriving to the program, Shrewsberry opted to hone in on high school recruiting as opposed to other programs that increasingly looked towards the transfer portal.

Shrewsberry focused on high school recruits almost out of necessity with the transfer portal about to lose the players who were granted an extra year of eligibility by COVID-19. But even taking that out of the equation, he now has the luxury of RALLY, Notre Dame’s new NIL collective, to keep players around.

When asked how this year’s Irish were able to keep almost all of their top scorers from a season ago, Shrewsberry said this:

“I think our guys believed in what we were doing, but they also believed in their teammates and the guys who were going to be their teammates. They could see the positives throughout last season and what we could look like going forward.”

The future in South Bend looks very bright, and it all has to do with the culture Shrewsberry is building. You can’t put a price on that.

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Photos of Notre Dame president Rev. Robert Dowd inauguration ceremony

A day of celebration in South Bend.

Notre Dame has a long and storied history, but only three times has a new president actually been inaugurated. The latest has come with the inauguration ceremony for the [autotag]Rev. Robert Dowd[/autotag], the 18th president of the university. Though he officially assumed the role in June, he finally had a chance to bask in the pageantry that comes with becoming a new president.

The day didn’t come without some tension though. The day before the ceremony, Dowd tested positive for COVID-19. The good news is the isolation period for the disease only is 24 hours now, but he still masked up while near others indoors. It’s a reminder that illnesses can affect even the most thought-out plans.

Despite the development, it still was a day of celebration in South Bend. Hopefully, it’s the perfect stepping stone to what will be steady leadership from Dowd for many years to come.

If you missed the ceremony, here are some images of it:

Notre Dame president tests positive for COVID-19 before inauguration

Tough news for the head man.

2024 marks a new era for Notre Dame in the form of a new president, the [autotag]Rev. Robert Dowd[/autotag]. It’s way too early to tell exactly what impact he’ll have on the university, but hopefully, it mostly will be for the better, both for athletics and otherwise.

However, Dowd is human, and we’re not far removed from COVID-19 upending everyone’s way of life. Even with the pandemic in the rear-view mirror, the disease very much remains out there, and it can affect anyone at any time. Notre Dame’s previous president, the [autotag]Rev. John Jenkins[/autotag], tested positive for it during the pandemic.

Unfortunately for Dowd, he has tested positive for the disease, and the timing for it couldn’t have been worse:

The good news is that earlier this year, CDC guidelines relaxed the isolation period to 24 hours from the previous five days. So it’s not like Dowd will have to miss his inauguration bonanza altogether. Still, it’s a reminder that the real world can and will inject itself into pageantry whenever it feels like it.

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Sean Payton explains how COVID-19 helped NFL players

The NFL increased practice squads from 12 players to 16 during COVID-19 to give teams more roster flexibility. “It benefits everyone.”

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted just about every person and every business in the U.S., including the National Football League.

Games were delayed, players and coaches caught the coronavirus, attendance was restricted, and Kendall Hinton was forced to play quarterback. It was a difficult time in the NFL, but it did result in some rule improvements.

“Obviously the last couple of days have been busy,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said Wednesday following the team’s roster cuts. “They’re always difficult. It’s one thing that never changes, having done that a while. The thing that has changed though, and I just finished telling our team, a lot of things came from COVID. On a positive note, the practice squad went to 16 [players]. Then the flexibility within the practice squad with veterans — more players are on rosters now. I gave them these two numbers … 53 and 16 plus [an] international [player]. Really it’s 70 [players].” 

Before COVID, the NFL had already planned to increase the practice squad limit from 10 players to 12 players. Due to the pandemic and players missing games with coronavirus, the league increased the limit to 16 players to give teams extra roster flexibility (now a 17th international player is allowed as well). The NFL also increased the number of veterans who can sign with a practice squad.

All of those rule changes are beneficial for the players. More practice squad spots mean more jobs and once you’re in the building, any player can make a good impression and work his way up to the active roster.

“Once they’re here, I can’t tell you how many times — and you guys know this — guys are coming up, or coming down. So we have 70 guys on the team. I think that was different eight years ago. Just even the ability and the flexibility that clubs had, but I think it benefits everyone.

“It benefits the pool of players that wouldn’t be on rosters right now and I also think it helps in their development. So at some point this week, I’ll put a list together of practice squad players at one point and you’re going to see Pro Bowl players, you’re going to see — you guys know the story.”

Last year, Denver’s initial practice squad included wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey, tight end Lucas Krull and safety Devon Key. Humphrey quickly worked his way up to the active roster last fall, and Krull and Key are now members of the team’s 53-man roster. Krull and Key turned a practice squad opportunity into active-roster jobs in the NFL. If not for COVID-19 and the resulting rule changes, they might not have gotten that initial opportunity.

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Photos of former Notre Dame fencer Lee Kiefer winning second gold

Back-to-back for Lee!

[autotag]Lee Kiefer[/autotag] made history at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. She became the first U.S. fencer, male or female, to win a gold medal in the individual foil. A few years later at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, she’s proven she’s not ready to give that gold medal up.

Kiefer won her second individual foil gold medal in as many Olympics. The former Notre Dame fencer did so by defeating fellow U.S. fencer Lauren Scruggs, 15-6. Scruggs is the first U.S. fencer to win a silver in this event. The bronze went to Canada’s Eleanor Harvey.

Kiefer became the second U.S. fencer to win two individual Olympic golds, joining two-time sabre gold medalist Mariel Zagunis. And she did in front of husband and fellow former Notre Dame fencer [autotag]Gerek Meinhardt[/autotag] 24 hours ahead of his own quest for an individual foil medal.

If you missed Kiefer’s historic day, take a look at these photos:

Remembering Bob Newhart with lost Notre Dame scholarship story

RIP legend.

The entertainment world has been left with an unfillable void with the passing of legendary comedian Bob Newhart at age 94. Those of us from the Chicago area forever will be grateful for the fact that despite all of his success, he never forgot his roots, perhaps most evidenced by the fact that one of his sitcoms was set there. He greatly will be missed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Newhart was a virtual guest on Conan O’Brien’s program. While talking about football, he relayed a humorous anecdote about playing the sport and why Notre Dame opted not to offer him a scholarship:

Whether or not that actually happened doesn’t take away from the fact that Newhart seemed to be a very easy person to talk to and had a pleasant demeanor. It’s admirable that he kept this up despite achieving more than most people do. Let’s honor him by emulating this as best we can.

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On this day: NBA suspends season following Rudy Gobert’s positive COVID-19 test in OKC

On this day: NBA suspends season following Rudy Gobert’s positive COVID-19 test in OKC.

On this day four years ago, Oklahoma City set off a chain reaction that led to the United States essentially shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 11, 2020, the NBA postponed the Utah Jazz vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game due to Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19. Gobert was the first known NBA player to test positive for the virus.

Later that night, the league suspended its season. In the following days, sports leagues across the country followed suit — either suspending or canceling their seasons.

The Thunder entered that date just one game behind the Jazz for a top-four seed in the Western Conference standings. It was billed as a critical game for OKC’s chances of earning homecourt advantage in the playoffs with roughly a month left in the regular season.

Instead, it marked the unofficial start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The league resumed its season five months later on July 30 in a bubble environment at Disney World in Florida. The Thunder were one of the 22 teams invited to the bubble, and teams weren’t allowed to leave it until their season concluded.

The league scheduled eight regular-season games for all 22 teams and also introduced the play-in tournament concept during the bubble.

The Thunder’s season ended in a Game 7 loss of their first-round series against the Houston Rockets. The only Thunder players remaining from that roster are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort.

Following their exit, the Thunder blew up their roster and shifted to development mode. Chris Paul was traded to the Phoenix Suns. Steven Adams was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans. Dennis Schroder was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers and Danilo Gallinari signed with the Atlanta Hawks.

The Thunder also changed head coaches, going from Billy Donovan to Mark Daigneault.

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