Tag: Dave Casper

ChatGPT’s top 10 Notre Dame tight ends not including Michael Mayer

Remember any of these guys?

ChatGPT is a useful AI writing tool, but it’s not without its flaws. You have to be specific in what you want when you enter a prompt. Otherwise, it will assume things that aren’t true, and you have to enter the prompt again to account for the things that weren’t correct initially. While it doesn’t take much time to edit and regenerate prompts, it still can be mildly frustrating.

Another problem, at least at the moment, is that it only accounts for information through September 2021. Since then, [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag] became arguably the best tight end in Notre Dame history. So when we asked ChatGPT to generate what it believes is the program’s top 10 tight ends, Mayer wasn’t included.

The point of this particular introduction is to explain why Mayer isn’t on this list. But hopefully, you have fond memories of the 10 names ChatGPT did generate. Without further adieu, here it is, edited for accuracy:

Notre Dame football countdown: 86 Derek Brown days

When you think of Notre Dame tight ends who is the first player that comes to mind?

Notre Dame has always been strong at tight end but you could argue the Fighting Irish went from being strong at the position to simply being the best at it in the early 1990’s with a huge part of that being because of Derek Brown.

A few greats like [autotag]Dave Casper[/autotag], [autotag]Ken McAfee[/autotag], and [autotag]Mark Bavaro[/autotag] came before Brown but he was the first domino that led to a slew of Notre Dame tight ends being drafted ever since.

Brown played at Notre Dame from 1988 through 1991 and caught three touchdown passes during the championship season of ’88.  In all, he’d catch 62 passes with the Irish for 899 yards and eight total touchdowns before becoming the 14th overall pick in the 1992 NFL draft by the New York Giants.

Previous to Brown being drafted, three Notre Dame tight ends had been selected in the first two rounds of the NFL draft all-time.  Starting with Brown in ’92, eight Notre Dame tight ends have had their names called in the first two rounds since, including Irv Smith who was selected in the first round one year later.

In April of 2013, Her Loyal Sons caught up with Brown where he shared how he ultimately chose Notre Dame.

“One Saturday morning during the winter of my senior year of high school I popped in this video tape that I had that was called “Wake up the Echoes.” No one was home and I started watching it and the video gave me goose bumps and at that moment I thought, ‘Screw it. I’m going to Notre Dame.’”

Brown went on to play in the NFL from 1992-1999 with the Giants, Jaguars, Raiders, and Cardinals and caught 43 passes during that time.

Check out a few photos of Brown’s football career below!

No Holy Roller II but Los Angeles Chargers win in overtime

The Chargers came from behind to down the Raiders in overtime

It was almost the reverse Holy Roller. However, the rule created because of a play in an Oakland Raiders-San Diego Chargers game in 1978 gave Las Vegas a temporary reprieve in its loss to Los Angeles on Thursday.

Justin Herbert tried to sneak his way into the end zone in overtime. However, the QB fumbled and a Charger recovered in the end zone.

That left the officials dumbfounded for a second until they realized a play between these teams with different homes 42 years ago impacted their decision.

They brought the ball back to where it was fumbled — basically inside the 1-yard line — and Herbert scored on the next play to give LA a 30-27 victory and its first AFC West triumph since 2018.

Now, 42 years ago a play happened between these franchises that led to the rule being changed, which forced the fumble to be returned to its place of origin.

On Sept. 10, 1978,  with 10 seconds left the Raiders had possession of the ball at the Chargers’ 14-yard line, trailing 20–14. Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler took the snap and found himself about to be sacked by Chargers linebacker Woodrow Lowe on the 24-yard line.

The ball came out of Stabler’s hands and moved forward towards the Chargers’ goal line. Raiders running back Pete Banaszak appeared to try to recover the ball on the 12-yard line, but did not keep his footing, and pitched the ball with both hands even closer to the end zone. Raiders tight end Dave Casper was the next player to reach the ball but he also seemingly could not get a handle on it. He batted and kicked the ball into the end zone, where he fell on it for the game-tying touchdown as time ran out. With the ensuing extra point by placekicker Errol Mann, the Raiders won 21–20.

According to the NFL rulebook, “If a runner intentionally fumbles forward, it is a forward pass.” Also during the play, the game officials ruled that Banaszak and Casper’s actions were legal because it was impossible to determine if they intentionally batted the ball forward, which would have been ruled a penalty. The National Football League (NFL) also supported referee Jerry Markbreit’s call that Stabler fumbled the ball instead of throwing it forward.[5][4]

For years, Stabler publicly stated that it was a fumble. However, in a 2008 interview on NFL Films, he was asked if he could convince the camera crew that he did not flip the ball forward. Stabler responded, “No, I can’t convince you of that, because I did. I mean, what else was I going to do with it? Throw it out there, shake the dice.”[ Banaszak and Casper also admitted that they deliberately batted the ball towards the end zone.

Watch: Notre Dame’s Top 10 Catches by Tight Ends

In the midst of the sports abyss we currently sit in the Notre Dame Athletics YouTube Page has been posting top-ten lists of various events over the years and counting down some of the best plays we’ve seen from Notre Dame athletes.

Their latest honors the great tight ends that have come through Notre Dame and the best plays they’ve made over time.  Without spoiling the list go ahead and watch it and then we’ll react.

Nobody does the tight end position better than Notre Dame.  Year in and year out you look at the NFL Draft and another Notre Dame tight end is getting their name called.  In a few short weeks Cole Kmet will become the latest on that list.

In the midst of the sports abyss we currently sit in the Notre Dame Athletics YouTube Page has been posting top-ten lists of various events over the years and counting down some of the best plays we’ve seen from Notre Dame athletes.

Their latest honors the great tight ends that have come through Notre Dame and the best plays they’ve made over time.  Without spoiling the list go ahead and watch it and then we’ll react.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA-H3rV47Y8&w=560&h=315]

My immediate thought is without the impact of the play, the most impressive is Irv Smith’s at three.  What Smith did to those pour Hoosier souls sent football back three decades in Bloomington.

The two ahead of it obviously led directly to a national championship being won so even if they weren’t the most impressive plays like Smith’s was, I can’t argue for a second against either being ranked ahead of it.

The Rudolph play against Michigan in 2010 was one of the most-exciting I’ve been in attendance for, it’s just too bad nobody could tackle Denard Robinson that afternoon.

You could really put five through nine in any order and I don’t think anyone would be too upset.  The Rudolph game-winner at Purdue saved things from going south that season.  Well, for a few weeks, anyway.

If there was one that didn’t make the list that I always remember it’s the Jabari Holloway fumble recovery to take the lead against USC in 1999.  It didn’t save a memorable season by any means but it did help complete an epic comeback against Notre Dame’s biggest rival.

Then again, it wasn’t a catch.