Tag: football cancelled

Lou Holtz on Fighting Irish nickname, football in fall

Lou Holtz shared his opinion on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish nickname and shared thoughts on football being played this fall. Watch here.

Lou Holtz is probably more responsible for any individual player for me taking a liking to Notre Dame football at a young age.  The small head coach of the Fighting Irish during my youth was an icon, winning the 1988 national championship and getting very close to a couple more over the next five seasons.

Although I don’t agree very often with his politics, I do still find myself paying attention when he speaks.  That was no different when I saw his face pop up on my Twitter feed earlier today.

Holtz was on “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News Thursday and was asked a variety of things that you can watch below.

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A couple thoughts from that experience:

I agree with Holtz on the Fighting Irish nickname.  It’s not about being Irish and getting in a barroom brawl because you’re drunk.  It’s about the fight the Irish showed when they were mistreated upon their initial arrival to the United States.  However, Holtz’s story about where the name came from isn’t the story the Univeristy tells:

“Exactly where and how Notre Dame’s athletic nickname, “Fighting Irish,” came to origination never has been perfectly explained.” – UND.com

Another thought I had is that Lou’s right about having to overcome fear at some point in our lives.  He’s right about that, but the comparison he made to football being played this fall is at best, laughable.

To compare almost anything in the history of the world to the Normandy Invasion is absurd.  The invasion, was entirely necessary for the free world and God willing nobody will ever see anything of the sort again.

Football on the other hand may feel like life when he watch games on Saturday’s and live and die with each possession in a big game.  If necessary however, the free world will continue to exist even if football isn’t played this fall.

C’mon, Lou.

 

U.S. Senator calling for all conferences to cancel football

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal is asking for all conference to follow the Ivy League and cancel football.

On Wednesday the Ivy League decided to cancel football at the current time and would re-evaluate sports at a later date. Back in March when they were the first to cancel their basketball tournament, the rest of the college world soon followed after. Many didn’t believe that would be the case this time around.

Currently even the state of Texas at the high school level is looking a bit bleak right now on the football returning front. The Dallas Independent School District Superintendent doesn’t believe we will see football in 2020.

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby recently stated that the Big 12 would move forward towards a fall kickoff until told not to. Essentially if public health officials didn’t step in and put a stop to the game, then they will proceed as planned. With each passing day and reports of confirmed cases rising, it appears less likely that football will kick off as planned.

Recently Ohio State and North Carolina both paused their voluntary workouts due to the amount of cases they now face.

According to a report from USA TODAY Sports, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is calling for all conferences to cancel football as well.

“There’s absolutely nothing different between the Ivy League and any division except for the money, to be very blunt,” Blumenthal told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s about the money. And if the other schools fail to follow the Ivy League’s lead, it will be only because of the money. And, in fact, it will be another misguided act in a long litany of putting school profits ahead of the people who play for them.”

While Senator Blumenthal makes valid points, it is a difficult decision. The health and safety of the students, athletes and staff should come first. However, it is hard not to think of the financial ramification that would soon follow. While it is a difficult decision to make, don’t expect an answer just yet.

Good News from Iowa in Regards to College Football in 2020?

The Univ. of Iowa president spoke about Hawkeyes football starting up on June 1 today. Is that good news or is just words spoken too soon?

We’re 121 days until the 2020 College Football season is to kickoff with the newly formed Week Zero.  As Notre Dame fans know the Fighting Irish are scheduled to play Navy that day, August 29 in Dublin, Ireland.

Much has been made of if this game will or won’t be played.  It makes very little sense to me that a sporting event is alright to play but other mass-gatherings in Ireland are not alright to have.  We can discuss that for literally hours but instead let’s focus on the potential good news that came from Iowa today for college football fans.

University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld said Thursday that the plan at his university for now is for athletics practices, football included, to start on June 1.

So get excited, right?  Iowa is setting the trend and the rest of the Big Ten will follow and then the rest of college football quickly after.

The good news comes from the state of Iowa being in a position that coronavirus hasn’t been as severe and that talks of this are even a possibility.  However, turn on the news and you’ll quickly see that for every Iowa, there is a New York, Michigan or Florida where you’re still seeing over 1000 new cases of COVID-19 per day.

I think Harreld comes off perhaps a bit optimistic but he also gave some reason as to why, right now on April 30, he sees June 1 as a possible starting point for football and other team activities.

I hope like all getup that Harreld is right.  That would mean the worst of this pandemic would be behind us sooner rather than later and that college football gets started as regularly scheduled, something I have not been optimistic about for quite some time.  It was Miami (FL) head coach Manny Diaz who put everything in perspective as well as anyone I’ve seen so far when he spoke to ESPN this week.

“We all know what we want, but we’ve encountered something that’s unprecedented,” Diaz said. “We have to play it out and see what we can get. That’s the difference. Let’s see how good we can get it. I believe we’ll all be appreciative for whatever we get.”

As much as I hope Harreld is correct it’s simply way too soon for us to know if things will start on June 1 like he says.  Think back how different you may have viewed this pandemic just two weeks ago.  Now think back a whole month ago.

Everything news-wise changes so quickly with this it’s almost impossible to be able to predict things getting started like Harreld suggests just a month from now.  I’m not sold his beliefs or hopes will play out this way but I’d be beyond ecstatic to be wrong and for what should be a fun 2020 season to get started after the strangest springs of almost all of our lives.