The former Notre Dame coach compared college football players taking the field this season to the storming of Normandy.
We all want college football to happen this fall. The last months of the year wouldn’t be the same without being able to cheer on our respective teams on the gridiron on Saturdays. That, I can say, is true.
But dear Lord almighty has Lou Holtz totally lost it when it comes to things that matter in life.
On Friday, Holtz appeared on a talk show to discuss the chance that football could not be played this season and boy, did he leave us with a doozy of a quote.
“People stormed Normandy,” Holtz said to host Laura Ingraham. “They knew there was going to be casualties, they knew there was gonna be risk. … It’s our way of living, look at it from both points of view. The risk is always there. But you cannot just look at it from one side.”
Let’s take this in for a second: Holtz just compared one of the most important battles in the history of the United States, one that was extremely critical in defeating a German regime that was responsible for the murder of 8,000,000 people in concentration camps and brought almost the entire world into a war, to football?
“You have to look at things from both points of view,” Holtz said. “You have to look at it from a player’s point of view. You have to look at it from a coach’s point of view. The way it is right now, they just don’t want to have sports.”
Hate to break it to Holtz — he of leaving three different programs on probation after his tenure ended — but this comparison is about as awful they come. With it, you belittled the brave men and women who took part in the attack on Normandy and the north beaches in France. It is atrocious that he doesn’t realize that this. Those people changed the world as we still know it today.
What, exactly, does he think happened on D-Day? Does he think the Americans just happened to call a good triple-reverse at the same time and somehow defeated the German defense? Thousands died. The war was altered. How can you possibly compare that to college football not being played for a few months? He’s lost all touch on reality.
College football, as important as it seems at times, is just a sport, not exactly determining who will run the world. Of course for Holtz, I’m guessing the fact that a season might not be played is a sign of weakness and that the term “snowflakes” will be thrown around when/if the decision not to play football this fall is made.
Granted, anyone who watched Holtz on ESPN during the past 15 years isn’t surprised by this idiotic comparison. At times you wondered why no one would pull him off air due to the fact he was just embarrassing himself.
This is a national pandemic that we have never dealt with in our lifetime. There are many answers we have left to find out about COVID-19 and, with the death toll growing every day, the importance of college football dwindles. This isn’t a “war” on football. This is about a nation being in crisis.
“I want to tell you, I can’t begin to tell you the lessons you learn in football,” Holtz said. “It’s a microcosm of life. You learn about sacrifice, you learn about teamwork, getting along with other people, learn skills to make commitment to other people for the overall team. Young people want to be part of something and you’re taking that away from them.”
They still have that chance once more is settled and, during this whole situation, are still learning valuable life lessons. Football isn’t going away but a delayed season is every day looking more inevitable. Why put players, coaches and staff at risk just because a former football coach thinks not having a season makes us look weak? It’s moronic. It’s stupid. It’s absolutely insane.
This isn’t Earth-shattering stuff. This isn’t Adolf Hitler taking over all of Europe and imposing the Nazi mentality on it and the rest of the world. This is college football, something that is important to all of us but, when it comes to it, is a small matter when the nation is at danger.
Holtz has lost his sense of reality. Maybe someone, perhaps a World War II veteran, can smack some sense into him.
