Massacre at Notre Dame

In what has become a yearly event now, I get to take in a Notre Dame home football game once a year thanks to my former roommate Peter, a high school counselor in nearby Goshen, Indiana. This year, I was surprised when he asked me to go the Michigan game, which was already being built up as the game of the year. Notre Dame was ranked #2 and Michigan #11. These two teams have quite the history between them and not a whole lot of love to spread around either. Tickets on the street were going for $250.00 and sometimes more. In retrospect, Michigan fans who bought overpriced tickets got their money's worth. Notre Dame fans who did the same are wishing they had stayed home and mowed the lawn.

As with any Notre Dame home game, part of the excitement is just getting to the stadium. We parked at a shopping center lot a couple miles away and made the walk in (parking a couple miles away gives you free parking; parking closer to the stadium ranges from $20.00 - $40.00).

As you make your way to the stadium, you pass through "party row." Tailgaters all over the place and beer absolutely flowing like Niagra Falls. If you saw someone with a Pepsi can, they looked out of place. But there is quite the buzz level with so much activity going on outside the stadium. You also had some of your more creative vendors selling t-shirts not fit for family viewing (the nicest ones said "Muck Fichigan").

We hung around outside and watched the band march in. Hundreds of fans line the path leading to the stadium to watch them come in. We finally made our way to our seats and settled down for the game. This was quite possibly to be the year that Notre Dame would once again rise to the top and win the national championship. Quarterback Brady Quinn was also an early favorite for the Heisman Trophy. The crowd was absolutely pumped up leading up to kickoff. Then, an unfortunate thing happened. The game began.

At the forty second mark, Brady Quinn threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown. That set the tone. Brady's Heisman and Notre Dame's national title hopes were gone before people settled in to their seats. By the time it was over, Notre Dame had lost 47-21. That just doesn't happen in their home stadium and certainly wasn't supposed to happen this year.

Not a pleasant day for Notre Dame fans. One of the fans sitting behind us summed up the day nicely for the home crowd: "That was a big pile of suck."