Blue and Gold Illustrated

Sept. 9, 2013 Issue

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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fan forum A Reality Program My story is that of the Notre Dame football fan. My credibility here comes from significant Irish heritage, more than 30 years as a South Bend resident, and a master's degree from Our Lady's university. For more than two decades, Notre Dame football fans have created Notre Dame's 42-14 loss to Alabama in last January's BCS National and nurtured and lived Championship Game has some fans thinking it's best to simply accept out a delusion, a fantasy, that the Irish aren't the football power they used to be. photo by Lon Horwedel a falsehood of glory. We them up. Yet in our devotion we will have a handful of national titles on our walls and the stuff of legends in our never betray such awareness. Mustn't. books. But then there's reality. And it See how shiny our dome is, and our helmets? bites. The reality of our team — as we enGoing into the national championter the 25th anniversary season of our ship game last January, we played the hot-shot: "We're so great and now last national championship — is that it we're finally getting what we deserved really isn't as remarkable as we'd like all along." But that's just it. We did, in everyone to believe. But the delusion is fact, get what we deserved: a big fat so powerful and has become so neceshumiliation sandwich, and the egg is sary to our continued existence as a fan base that we have deceived even ouron our face. Perhaps, deep down, at some level selves. We cannot tell the mythic Irish we're aware of our inadequacies; we tale from the cold hard gridiron truth. A peacock will fan out his feathers in sure as hell need to stop depending on past generations' successes to cover a brilliant display of confidence — but even he knows when to walk away with it between his legs. We, however, refuse be heard! to admit defeat. We keep those feathers fanned and flying, by God, despite the Send your letters to: snickers of those who are embarrassed Letters on our behalf. Blue & Gold Illustrated The secret — the cure — for this madP. O. Box 1007 ness, is acceptance. To accept reality, Notre Dame, IN 46556 to be right-sized, to avoid grandiose or e-mail to: lsomogyi@blueandgold.com delusions: these are a worthy goal if we

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