Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/216396
fan forum grass is a much less inviting environment for staph infections, and because it grows and is cut, the upper surfaces (where the infections mostly live) are destroyed weekly, if not more often. What Brian Kelly and every other Notre Dame fan should be calling for is an end to playing the military schools. Their style of offense causes many more injuries than field conditions ever will. I understand that the U.S. Navy saved Notre Dame during World War II. OK. Great. That means we're so indebted to them that we have to deal with their dirty style of play, a style of play that causes serious injuries, in perpetuity? If the trend at all levels of football is to lessen injuries, then we should start by banning cut blocks. They cause many more season- and career-ending injuries than shots to the head. Could you please publish for your readers the number of injuries sustained by Notre Dame defensive players while playing Air Force, Army and Navy over the past 10 years? John Serop Simonian '03MA San Francisco teams was in 1991 at Air Force when defensive linemen Bryant Young and Eric Jones both suffered broken ankles. Looking back on it the last 10 years, there were no major incidents from 2003-06. Leg injuries against service academies have piled up more in the last six years, including defensive lineman Pat Kuntz (knee) against Air Force in 2007 (although he also had a back issue at the time) and linebacker Brian Smith on an illegal chop block versus Navy in 2008 that sidelined him for the last two regular-season games. Cornerback Robert Blanton was extremely fortunate not to suffer a severe knee injury in 2009 on a Navy cut block at his knee after the play had been blown dead. Former Irish defensive coordinator Corwin Brown called it one of the most malicious hits he had seen on a football field. During the 2010 loss to Navy, nose guard Ian Williams suffered a torn MCL, and linebacker Carlo Calabrese suffered a hamstring injury, although the latter isn't correlated to a low block. The knee or ankle injuries to linemen Kona Schwenke and Sheldon Day and linebacker Ishaq Williams this year were all attributed to cut blocks. Mr. Simonian, for the record, we'd prefer Notre Dame be able to keep the grass look, but what has been happening to the field in recent years has been embarrassing to the athletic department. Even Green Bay's new grass surface in 2006 has synthetic fibers woven into the sod. If Brian Kelly expresses his opinion on it, it's part of our job to print it. The first really major hit with injuries from cut blocks going against the military Note to Coach Kelly: Your spread, finesse offense is great for show, but you get physical and run the ball for dough. Twenty-four rushing attempts against Pitt? Get used to 7-5 or 9-3 records. The physical teams (Alabama, LSU, Stanford) will win eight out of 10 times against you. If you don't know how to coach a physical, running of- Physically Unfit