Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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highways, the overpriced chain res- taurants, and the legions of every stereotypical breed of tourist the mind can imagine, something pure has survived. The well-oiled money making machine still inspires a little imagination and brings us back to childhood. Notre Dame's football program, D which spent its final week of the year at Disney's doorstep, isn't that much different. The 2011 season started with proc- lamations that the Irish had fallen off the pedestal from which they claim to operate. Senior wide receiver and Team MVP Michael Floyd was re- instated in time for training camp despite a drunken driving arrest in March. The university disciplinar- ians, rebuked by past coaches for being too strict, decided to give a second chance to a young man who happened to be pretty good at catch- ing touchdown passes. The relaxed rules combined with relaxed admissions standards and souped-up practice facilities that for the first time included amenities like a training table. The common excuses for two decades of treading water in the win column were washed away, and Notre Dame started to look more and more like the football factories at other schools across the country. The Irish went from the NCAA's Disney World to just another amusement park with a mythic past. They were selling their soul to get back on top. But December brought about a dif- ferent tone. Despite all of the evi- dence on paper and another average season on the field, something else was at play. Notre Dame didn't feel like just another pit stop for talented players on their way to the NFL. Whether there is any truth to the notion that Notre Dame still does things differently is irrelevant, be- cause so many believe in it that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The team's stated values, be they practiced or merely preached, at- tracts a particular ilk of talented ath- letes. Not everyone that laces them up for the Irish is Mother Teresa in 6 FEBRUARY 2012 Still A Special Place MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY isney World is a funny place. Amid the mammoth hotels that crowd the sides of Orlando's Star linebacker Manti Te'o passed up the opportunity to be a first-round selection in the 2012 NFL Draft to return to Notre Dame for his senior campaign because he felt it was simply the right thing to do. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND cleats — that is nothing new. (George Gipp and Paul Hornung weren't ex- actly saints either.) But South Bend seems to attract its fair share of play- ers who want to do things the right way. There is no magic dust under the gold dome or horsemen ghosts that help keep Notre Dame special. It's the people. People like Floyd, who lived up to his promises to change his life and walks away from Notre Dame with a degree in hand. Or people like junior linebacker Manti Te'o who decided to follow in Floyd's footsteps and return to campus for his senior season. Te'o isn't the only player who passed on a first-round draft selection for his final year of college — USC's Matt Barkley and Stanford's Andrew Luck each did the same. But Notre Dame's top defensive player isn't coming back to lay claim to a Butkus Award or even a national champion- ship; he's coming back to hug his par- ents on the 50-yard line. Te'o said he was inspired to return while watch- ing a video of his senior teammates bid farewell to Notre Dame Stadium with their families on Senior Day. "I've always been taught by my dad that when you start something you finish it," said Te'o, who decided not to wait for his NFL evaluation to make his decision. "For me to leave my junior year would mean I'm not finishing something. I came here to do something. I don't really know what that is. But I know it was the right thing to come back for me." Or people like Dayne Crist, who remained a model teammate after be- ing benched in the first game of the season. The backup quarterback is often the most popular guy on the team amongst fans, but Crist brought that cliché to a new level thanks to his community service, his respect for teammates and coaches, and the ma- turity he showed during a very diffi- cult time. Crist could have left school as a bitter scapegoat who could never live up to his potential, but instead he's a shining example of the type of men Notre Dame claims to produce. "Notre Dame will always be a spe- cial place," Crist said. "Nothing will ever change in that regard. It will al- ways hold a special place in my heart, and I know that's the case for every- body that comes through there." Things have changed at Notre Dame, but the people have not. ✦ Dan Murphy has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2011. He can be reached at dmurphy@blueandgold.com BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED