“What is Notre Dame football, and why is it so important to everyone on campus?” A question that I asked myself when I arrived on campus for the first time back in 2023.
I will say, with no doubt, having been a part of The Observer for about two and a half years now, one of my favorite sports to cover is football. From features to games, I find it intriguing and I always feel like I am on the edge of my seat, never knowing what is going to happen next. However, it was not always this way with my college experience and its alignment with Notre Dame football.
The majority, if not all, of my family, comes from South Bend, meaning being a Notre Dame fan runs deep in my family’s history, including having two family members who attended — my grandfather, who graduated in 1959 with a bachelor’s degree in commerce, and my mom, who followed suit graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English and computer science. Having this rich history with Notre Dame and my family’s enthusiasm for football, I tried to understand football more strategically.
Needless to say, that failed. In my freshman year, I stood in the student section like all students did, though I never actually stayed the entire game, ultimately leading to my downfall in learning what Notre Dame football is all about. I expressed this in an article that, to my surprise, was popular but for the wrong reasons. I criticized the student section for being loud and tight. I ranted about how I did not understand what was actually going on in the game and I felt lost. I felt that I did not belong.
Fast-forward to my sophomore year: I decided to try again. I studied the rules, kind of understanding what was happening; I stayed at the games longer and took the time to learn at least some of the players’ names. I then decided, because the football team was advancing in the playoffs. I was going to write my first real story, a preview of Notre Dame vs. Penn State. I succeeded (for the most part), as the article went well overall. In the second semester of my sophomore year, I joined the football beat team. I was nervous, especially when it came to covering the annual Blue-Gold game. I thought I knew it all, but I was wrong … again. I had no clue where I was going. All of the rules change. I was lost … again.
Jump ahead one more time to junior year. I felt a lot more confident in myself. I had the honor of covering the first home game of the season, Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M, the first home game of the season, but I let my confidence get the better of me, overworking myself and more. As the season went on, I found more passion for the game and a deeper love for and understanding of what it really means to be a part of the Notre Dame football family.
The moment that truly changed my life was sitting down with former running back Jeremiyah Love at a postgame press conference and asking him two questions after the Notre Dame vs. Syracuse game. Despite having interviewed dozens of college players and coaches, I was terrified of messing up — and I did — but Love was patient, listened and gave me the best response I could have asked for when it came to talking about the success of younger guys on the team. “You know everybody wants to shine and everybody deserves the opportunity to shine,” he said. “So whenever anybody in my room goes out there and, you know, does what they got to do and gets to shine, I love it.”
This is when I learned the most important lesson that college will ever teach me: Football is not all fancy statistics. It is much more than that.
I think of my late grandfather, who watched football with me, and my mom, who would take me to games, taught me all the cheers, comes to campus to tailgate on Saturdays and tells me stories from when she was at Notre Dame, sitting in the student section. Football season isn’t just a time of year when you support your favorite college team; that is just a small piece of it. It is the time of year when people from all over the country come together for one cause: to support the Irish. I look around South Bend, Mishawaka and other surrounding areas, many of which make special events just to celebrate an Irish win or just to host a bigger event for people to watch the game. I realize this year, after covering Notre Dame football extensively, that it is not just defined as players and statistics; it is also about the culture, about the family you make, the random people whom you meet at games, the long traditions of dancing in the student section and even rushing the field.
Notre Dame football has shaped my experience not only as a writer, but as a student and as a Notre Dame fan, which will continue to last forever.
