Notre Dame Fans Continue to Live in the Past

We are Notre Dame and we live in the past.  It's what we do.

Especially in the last 15 years or so, our football fans have always compared our teams of the past to other schools' teams of the present.

Last year we suffered arguably the worst season in school history and all we could say is "Yeah but we have more national champions so shut up."  You said it, don't lie.

The last two weeks have made me realize just how pathetic we are as a fan base when it comes to forgetting the bad past.  Countless Tyrone Willingham threads were started on the message boards and even more articles were written in newspapers and online media outlets around the country.

Monday, Willingham resigned.  That should have been closure for the Irish community but of course, it's in the past.  We don't forget the past and we sure as hell don't forgive it.

The same thing goes for Bob Davie.  Some people let bygones be bygones but the vast majority still can't stand the guy.  He was a good coach that happened to fail and we don't forget failure here, do we?

This week we play Pittsburgh.  Pittsburgh immediately brings to mind the brilliant analyst that is Mark May.  We never forgave him for his 2005 prediction of 0-6 to start the season.  He talked as much trash before the opening match-up against Pitt that year and we never forgave him for that. 

May has since settled down his anti-Irish diatribes.  We don't notice that because that's in the present.  He's no more against Notre Dame now than Colin Cowherd or Pat Haden but Lou Holtz's pro-Irish standpoint makes Mark May still look like an uninformed hater.

He's not uninformed, he's realistic.  There's a reason he has that job.  He knows the game of football just like any other analyst on ESPN's programs, but we just can't get over those comments three years ago.

I've always hated people who "live in the past."  It makes them sound petty and jealous.  Notre Dame is past the 2007 season. 

Soon, Willingham will be two jobs removed from his post at Notre Dame. 

Bob Davie has never showed animosity towards this school and in fact praised the history and tradition as well as the future of the program.

Mark May has admitted that we are on the rise, although maybe not as emphatically as we'd like.

So I ask you, the fan, to do the same.  Move on.  Get over it.

In the words of the immortal Rafiki from Disney's The Lion King, "What does it matter?  It's in the past!"