Fear, fear for old Notre Dame
Wake up the lawyers, ain't it a shame
Set a smoke screen from on high
Shake down subpeonas from the sky
OK enough of that. It will surprise no one among my circle of acquaintances that I am not a fan of the Golden Domers of Notre Dame. It started in 1971 when Notre Dame stole Fordham University's head basketball coach, Digger Phelps, after he had led the Rams to credibility and a berth in the NCAA tournament. His twenty year career at ND including a trip to the Final Four only deepened my loathing. Yes, I know it's petty but hey, I'm allowed to hold a dumb, 40 year grudge. Besides, why would Notre Dame care about me? They have enough of their own problems.
The myth that is Notre Dame goes all the way back to 1918 and the coaching career of Knute Rockne. Rockne put Notre Dame on the map at a time when the football aspirations of a small Catholic college in Indiana would have been laughed at by the likes of Alabama, USC and Army. Since that magical time, the students, players, coaches and fans (including a legion of Irishmen who have never even seen South Bend, IN) have been trying to recreate those glory years. The football team has been good for many of those intervening years and great for a few. They were national champs four times in the '40's and early '50's and again in the '60's. Their last great season was 1988 under coach Lou Holtz. However, by then the desire to "bring down the thunder" was starting to bring down the sanctions and tarnish the squeaky clean reputation that ND had worked to maintain.
The Irish hired Holtz from Minnesota in 1986. Shortly thereafter Minnosota was censured by the NCAA for rules violations committed, in part, during Holtz's tenure. Hotlz also earned a two year suspension from bowl games at Notre Dame for hedging the rules during recruiting. While it can be safely assumed that all major college football programs cheat a little where NCAA rules are concerned, not all teams play under the watchful eye of "touchdown Jesus" looming over the south end zone. Notre Dame took great pride in its reputation as a clean
program. Unfortunately that reputation has taken a few serious dents in the past couple of years and the Irish have responded like every other major institution: misdirect, deny, obfuscate and ignore.
Notre Dame began its rapid journey toward "Penn State-ness" in 2010. A young freshman at St.. Mary's College, across from Notre Dame, reported being raped by a member of the ND football team. She reported the assault to the campus police who, bizarrely, have jurisdiction over a wide variety of crimes. They did... nothing. While Ms. Seeburg awaited some sort of University action, she began receiving threatening calls and emails from other Notre Dame football players warning her to keep her mouth shut. Ten days after the incident, Lizzy Seeburg took her own life.
In 2011 another female student was driven to the hospital by a friend in the aftermath of another rape allegation. Aware of the Lizzy Seeburg story and after she herself received warnings to stay silent, she declined to report the crime to the police. Case closed.
So now we have Notre Dame with one dead coed who can't talk and one too afraid to come forward. Wow! Can't get luckier than that. I mean what's a university to do? We're talking Notre Dame football here. We have our own TV contract. We have a beloved movie about us. Catholic America roots for us all season. What would NBC think if it got out that our football players were raping students? Well, they did exactly what you would would expect. The University threw up its hands and sold a few more foam fingers saying "We're #1".
Then there was the case of Declan Sullivan. On Oct 27, 2010 the football team was at practice on the South Bend campus. It was an especially windy day with gusts up to 51 mph. The usual routine is to have a student volunteer stand in the cage of a scissor-lift and film the practice. Sullivan, a Notre Dame junior was told (some say ordered) to film the practice in spite of the danger from the wind. During practice the lift toppled over and Declan Sullivan was killed. Although the school piously accepted responsibility no charges were ever filed and no disciplinary action was ever taken: not against Head Coach Brian Kelly, not against Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick, not against any assistant coach. Notre Dame lost a wrongful death suit, wrote a big check and literally buried Declan Sullivan.
But just when the pious Irish thought they had dodged not one but three bullets, along comes Manti Te'o: gifted athlete, beloved American success story but, sleeping with the enigma. The short version of the Te'o story is: sometime during (for the math-impaired, that's four years ago) Manti Te'o, a wonderfully talented linebacker from Oahu, Hawaii, begins an on-line friendship with a woman identified as Lennay Kekua during his freshman year at Notre Dame. The relationship migrates to phone calls in 2010 and by 2011 they are an "item". Various attempts at a face-to-face meeting get sidetracked, postponed, and cancelled. In June, 2012 Lennay tells Manti that she has leukemia. In Sept. Te'o grandmother dies and on the same day Lennay loses her fight with cancer.
This heart-breaking story, "All American Athlete from Storied Program Fights Through the Loss of Two Loved Ones" was too good to pass up. It was apparently also too good to check out. The South Bend Tribune ran the details of Te'o's lovelife for months along with details of the young lovers provided by Te'o's relatives. Peter Thamel of Sports Illustrated ran a cover story "The Full Manti" in the October 1st issue, just as ND was hitting its stride on the field. Ms. Kekua's funereal was held on Sept 22 but Notre Dame was playing Michigan State and Manti had promised his love that he would never miss a game because of her.
OK so this soap opera drips on through the football season until Dec 24th when Manti informs his mother, his friends and ESPN that the whole Lennay Kakua story is a cruel hoax. (At least he got the order right.) Notre Dame learns of the prank on Dec. 26 and launches an investigation to "clear" Te'o. It should be noted that no such "investigation" was ever conducted into the rape allegations; at least none that was ever made public. On Jan 16th, three weeks after the university learned of the incident, the sports website Deadspin published the entire story. That evening Notre Dame's Athletic Director, Jack Swarbrick takes to the podium to reveal that the school has exonerated Te'o. It remains unclear exactly who did this to Te'o and what the university exonerated him from. No crime was committed except maybe felony bad taste.
The point is that Notre Dame waited until after the BCS title game on Jan 7th before allowing any hint of scandal to attach itself to their golden boy. Had Deadspin not broken the story, the university might never have told the world that their star linebacker was a fibber. Te'o is now colossally embarrassed and for all anyone knows, guilty of little more than fudging the truth where a woman is concerned. Wow, that never happens. Meanwhile Notre Dame will continue to treat football and football players as the most important element of life in South Bend, IN. Well, who can blame them? After all, how much money does the Sociology Dept. generate? Who yells "We're #1" in the Geology lab? So what's a little sexual assault now and then?
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