I love Notre Dame football.

Love, love, love it.

Like a Robin Hood “Prince Of Thieves” I’d die for you love. (Cue Bryan Adams’s “Everything I do (I Do It For You)” up, and that’s about how I feel).

But, I think Notre Dame fans can be a sad bunch. Like when they feel the need to recount history, and show that Notre Dame still has more national titles than anyone else is claiming (in the twentieth century).

Really? That is what being a Notre Dame fan has come down to? Comforting each other that the program is still the winningest because of what happened in 1946? (Again, the winningest in the twentieth century. Yale has the most in college football history, so Irish fans have to include only the time that matters-i.e. post 1900, because anything before that is just ridiculous. Right?)

Well, honestly, what happened in 1946 is about as relevant today as what happened in 1876. It bears no outcome on the state of the program right now (or its future), and we live right now. So, what good does looking back into the past for boasting measures do any fan who wants ND to win and be relevant now? It would sort of be like MGM Studios bragging about how great Ben-Hur was in an advertisement for today, while competitor Fox Studios is busy putting out Avatar. Given the choice between the two mindsets, I would be buying stock in Fox.

So what if Alabama counts more national titles than most of their fans have teeth? (Sorry, old stereotypes die hard.) Notre Dame fans wouldn’t feel the need to compare the past, and count up the titles of both programs if ND was on Alabama’s level right now. But, since the Irish aren’t even close, ND fans reach for any ammo that they can to put up a fight. And, having to resort to that means sad days are here, indeed.

So, who wants to got to Sears, and get a new transistor radio?