Online Overreactions to Notre Dame Football in the CFB Playoff (so far) Plus a Tribute to Subway Alumni

The Notre Dame Family Is Coming Down The Track

We Have Many Reactions to An Actually Big Bowl Game Victory

So, folks, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Team is now 2-0 in the College Football Playoff, and the win against the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl was almost euphoric. The job is not finished, so we need to check ourselves on overreacting to the biggest bowl win in 31 years, but this one feels very good.

Amber Searls-Imagn Images

I was a few months shy of being born when the Irish last won that “big” bowl game, the Cotton Bowl in January of 1994. And in that light, there is going to be an overall theme here about the Notre Dame Family with this post. I know I am a bit behind on overreaction posts for this back quarter of the season, but that is why I’m trying encompass an overall theme. I’ll try to explain a bit better.

Notre Dame FAMILY

The overreactions online stem from the same thought, but two separate posts on Twitter/X that we have seen in the past month that the 12-Team College Football Playoff bracket has been announced. They are as follows, and from accounts of fans of both teams that lost to Notre Dame in the CFP this year:

and

Additionally, I legitimately had an IU fan 2 rows ahead of me at the home playoff game get a little too butthurt at the score late in the game and started coming after us for this exact sentiment.

I somewhat get this frustration if you have no clue what you are talking about, because the Irish are a team lumped into that “bandwagon” teams meme, and there are many fans across the nation that cheer on the Irish. Notre Dame is also a Top 20 institution, so clearly many more fans will have never attended Notre Dame.

But this argument is asinine to me especially in part to the overall Notre Dame Family. See, the Subway Alumni have helped make Notre Dame what it is today. They are celebrated, and especially in this season, the whole point of the Notre Dame-Army game and the anniversary this year are because of all of the Subway Alumni who went to the game and followed the Irish 100 years ago.

Now, myself, I can go against this claim because I am fortunate to have a degree from Our Lady’s University. But, I know of so many close loved ones and friends, true ride-or-die fans who have seen it all from this year to 2012 to 2007 and the 2008 Syracuse Game (IYKYK). Chances are, you reading do as well. Hell, our fearless leader, Joshua, takes pride in being The Subway Domer. You cannot gatekeep fandom like that – not with Notre Dame fans.

And that brings me back to the 1994 Cotton Bowl. Not to get too personal or sentimental here, but I have written before about my father (proud CMU Chippewa grad and Notre Dame Subway Alum) was one of the biggest fans I knew. I wouldn’t be here without his Subway Alum fandom, and he wouldn’t be either. The last game he got to watch with his dad was the Cotton Bowl on New Years Day of 1994, and that was one of the last days the two of them got to share a meaningful conversation, as my grandfather (another Subway Alum), passed away just 12 days later in 1994.

So, I am DAMN PROUD to be the product and the loved one of so many Subway Alumni. They make Notre Dame the true Family that it should be.

I’m also writing a lot about this because of the connection to dads that we have seen this past week. Mary Biagi’s dad just passed right after the IU game. Kirby Smart’s dad just passed away a few days ago, too. Fathers and sons who shared bonds of college football. That admittedly hit more to home, and I think we all were thinking about important things since the tragedy of the terrorist attack in New Orleans. But, football fandom, Subway Alums, and Notre Dame have been more on my mind recently.

Also, transfer players scored all the points in the Sugar Bowl, and of course we have Riley Leonard (my own overreaction to getting him in the portal, and I am so happy to have been wrong about him). So, if there is a lesson here, the lesson is that the connection to Notre Dame can come in many forms.

Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

Thank you to all Notre Dame fans, for sticking up and sticking through this for 31+ years. The job is not finished, but what a way to recognize that we need to avoid too many overreactions and hopefully see the Irish play (and win) two more games this season.

Go Irish.