Notre Dame outlook: Depression cloud has lifted

Okay a week has passed, now has come the time to debrief and look ahead. This is now my 4th blog for the Breakdown crew(thank you so much for the platform my guys), and I have yet to acknowledge my fandoms, so I figured now is a better time than any kicking off with Notre Dame. I will list my core fandom at the bottom, but the focus now is Notre Dame.

I became a Notre Dame fan in 1998 as a youngster, boy what a move, we choose teams as an 6,7,8 year old and then stick with them for life. What a system, that is far too much pressure for us at such an age, and most likely this choice is the root of our crumbling mental state currently. Either way all the pain of the last 26 years of almosts, letdown seasons, and big bowl losses seemed gone. Until last Monday as Jeremiah Smith trashed our generational run and comeback attempt, I sat and watched the clock rundown, nothing left but to shut off the TV. As I slumped in my chair staring into a blank TV screen in a silent room

Seriously, not kidding boys sat there easy 15 minutes.

left trying to cope with the ending, as you realize it's the last time you get to see this team play. I started to go through it, how unfair it is that fans who wanted to run their coach out of town going into Christmas now get to celebrate a championship. Yes that is a shot at Barstool Tate(allowed one as a fellow teacher). After my self-pity moment, then I begin to realize ALL of what Notre Dame did and gave us fans this year, 3 MAJOR bowl wins, and national runner up.

Some fan's teams never even sniff that kind of success in a 20 year period, yes the media will tell us just like the old ND can't get to the finish line. Sorry but this one was different, they broke the mold, they squashed the "wont win the big games", they fought till the end in the past we lose that game 45-7. I believe in celebrating the victory of this season, beating the SEC Champ & Big 10 runner up in back to back MAJOR/NY6 bowls, a game we hadn't won since my fanhood began. As fans we all want the one goal of seeing your team end the season with the final win, but we also need to remember all the good times we had along the way. Marcus Freeman has this team set up for not just success in 1 year, but for the next 5 years it shouldn't be a time to think what if, but instead whats next. Im proud of the team that went on this run, and man I will see guys like Xavier Watts, Jack Kiser, Benjamin Morrison, and Riley Leonard, but Freeman has given us cause to be excited for Jeremiyah Love, Jaden Greathouse, Christian Gray, and so many more in 2025! Lets GO IRISH!

Core 4 Fandoms: The year of the beginning follows, as we have recently found out on the internet we need these to be stated and validated apparently.

NCAAF: Notre Dame (follow in all sports as well) - 1998

NCAAB: Gonzaga - 1999

MLB: Arizona Diamondbacks - 1998

NHL: Seattle Kraken - 2021(year they were announced, I got into hockey in my early 20's finally got a team)

I closely follow Washington Huskies as well but thats more recently, so it's probably not allowed.