We’ve gotten to the point where the only three teams I really care about are Notre Dame football, the Dodgers, and the Celtics. I would still call myself a Ranger fan, but I just don’t have the time to pay much attention to them until the playoffs. As for the Jets, I was once a huge Jets fan. But I’ve just lost so much interest in the NFL. The combination of the Patriots cheating and winning all the time (I mean that’s over now, but it lasted a long time) and the Jets being terrible, Rex Ryan, USC quarterbacks, and Aaron Rodgers have made it very difficult to care about the Jets. Anyway, of the three teams I really care about, I’ve been to a ton of Dodger games in my life. I went to a very good number of Notre Dame games over the years. I’ve been to a relatively small number of Celtics games compared to the other teams I care about. I’ve been to a few at Madison Square Garden, a few at Barclays Center, and one in Boston. Like the rest of the world, I stopped going to sports in 2020 because of the pandemic. I’ve pretty much gotten back to normal in terms of attending baseball games. I hadn’t been to a Notre Dame football game or a Celtics game since 2019. So I wanted to see them in person this year. I was able to make that happen in November.
With the Knicks coming off a good year and the Celtics winning a championship, seeing the Celtics at Madison Square Garden would cost a ridiculous amount of money. But seeing the Celtics play the Nets in Brooklyn was very affordable. I was supposed to go with my dad, but then he couldn’t go. But I got to see them. The last time I saw the Celtics in person was January 14, 2019 in Brooklyn. That was in the middle of Kyrie Irving making that the most miserable season since before they won the championship in 2008. He didn’t play in that game so the Celtics had a starting lineup of Tatum, Brown, Horford, Terry Rozier, and Marcus Morris. Tatum had 34, Brown had 22, and the only other Celtic in double figures was Brad Wanamaker with 13. The Celtics lost 109-102. Net fans chanted “Kyrie’s leaving!” Little did they know that the joke was on them and he was going to come make them miserable.
So after almost six years, it was time to go see the Celtics again. It was nice to see the Celtics wearing their green uniforms and the home team wearing white. That so rarely happens these days thanks to Nike’s ridiculous influence on the NBA. They got off to a bad start, but they only trailed by two points after the first quarter. They played well for the rest of the game and led 65-60 at halftime. It was 103-89 after three. And the Celtics ended up winning 139-114. Tatum had 36 points, 10 assists, and 9 rebounds. Brown had 24 points and 12 rebounds. Payton Pritchard had 23 points off the bench. Teams have caught on to the fact that he wants to shoot from anywhere at the end of a quarter and he can make it. They’re not just giving him 50 footers at the buzzer anymore. Jrue Holiday and Sam Hauser were also in double figures. I think my two favorite players are Derrick White and Al Horford. White got off to a rough start with early fouls and turnovers. He ended up with 9 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 block. And as expected, Al Horford didn’t play the second game of a back to back. So I didn’t see great games out of my favorite players, but I did see my favorite team play a great game. The Celtics were 22/48 on threes. The Nets were 19/45. That’s pretty good, but they still lost by 25 points. You’re just not beating the Celtics if they’re shooting 46% on threes. I was surprised to see Kristaps Porzingis working out before the game. He looked pretty good and he ended up coming back a month before I expected (I was expecting him to make his debut on Christmas).
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| The Celtics should always wear green on the road. |
I have one other basketball thought before I move on to football. The Tournament of Meaninglessness is going on right now. The Celtics finished 3-1 in group play. The Celtics did not win their group because they finished tied with the Hawks and the Hawks beat them. They would have won the group if the Cavaliers had beat the Hawks. I was absolutely rooting for the Hawks because the Celtics are behind the Cavaliers in the standings that actually matter. The Celtics still might advance to the elimination round as a wild card depending on what happens on the final night of group play. I’m rooting for the Knicks because a Knicks win means that the Celtics are almost certainly not advancing. There is absolutely no benefit to advancing. If they advance, they’ll have to play a road game in the elimination round. If they win that one, they will have to play a game in Las Vegas instead of in Boston. I don’t want to give up a home game. And then if they won their first game in Las Vegas, they would have to play another game in Las Vegas that literally means nothing in the standings. It’s just an extra game that’s an extra chance for your players to get hurt. If they end up getting to that game, I will want them to lose (unless they were playing the Lakers) and not get anybody hurt. Why would I want them to lose? Because the NBA would make them hang up a banner for winning a tournament that means absolutely nothing and I would be embarrassed if they had to hang that up. The Celtics only hang banners for stuff that actually matters (I would make the banner a handwritten sheet of paper for winning the Tournament of Meaninglessness). So to summarize, advancing in the Tournament of Meaninglessness would mean the possibility of losing a home game, the possibility of having to play a game that means literally nothing except for an extra chance for players to get hurt, and the possibility of having to hang a banner for winning a completely meaningless tournament.
As for football, the last time I got to a Notre Dame football game was when we played at Duke in 2019. I was also supposed to see us play Virginia in 2019, but my flight got canceled. This year, we had games at MetLife Stadium and Yankee Stadium. I’ve seen us play twice at MetLife Stadium. That’s enough for me. I definitely wanted to see a game with Marcus Freeman as the head coach and I was not going to miss a game at Yankee Stadium (I was there before the blog in 2010 and then again in 2013 and 2018). It’s easier to get to and I can get good tickets at a reasonable price. Before I get to the game, let me set the stage. Our season got off to a great start with a road win at Texas A&M. And then we had maybe our worst loss ever. We lost to Northern Illinois and all the air seemed to go out of the balloon. Somehow, the air has gotten back into the balloon. I remember lining up for a 62 yard field goal on the last play of the game losing by two against Northern Illinois. It was a pretty terrible feeling knowing that we had no chance to make it and we were going to lose to Northern Illinois. After that game, everybody was very down on Marcus Freeman. My friends seemed like they had given up on him. And that was entirely understandable. I was very down on Freeman also, but I would say I was still more hopeful than my friends. I wasn’t optimistic, but I still had hope. And it’s been quite a turnaround since then.
We won eight straight games after Northern Illinois going into the Army game at Yankee Stadium. We’ve played many big games against Army over the years. This year was the 100th anniversary of the Four Horsemen game. That one was at the Polo Grounds. We won that one 13-7 and went on to win the National Championship. The year before, we beat Army 13-0 at Ebbets Field (our only game at Ebbets Field). And the year after, we lost to Army 27-0 in our first game at the Old Yankee Stadium. We also beat Army 17-0 in 1965 in the only game we ever played at Shea Stadium. This was probably Army’s biggest game since 1958. From 1943-1958, Army finished 13 seasons ranked. They beat us and finished ranked third in 1958. That was the last time they beat us. They also beat us and won the National Championship in 1944 and 1945. We tied them and we won the National Championship in 1946. The 1944-1946 games were all at Yankee Stadium. Since finishing ranked third in 1958, Army has finished two seasons ranked. They came into this game undefeated and ranked 19th. They controlled their own destiny for the college football playoff. If they beat us, they would move ahead of Boise State and be in position for an automatic bid in the college football playoff by being one of the top five conference champions. Fortunately I never had to worry about that. We went up 14-0 in the first quarter on touchdown passes to Jordan Faison and Jeremiyah Love. Army tried to make it somewhat interesting. They scored to make it 14-7 and then stopped as on the goal line for a turnover on downs as we tried to run the Knute Rockne box shift. But the defense was good for the rest of the half and Love and Jadarian Price ran for touchdowns to make it 28-7. We missed a 48 yard field goal before halftime, but we were in control of the game. The second half started with Love going 68 yards for a touchdown. It was cool seeing that one in person. As soon as he hit the hole, I knew he was gone. Price added another touchdown and Aneyas ran for a long touchdown and we ended up winning 49-14. Good times were had by all. Except for Army. The last two sporting events at Yankee Stadium have been won by the Dodgers and Notre Dame so I approve of that.
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| I had to go black and white for a Notre Dame-Army game at Yankee Stadium. |
People complain about playing games in baseball stadiums. I don’t agree. If we’re going to play in New York, I would much rather play at Yankee Stadium than in MetLife Stadium (a terrible stadium that isn’t in New York). If we’re going to play in Boston, I’d rather play at Fenway Park than Gillette Stadium (not in Boston). If we ever play in San Francisco, I’d rather play at Oracle Park than Levi’s Stadium (not in San Francisco). Other baseball stadiums where I would play would be Wrigley Field, Busch Stadium, Rogers Center, Oriole Park, Target Field, Nationals Park, Truist Park, and Petco Park. I’m not sure if you could fit football fields in all of those places, but I’d be willing to play in those stadiums if you could. A football game in Dodger Stadium would be cool, but if you ever played a Shamrock Series game in Los Angeles, it should be at the Rose Bowl (it would probably end up being at Sofi Stadium, but it should be at the Rose Bowl). I will say that football games in baseball stadiums should be rare. We’ve played five in the last 15 years. That’s too many (but one was the Pinstripe Bowl so that wasn’t planned). People complain about sight lines. And there are definitely seats that have really bad views for football, but I had a good view. Yeah, I was far away from the field, but I was at about the 45 yard line and the tickets were not overly expensive. It’ll take that view over being in a corner of an actual football stadium.
One legitimate problem with playing at Yankee Stadium was getting into the stadium. I remember it was bad in 2018 (I don’t remember it being like that in 2010 or 2013). So I got to the stadium around 6:15 thinking that it would be plenty of time to get in. It was really bad. You’re in a line that isn’t moving and you think maybe another gate would be better. But then you also think, another gate could be just as bad and then you wasted time going from one gate to another. So I stayed where I was. It took a solid 45 minutes to get in. Game time was 7:00, but fortunately it didn’t actually start at 7:00. I was worried about making it in time for kickoff. But when I got up to the upper level where I was sitting, I saw the clock counting down to the start of the game and I had about nine and a half minutes to spare. I was able to get a hot dog and a water and get to my seat in time for the start of the game. I don’t get why it was so bad. The Yankees play games with big crowds on a regular basis. They should be able to handle this. But the last two football games I’ve been to there have been really bad getting into the stadium. So if we ever play there again, I hope I will read this blog post again to remind myself to get to the gate more than an hour in advance.
I got a hotel room in the Bronx because it was a night game. I figured I didn’t want to deal with getting home after a night game and also it gave me the opportunity to watch other games in my hotel room. I saw the end of Florida beating Ole Miss before I went to the game and that was fun. I watched a good amount of Penn State-Minnesota. Penn State took the lead before I left for the game and sadly, they ended up winning. And I watched the end of the Texas A&M-Auburn game and some of USC-UCLA before going to sleep. I thought about going to Mass before the game. Fortunately I decided not to do that because I probably wouldn’t have gotten into the stadium in time for kickoff if I had. I ended up going at 7:45 the next morning. I wouldn’t have gone so early, but it was the only convenient English Mass I could find in the area (the rest were in Spanish). I’m pretty sure that was my first ever Mass in the Bronx. So I’ve now been to Mass in three of the five boroughs. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Mass in Brooklyn and I’m like 99.9% sure I’ve never done anything on Staten Island other than drive through it and go to a Staten Island Yankees game.
The win over Army meant that we were playing USC Thanksgiving weekend with a chance to clinch a spot in the college football playoff. It was a competitive game. We were tied at 14 at halftime and it felt like we should have been winning. When we went up 21-14, I texted my friends that we should be up by more. USC tied it at 21, but then it seemed like we were taking control of the game. We scored back to back touchdowns and then we got the ball back early in the fourth quarter. If we score there, the game was over. We had three plays for no yards and then we punted. But if we got a stop there, the game was over. USC scored in five plays and it was 35-28 and now it was a game. On our next possession, we had five plays for a total of three yards and we punted. I wasn’t feeling great. USC was moving the ball. On the broadcast, Nessler and Danielson were talking about if USC would kick the extra point or go for two and the lead if they scored. Matt texted “This is not going to end well for us” and Jon texted “36-35, Lincoln will go for 2” and right after that Christian Gray returned an interception 99 yards to give us a 42-28 lead with 3:39 to play. It was looking very good at that point, but it still wasn’t over. Then Xavier Watts returned an interception 100 yards to make it 49-28. USC added a meaningless touchdown to make it a 49-35 final score. Xavier Watts is my favorite player on this year’s team. He started out as a wide receiver and it didn’t look like he was going to be a player. He moved to safety and turned into a great player. And he’s stayed for five years when he definitely could have left after last year. He went out of the game earlier with an injury, but it looks like he’s fine. As I’m writing this right after the game, I’m enjoying my last Summer Ale of 2024 as I celebrate a wonderful victory to get us to the college football playoff (the bottle says on it to enjoy before December and I am certainly enjoying it). So it was an awesome win, but we did miss a short field goal early in the game. Field goal kicking is a huge concern right now for Notre Dame. I hope we don’t need one to win a playoff game.
We have a good chance to be the 5 seed in the playoff and that would be really good. That would mean a first round game against the 12 seed and then if we win, Boise State would be the likely second round opponent (but all of that could change with conference championship games). Whatever happens, I think our first two playoff games will be very winnable. If we win those two, anything could happen after that. I don’t think there’s a team like 2012 Alabama, 2018 Clemson, or 2020 Alabama that we’re going to see. The range of possibilities is very wide. We could lose in the first round and I wouldn’t be shocked (I’d be very disappointed, but not shocked). I also think winning it all is not out of the question.
I’ll finish up by going back to Marcus Freeman. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster so far. It is still to be determined how he will be remembered at Notre Dame. But he’s done a fantastic job after the loss to Northern Illinois (he also did a fantastic job to win nine games in his first year with Drew Pyne playing quarterback). Hopefully the Northern Illinois loss will end up being the turning point in his career as a coach. If we had beaten Northern Illinois, I don’t think we would have been undefeated. Somebody would have beaten us along the way. Maybe we would have still ended up 11-1. But maybe it would have been worse. Let’s say we beat Northern Illinois and lost to Louisville. A loss to Louisville would have been much more excusable and then maybe we would lose to somebody else after that. But since an inexcusable loss to Northern Illinois, we’ve played fantastic football. In 2022, Notre Dame, USC, LSU, and Oklahoma all had new head coaches (Freeman, Lincoln Riley, Brian Kelly, and Brett Venables). A few weeks back, I texted my friends saying that Freeman was looking pretty good out of that group (Luke Fickell was another possibility for us and his first two years at Wisconsin haven’t been too good). I said “Kelly is maybe even with him, but we had reached our ceiling with Kelly.” We had definitely reached our ceiling with Kelly (or more accurately, we reached Kelly’s ceiling), but Freeman and Kelly are not even anymore. Freeman has clearly pulled ahead of him late in this season (Freeman is also a million times more likable than Kelly). I hope we haven’t reached our ceiling with Freeman yet. I hope we’ll reach it this season by winning the National Championship. Go Irish!
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