Summer of 2008. Plainly speaking, 2007 was the year that ESPN and its business siblings went out of its way to attack Notre Dame football. The broadcasters, the columnists, the daily snippet bloggers.....all of them associated with that company made a concerted effort to drag N.D. down. It was intentional.
To be clear, none of those people believed Willingham was a great coach. They knew he wasn't someone that programs with then-B.C.S. aspirations would have any reason to chase. And they knew he wasn't fired for race-related reasons. We were simply a competing product, and this was their chance to swing as much of the market in their direction as possible, with the added benefit of extra clicks with all of the articles they could post on the matter due to name recognition.
Our 3-9 season -- context and surrounding circumstances be darned -- gave them the cover they needed to do exactly this.
Replies to: "There's context around that article, specifically the date it was written."
- pretty tough article 15 years ago toward kevin white/ ND Football [NT]
[LINK]
- DonMiller - 12:20pm 6/14/22
(21) [View All]
- There's context around that article, specifically the date it was written. - jakers - 6:09pm 6/14/22
- Always amazed when people think Ty’s firing was unjustified. [NT]
- WestCoastIrishFan - 12:51pm 6/14/22
- His posts suck? [NT] - BaronVonZemo - 6:28pm 6/15/22
- AKA the volunteer assistant for the Leland Stanford Junior University Cardinal Women's golf team? [NT] - ND521 - 9:59pm 6/14/22
- The reality is, his hiring was far more unjustified than his firing. [NT]
- Chrisb - 6:26pm 6/14/22
- Agreed completely - ndunabomber - 1:24pm 6/15/22
- I remember Zorich, Duerson, Rocket, & Brady Quinn all went public with their displeasure. [NT]
- ELP - 2:54pm 6/14/22
- Understandable at the time - ndunabomber - 10:33am 6/15/22
- I understood Quinn defending him. But the others? Absurd. [NT]
- jakers - 6:10pm 6/14/22
- Duerson, I can understand, though - ndunabomber - 10:36am 6/15/22
- Lost respect for those guys. Willingham was dereliction of duty pure and simple. I wanted him to - TakethetrainKnute - 3:29pm 6/14/22
- He was afforded every opportunity - ndunabomber - 11:01pm 6/14/22
- Very typical for some players current and ex to stick up for a prior or current coach. [NT]
- THEISMANCARR - 4:51pm 6/14/22
- I get why...but Willingham was ignoring certain basic responsibilities so blatantly... [NT] - TakethetrainKnute - 5:20pm 6/14/22
- I've rarely seen a coach more humbled than after his flameout at UW - humbaba - 1:49pm 6/14/22
- Ty was obviously in over his head. [NT] - THEISMANCARR - 4:52pm 6/14/22
- surprised Jesse didn’t try to shakedown the Catholic church [NT]
- WestCoastIrishFan - 1:53pm 6/14/22
- Was that before or after his secret luv chile was discovered? Hypocritical race man! [NT] - Irishize - 4:01pm 6/14/22
- Kevin White was woke before it was fashionable. He used the race card when Ty got fired. [NT] - Irishize - 12:54pm 6/14/22
- ... especially in light of his performance post ND. [NT] - Curly1918 - 12:53pm 6/14/22
- Jenkins knocked it out of the park when he fired Lionel. - Irishize - 12:37pm 6/14/22