clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

So... Notre Dame’s The Shirt committee just decides to make bad shirts?

Because we have proof that better is available

By Joshua Vowles

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Fighting Irish fans show their support with green shirts Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

With spring on the horizon, we get to to ready ourselves for those annual traditions of the season for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish — spring football, St. Patrick’s Day, and the unveiling of “The Shirt.” (Certainly not preparing for the NCAA Basketball tournament).

With a strange stroke of luck, I came across something the other day that actually combines the three, and it’s actually pretty fantastic.

This shows the EXACT reason why these 3 shirts are better than anything The Shirt committee could ever come up with... THERE IS A SINGLE VISION. This thing isn’t a camel (horse by committee for anyone somehow not familiar with the word). They’re quite gorgeous, and the proceeds go to the the very good THE SHIRT PROJECT.

Last year was incredibly bad for The Shirt as they used the Southern Cal throwback “S” on the front of their design. It’s a good thing Notre Dame didn’t play the USC Trojans last year and most of their fans are of the fair-weather variety.

But I digress.

While I would rather the color be Kelly Green every year (or just ONE color EVERY year) the St. Patrick’s Day shirts are just excellent designs. No lame quotes, no images on the front AND the back, and they’re uniquely Notre Dame without shoving half of history on a couple yards of fabric.

These are exactly what many of us hope The Shirt will be each year, while knowing they’ll probably be a big disappointment. There are always exceptions, and they produce a handful of nice shirts over the years — but most of them are pure trash like this unholy object that helped curse the 2016 football season with a 4-8 record:

The point of all of this is... The Shirt CAN be done really well as shown above (no, not that slaughter house shop rag — the St. Patrick’s day versions) but as long as they work this out in a committee, the chances of something really good are pretty slim. So, in essence, they choose not to have better shirts.

The charity fund is great though, so take all of this however you like.

More From One Foot Down