Notre Dame Football: Swarbrick and Jenkins don’t need an op-ed to see the spirit of college athletics

In college, the unofficial (or official if you’re really a pro) start to the weekend has always been Thursday. If we hold on to that truth, then this has been kind of a wild weekend for Notre Dame and its athletic programs as I type this on a late Saturday night in Indiana.

On Thursday, Jack Swarbrick and Father Jenkins had an op-ed published in the New York Times that was basically a call for union-busting, while disguised as some type of savior manifesto for college athletics.

While we will be going in depth about all of that Monday night in the newest Earned 5-Star Podcast, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out one of the absolute best things about college athletics — tribalism. That pride in your school that makes you show up and care for anything and everything running around with the monogram on it.

Nothing speaks more to that than the fun and wild images of Notre Dame’s football team showing up to the Irish men’s lacrosse match against the Virginia Cavaliers. While we have definitely seen Irish athletes showing up to other athletic events to give full-throated support for their brothers and sisters — Saturday was absolutely intense.

NIL deals, transfer issues, and pretending that caring about travel time for the athletes didn’t matter in this moment. Students went to cheer on other students and brought a ton of fun — just like any other group of 18-23 year olds from around the country (the student experience). It’s what Jack repeatedly said he wanted to protect with his list of “suggestions” for the NCAA and congress.

So anyways... that was awesome (despite #1 ND losing to Virginia).