I Really Hate Notre Dame Week

I really hate this week of the college football season. And it shouldn't be that way, but it is. This is Notre Dame Week, and with it comes a side of myself that I really don't like -- the hateful side.

Sure, I'm a sports fan, obviously, and there are teams and schools I like and dislike and respect and detest. But then there are a precious few for whom I have nothing but loatheful feelings for. And Notre Dame is one of them.

I'm not sure if it's because of their arrogance as a program or the arrogance of their fans. Or maybe it's just the complete lack of justification for that arrogance on either's part.

The program is just not that good, and it hasn't been for quite some time. The last time they won a bowl game, lil Pickles Clausen was just a six-year-old wee lad. Last time they won a National Title was, well, the year ole Pickles was born. Two decades of mediocrity, overblown media predictions, and crushing defeats whenever a legit program faces them, have followed.

And yet the arrogance remains. From fans to alums to hayseeds who live nearby, everyone thinks Notre Dame is a notch above everyone else and that they not only are a bastion of morality and academics, but that they're also better at it all than everyone else and the only reason they've been terrible lately is.... what? Tyrone Willingham? You mean, the guy who recruited the players that Charlie Weis has won with?

Getting back to my irrational hate and how this week brings out the worst in me, one of the few Irish blogs I check out, Her Loyal Sons (and only because they are so around the bend it amuses me), has repeatedly taken shots at Purdue... and their main barb is that we're.... "boring."

I took umbrage with it last year, but really, that's fine, I guess. Purdue could be called a lot worse things than boring. At least we're not arrogant a-holes or cheaters or arrogant a-holes or underage drinkers or kind of girlie-looking.

I think I got all pissy last year because it was Notre Dame fans -- 0-4 UND, at the time -- mocking a 4-0 program. The obnoxiousness cannot be curbed. It's relentless. Just like they wish their defense was.

I simply detest the entire program. And this is one of the few times you'll see me continually use "we" as though I'm actually playing. I think the Purdue faithful as a whole feel the weight of battling Notre Dame, knowing we're in a no-win situation. Beat them -- soundly, even -- and some of them still yap and find ways to bash your program and find excuses. Lose to them.... and, well, every front-runner Domer wearing a #10 jersey at the supermarket becomes risky... in the sense that, if you're like me, you're in danger of committing assault when you see these people. And winding up in a jail cell when you're sent out to buy milk is almost never good.

Hate is a strong word. And I don't hate anyone in particular. I just detest the unwarranted arrogance. I cannot stand the big-mouth "loyalty" when things are going well. I dislike them so much that I actually become angry, more reactive than usual, and downright cranky by game time. I just want to go out there and smash Pickles myself. And maybe send someone rolling into fatty's other knee.

Losing to them is awful anytime, even when we're lousy. Losing to them when they're lousy is almost unbearable.

Let's Boiler Up.