Some folks have a problem with the ND green jerseys in general. As in, ‘should never be worn again ever’. I don’t have a problem with it at all, so long as the intent isn’t to ‘surprise’ the opponent and to ‘fire up’ the team in some special, secret way that will help the Irish overcome the odds on their way to victory.
Let’s be honest, that just isn’t working anyway.
So this time, I think ND got it right. Announce the Wearing o’ the Green months in advance. And plan it as a way to honor something historical and interesting, and not as a cheesy tactic to help get the lads riled up. Yeah, maybe wearing Green in Yankee Stadium will get some of the boys a little fired up. But I like that it’s not the expressed purpose. Instead, we’re honoring a long-standing tradition against an honorable foe. That’s pretty much what the Green should be for, if anything.
If the Irish had come out onto the field in Green as a big surprise to take on the evil Army Empire, I’d have vomited a little in my mouth. As it is, it doesn’t bother me at all. Should be an interesting spectacle to watch. Assuming we win.
Don't take me, yourself, or life so seriously. This is supposed to be fun.
Biscuit co-founded HerLoyalSons in partnership with his ND roommate (Dillon Hall baby!), MQ, in 2006 and has been ranting about ND Football and everything Notre Dame since. He strongly believes in the mission of ND and its football program. Biscuit expects logic and data in arguments and will absolutely crush you if you come to a debate missing one or the other. He despises everything Michigan, and his favorite pastime is mocking Purdue.
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I, for one, thought when they came back out in green in 2005 against USC it was both appropriate and awesome.
That was pretty cool. We have lost a few of the last number of green jersey games and this has taken a bit of the lustre off of the affect. Having said that I am okay with the green jerseys against Army. If the boys can win this one in the greens, it will be one more positive thing these Seniors can remember/cherish from their tough four year run.
To be honest, I think they should wear them more often, and simply make it a more common alternate jersey. For one, this does not make it a big deal when they wear green. Secondly, it goes back to the traditional green jerseys worn way back in the day, which is cool. And lastly, its a nice recruiting tool (i.e. don’t wear for big games, wear for big recruiting weekends).
Biscuit, are you saying that Wearing o’ the Green should never be used as a surprise to fire up the team? Or just not when playing inferior teams such as Army?
I second Pat’s comment
I think it’s become BLAH, because we’ve used it in this manner a bunch of times and it just hasn’t worked. Yeah, Pat’s point on ’05 is accurate in the sense that it was ‘cool’, but it also didn’t ‘work’. I think we need to put that tactic in the back pocket for a while to make it ‘mean something’ again.
What do you mean it didn’t “work”? By no means will wearing green ever guarantee victory. But if you’ve got an alternate jersey for special occasions, bringing in your rival, who is ranked #1, and has a 20-something game winning streak certainly seems like an appropriate time.
Besides, despite losing a heartbreaker, if it weren’t for Texas’s upset of USC in the Rose Bowl, that was the game of the year.
That’s why I put it in quotes. Course it can’t guarantee victory.
My entire point is that it’s been done too much as an inspirational ploy, and therefore has lost its luster/impact in that respect. The USC-ND game in 05 would’ve been just as good a game w/o the Green Jerseys.
So I think it’s either bottle it up and don’t use it for, say, 20 years (which will bring back the impact/speciality-ness). Or just use it as a historical honorific type thing. Since we’re doing the latter this year, I think going with the latter is just fine.
I might be inclined to say they shouldn’t be used as a surprise to fire up the team. Back in 2002, when they came out against BC in the ill-fated “beginning of the end for Ty” game, the BC players were the ones who were actually fired up. Their post-game comments included things like “When we saw the green jerseys, we knew they thought they needed something extra to beat us. It just gave us more confidence.”
I do like wearing them for a game every few years when it’s something interesting and special such as this game, but also when it’s announced in advance as an alternate jersey and not some kind of gimmick.
That’s because we wore them for BC, which we should always have a rule against. To further your point, they should be used to fire us up for a higher ranked team, not to hope we don’t lose the trap game.
The green jerseys have lost their lustre for the same reason the football program in general has to many people — lots of losing. I am okay with using them to commemorate or even just wearing them more often, but I don’t think we should lose the tradition of coming out in the 2nd half with them in a big game just because we haven’t been overcoming odds recently.
Who cares what BC said AFTER the game. We should wear them on our own terms.
I think it was gimmicky when we wore them a few years ago on senior day — against Army. No rhyme or reason. Also, it was gimmicky wearing those hideous green throwbacks a couple years ago against USC.
That was the worst game ever played at ND! It was probably the worst team ever to beat the Irish…anywhere. The shocking green was absolutely ugly. I am still waiting for my refund!
Losing to a BC team that ended up 9-4 that year is the worst loss ever at ND?
No way…
yeah, Syracuse with a lame duck coach takes the cake.
or Tulsa.
It was awesome against USC. And it was awesome in the past as a psychological tool. And it would be awesome in the future to wear them the same way, but only if we win. But the recent track record of wearing them like that is bad that we need a fifty-year ban to ease the bad memories. The only real reason for wearing them against Army is so Adidas can sell extra souvenir jerseys.
I’m okay with the special occasions: Army at Yankee Stadium, Navy in Dublin, for instance.
And, if circumstances are right, we should consider wearing them at a crucial time, say in 2012, when we are playing Miami, Oklahoma, USC and the New England Patriots back-to-back-to-back-to-back.
Aren’t both of those games (Yankee Stadium and Dublin) away games for ND? Green jerseys cannot be worn unless Army or Navy agrees to go white.
ND’s the “Home” team for the Yankee Stadium game. You’re correct on the Navy-Dublin game, though. Back in 96 (?) when we played in Dublin, we wore white.
Maybe I have killed those brain cells, but didn’t we wear green against Army at home back in ’06 on Senior Day?
We did. Didn’t like that one either as it didn’t seem like it had any significance beyond it being Sr. Day. Which is great and all, but not a Green Jersey day to me. Either it’s planned as part of a game like Yankee Stadium or Ireland, or it’s a surprise in 2020 when we’re back in the MNC hunt and playing Bama, at night, away.
It may have been homage to Army since we did wear green jerseys back in the day ??? I don’t have a problem with green this Saturday, but I agree with you Biscuit, save them for our return to the MNC game . . .
I’m with Gerry Faust — say what you will, he absolutely loved ND — on this one: “Notre Dame’s colors are blue and gold.” Of course, he followed those Devine years where we wore green all the time.
Faust also changed the jerseys to Madonna Blue (the actual school color) rather than the pseudo-traditional navy. Great idea, but it looked horrible. Coupled with the names on the uniforms and those horrible stripes on the sleeves, I wouldn’t be using Faust to support any arguments for or against any uniform concepts.
Am I the only one who’s sad we went away from the numbers on the sleeves? I really liked that look.
As to green jerseys, I agree with those that have said just play in them more often. It shouldn’t be a huge deal. Heck, throw in another color as an alternate jersey as well–gold? black? Notre Dame plaid?
Think of it: PLAID jerseys. AWESOME…
Green and yellow plaid. Brilliant.
What about alternate kilt jerseys?
For Dublin, black jerseys, with a rich creamy tan head … oh wait, that’s my pint of choice.
“Madonna Blue?” – – that’s cool (the name), although I agree the jerseys didn’t look good with that shade of blue.
Maybe we could be like Oregon and create a whole line of ugly jerseys based on the leprechaun and his Luck Charms.
Of course if we played like Oregon and ended up winning the National Championship I wouldn’t care what they wear. . . . at least until the next year when I would scream and yell about how they are ruining tradition. The green jerseys are ok for the Yankee Stadium game, but I hope they stick them in a box and lose them in the attic of LaFortune
That said, if we’re gonna do it, I agree with the post as to how it was done here.
Take a look at what came in # 9 in Sports Illustrated’s Worst College Football Uniforms http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0706/campus.ugly.uniforms/content.2.html
You just can’t trust lists like that. You won’t find one that *doesn’t* include something about Notre Dame, because simply putting ND in a list (good or bad) will drive up page clicks.