ND head football coach Brian Kelly tweeted this shirt and added: “Each day is a chance to build our culture on & off the field.”
We here at Her Loyal Sons had great fun with Notre Dame football’s 2015 motto: “Culture beats scheme.” While I can agree that the motto is too vague to really mean anything – and is, therefore, dumb – I never thought someone would actually be incensed by it.
Then I read a column by Aaron McKrell, a sports writer for The News-Dispatch of Michigan City, Indiana – about 35 miles from campus. While the entire rambling begged for a FJM-style takedown, I instead decided to engage Aaron on Twitter about his column.
It…it did not go well. I started conversing in a sarcastic manner and reacted poorly to what I perceived as his repeated attempts to ignore logic, so the conversation ended with some name-calling and him blocking me on Twitter. I regret that.
As a former newspaper reporter, I knew there was always a chance to have the final word if you disagreed with something written in the paper. So I wrote a letter to the editor of The News-Dispatch (circulation 6,684 daily, as of 2013).
McKrell used the motto as an opportunity to rehash old wounds (Lizzy Seeberg, Declan Sullivan etc.) and trash the football program and its coach, Brian Kelly.
My counter-argument in print was, I hope, more reasoned. I thank the News-Dispatch for running my letter. I welcome feedback!
—
Aaron McKrell recently tweeted: “Promote what you love rather than bashing what you hate.”
I’m disappointed your sports reporter didn’t heed his own advice.
“Reality check on Notre Dame’s motto,” his Monday column, was a caustic denunciation of the university’s football program.
Aaron is right. Notre Dame’s handling of certain high-profile incidents was awful. It’s tragic that Lizzy Seeberg killed herself after a player allegedly sexually assaulted her. It’s painful to know that Declan Sullivan’s death was avoidable, and that a coach’s decision put him in harm’s way.
But that’s not the whole story. Although Aaron omits it, “culture” also refers to the team’s 94 percent Graduation Success Rate – fourth best among FBS schools. It includes a $55,100 average starting salary for a graduate – a top 10 ranking among college football programs. It includes the Student Athlete Opportunity Fund, which allowed football players to study in Greece and South Africa this summer. It includes the players’ charity work, such as the bowling event held July 12 that raised money for bone cancer research.
Aaron compares ND to North Carolina, where the NCAA uncovered widespread academic fraud among student athletes; to Penn State, where a football coach molested underage boys, and to Florida State, which had two players assault women in bars just this month.
The situations simply aren’t equivalent. Yes, Notre Dame has sometimes fallen. But we shouldn’t ignore the numerous times this “culture” has prepared athletes to succeed on the field, in the classroom and in the greater community.
Notre Dame graduate, class of '02 (the Davie years!). A former newspaper and TV reporter, andrewwinn is now professionally involved in something far less fun to discuss than college football. A dad, a husband and a wannabe data nerd.
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It is always hard to deal with media types and Notre Dame. The simple fact being that most media don’t like Notre Dame and they often don’t like Catholics. For him to even make a comparison to UNC or Penn State shows the level of stupidity you are dealing with. While I love football, I’m always equally impressed with the experiences that students have there and what the school stands for. Are they perfect, no. That said, they get things right far more often than not. I chuckled last night seeing a school suspend their best WR and DL for the Youngstown State game for both getting a DUI. What a stiff punishment…….we’ll show you discipline son….you can sit against that FCS opponent. ND on the other hand, banished kids for a year for academic fraud.
One other thing, I thought the motto was ok. I took it to mean when you build a culture of doing things right on the field, in class, etc. that matters more than what you are running. It’s how you do it, not what you do. Taking care of the little things. Perhaps also a shot/joke over the “decided schematic” advantage of yesteryear. How’d that work out? I guess we are so full of buzzwords today…I took his message as simpler…it’s what you are building that matters as opposed to how it’s built? Maybe I’m wrong.
When Culture refers to the direction one steers one’s life through the totality of one’s actions, then it follows that Culture beats any specific scheme.
This “debate” is not productive. Individuals should be judged, not groups. That mindset leads to statements that the author surely doesn’t mean like saying that sexual assault “simply [isn’t] equivalent” to a woman being punched in a bar. But the one’s just an allegation you say? So is the bar assault at this point. But it’s on video you say? The nature of sexual assault is that it can hardly ever be corroborated in that way. As a Catholic, I, and I suspect many of you, had to deal with being grouped with pedophile priests. There are good and bad people at every school and on every football team. Claiming moral superiority is a good way to set yourself up for the proverbial fall.
The same paper ran this gem: http://www.thenewsdispatch.com/sports/article_1a734c40-7d96-11e4-938f-13ceb8860285.html