Tim Brown Archives - Her Loyal Sons

The annual tradition of scratching our heads on the repeated snubs of Tim Brown and Jerome Bettis in the NFL Hall of Fame has finally come a welcome end. Both men have been elected as two of the eight members in the Hall of Fame class of 2015, the largest ever.

Bettis, the former Notre Dame running back, finished his NFL career as the 5th leading rusher of all time with 13,662 yards. After becoming a six time all-pro and having 50 games of 100 rushing yards or more (a Steelers franchise record), The Bus finished his career on top when the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl in 2006. And this quote from a Fox Sports article is amazing:

“To think a little fat kid who had never played football until high school,” Bettis said, “to think I can ascend to this level, this is something I never thought of, never dreamed of.”

That’s all kinds of awesome.

But perhaps no snub has been bigger, and more frustrating for Notre Dame fans, than the six-year wait for Tim Brown. The former Heisman Trophy winner is 6th in all-time receiving yards (14,934 yards) and 5th all-time in receptions (1,094). He managed to do this without having much of a supporting cast or a truly great QB while on the Raiders. There was a lot of thought that Marvin Harrison, one of this year snubs, would end up getting the nod over Brown with his number, plus his championship ring. Thankfully, that didn’t happen this year and his wait is finally over.

So congrats to both of these members of the Notre Dame family for this well deserved honor. This year’s enshrinement ceremony will be on Saturday, August 8, 2015 and will likely be televised on the NFL Network (ESPN aired it last year as well on ESPN2). So make sure to take some time out of that Saturday to check it out.

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Tim Brown Podcast!

ManCaveQB — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 22:33:08 +0000

Note: This podcast was recorded on Tuesday, October 7, 2014.

You can listen right now below, download in iTunes, or even load an mp3 on our BlogTalkRadio site. Enjoy!

We also utilize this show to spread more awareness about Savin’ Aven fundraiser on GoFundMe. Read more here on HerLoyalSons or hit the Fundraising Page.

Check Out Sports Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with TNNDN on BlogTalkRadio

Legendary Notre Dame alum and 1987 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown joined the show this week. The first wide receiver in college football history to win the Heisman has a new book out, The Making of a Man, and is on a nationwide book tour promoting it. He’ll be in Oakland this weekend to sign for his loyal Raider fans and be a special guest at the team’s home game.

We got Touchdown Timmy’s insight on the current Notre Dame receiver crop and he even shared his opinion on the reshuffling of the Notre Dame offensive line. Perhaps his most memorable quote came regarding the Irish defense. When asked if the unit had surprised him, he responded “No they haven’t surprised me … They’ve SHOCKED me!” All around great stuff from one of the game’s greatest ever.

Notre Dame Class of 1987 got some more attention on the show with Newsweek’s John Walters calling in to share his thoughts on the season, college football’s wild weekend, the new comedy show Mulaney, and ESPN’s Seth Davis and his career in New York City stand-up comedy. (No, seriously.)

Contact me:

Twitter: @ManCaveQB

Email: herringbonesports@gmail.com

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Tim Brown Signs Female Professional Football Player to Running Back and Yes, She Played

Ryan Ritter — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 06:13:34 +0000

Tim Brown stands with new signee, Jennifer Welter, and Texas Revolution Head Coach, Chris Williams (Via)

We haven’t been able to do a “Where Are They Now?” on Tim Brown yet, but if we do, I sure hope that our loyal daughter, Lisa, gets the full scoop on this story.

Tim is now the general manager of a local Indoor Football League (IFL) team, the Texas Revolution. Towards the end of January, he signed the first non-kicker female football player, Dr. Jennifer Welter, to a professional contract. Sure, arena/indoor league team, trying to make a splash right? After all, this was a team that signed Terrell Owens to a contract two years ago (back when they were the Allen Wranglers) and then dropped him like a bad habit.

Brown though, couldn’t have been more serious in the press conference about signing the 5’2″, 130 pound, 36 year-old linebacker as a running back:

“Somebody said, ‘Are you going to protect her?’ ” said Dallas native Tim Brown, the Revolution’s general manager and the 1987 Heisman Trophy winner at Notre Dame. “It’s football. And it’s cage football. So how are you going to protect her? You can’t run out of bounds in this sport.”

…

“When you look at her resume, when you look at who she is, she’s not a joke,” Brown said. “This is not a lady that does anything for laughing matters or just for stunts. This is something she’s taking seriously. If she’s going to take it seriously, guess what? We’re going to take it just as serious.”

He wasn’t joking.

Welter survived training camp and found herself on the active roster for the Revolution’s preseason game against the North Texas Crunch this past Saturday. She didn’t wasn’t just a spectator either, she played.

Welter had three rushing attempts for -2 yards. Yes, this means that she got hit and did she ever get hit hard (h/t: Kissing Suzy Kolber):

Despite getting absolutely drilled, Welter let her opponents know she wasn’t intimated in the least:

“I said, ‘Is that all you got?’ ” Welter said she told Hearvey after the first of her three carries for the Texas Revolution. “They (Crunch players) were getting all alive, and I had to say something. I didn’t want them to think I was intimidated.”

And her opponents responded:

Welter’s final carry did net her a single positive yard, and she once again paid dearly for it:

While her performance was hardly impressive on the stat sheet, I’m impressed by the sheer amount of guts she showed by running right at men that are literally twice her size and then talked trash after it was over.

Plus, she did help put her team on the scoreboard:

When Welter re-entered the game with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Revolution had first and goal on the 2. Welter carried over left tackle to the 1, where she was smothered by Willie Jones and Hearvey, who then asked to come out of the game.

On the next play, quarterback Floyd faked a sweep-left handoff to Welter, then scored on a bootleg around left end.

Welter came off the field to high-fives from her teammates.

I guess the Crunch were a little too worried that a girl would score on them and forgot everyone else!

The Texas Revolution will announce their final roster this afternoon and GM Tim Brown will have to decide whether or not to keep Welter on board. While it would seem incredibly unlikely he would do so now that the news has started to go viral, he did graduate from a school that has a rather legendary tale about a certain five foot nothin’, one hundred and nothin’ player…

Yeah, it’s not really Rudy, but let’s all admit it, we like this one better.

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Where Are They Now? Byron Spruell

Lisa — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 09:00:30 +0000

Notre Dame Football (Jonathan Daniel, Getty Images)

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. ~Jackie Robinson

Byron Spruell had aspirations of becoming an engineer since he was in the sixth grade, when his teacher told him that his math and science talents would serve him well in the engineering field. When he reached high school and not only excelled academically, but also athletically on the football field and basketball court, Byron received the opportunity to attend the University of Notre Dame on a football scholarship. Recruited by head coach Gerry Faust and ultimately finishing his collegiate career playing for head coach Lou Holtz, Byron experienced what it was like to play college football under two very different personalities. Now Byron is a vice-chairman of Deloitte LLP, managing principal of the organization’s Central region, as well as managing principal of Deloitte’s Chicago office. Spruell helps drive Deloitte’s national strategy for client and business growth, as well as the firm’s strategic positioning in local markets across 17 states in the Central region. Byron and his wife Sedra have two children: Devyn and Aleah.

Q: Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, how did you end up playing football at Notre Dame?

A: “I was the product of two excellent role models. My mother was a seamstress/tailor and my dad was an engineer at the sewer district. They wanted my siblings and I to do our absolute best in everything we did. At the culmination of my high school career I was co-valedictorian of my high school class, and I had several opportunities to play football and basketball at Division I schools. The key criteria for what I wanted to get out of college helped me narrow down my choices to end up selecting the University of Notre Dame. What I was looking for was a school that was not only serious about academics, but also had a great athletics program. I also wanted a school that was close enough to home that my family could come see me play. Notre Dame passed all of my requirements with flying colors.”

“My parents ended up being able to come see me play for the majority of the home games through my senior year, and then for my fifth year of eligibility they were able to see every home and away game. It’s one thing to be good on the field, or off the field, but Notre Dame helped me excel in both of these areas and that was exactly what I wanted and aspired to achieve.”

“The other schools that I looked at besides Notre Dame were Vanderbilt, West Virginia, and Ohio State (particularly considering that I grew up in the Buckeye State). I knew once I got on campus for my visit at Notre Dame that it was a great fit for me. The style of teaching and learning in the classroom, the people walking around, I immediately felt welcome. My host during my visit to Notre Dame was Allen Pinkett. He was one year ahead of me and was in the school of engineering, so I’m sure they matched me up with him so that I could have the chance to meet another football player in a path that I wanted to pursue. By the time I got to ND the next year though, Allen had decided that trying to study engineering and play football was too rigorous of a schedule for him and he had transferred into the school of business. (The engineering school was aptly nicknamed ‘pre-business’ and they often times told freshman, ‘look left and look right…one of you will be gone at the end of your freshman year.’) When I was a senior at ND they paired me up with a visiting Rod West, who was very focused on academics and mildly interested in studying engineering at Notre Dame. After shadowing with me he made a comment that his head would explode if he had to take the engineering classes that I was in and it confirmed his choice to go straight to the business school!”

“I would have to say though, that one of the main reasons that I chose Notre Dame was because of how well they combined academics with athletics. My sixth grade teacher told me I was good at math and science and that I should become an engineer. I wanted to be a design engineer for one of the big three U.S.-based auto companies and that’s why I chose to study mechanical engineering, but as I neared graduation they were not doing so well. I had the chance to extend my studies and begin work on my MBA during my fifth year at ND which was also special because it was Tim Brown’s Heisman year. When I wasn’t drafted in the NFL after that year, I decided to remain at ND and finish my MBA. The year I finished my MBA, Notre Dame won the national championship. It was fun and rewarding to be on campus and witness the team’s success. Coach Holtz gave me and my fellow co-captain Chuck Lanza national championship rings because we had done so much to get the team to that point. I cherish that ring and my relationship with Coach Holtz as he is a mentor to this day (a ‘Coach for Life’ as he would say).”

Q: What is your best Notre Dame football memory?

A: “The game against USC in 1986 sticks out in my mind. Out in Los Angeles, the whole environment, the Coliseum, the Trojan horse, down by 22 points…we rallied together as a team that day to pull out the win. It was Coach Holtz’s first year at Notre Dame. We lost five games that year by a total of six points. It was crazy how close we were but just couldn’t pull out the wins. It was the final game of the season and we were down 37-15 at halftime.”

“Sure, we were down 22 points out in Los Angeles, but we rallied under Coach Holtz’s leadership and came back to win the game on a last-second field goal by John Carney. We had started to build some real camaraderie that season and that win over USC gave us great momentum to carry us into the next year. On the flight back, Chuck Lanza and I got the indication that we would be co-captains next year. To have that type of victory in a hostile house environment and then to know the team felt that I was a leader moving forward is something I will never forget.”

Q: What was it like playing for Coach Faust? Coach Holtz?

1987 Fighting Irish Captain Byron Spruell

A: “Coach Faust really delegated a lot to his assistant coaches as compared to Coach Holtz who leveraged his coaching staff but still had command of every single detail. Holtz used his coaches but was completely involved. Coach Faust appeared to be more of a figurehead and was not so much in full command.”

“As a result, Coach Holtz really spent a lot of time, not only with his coaches but with his players, too. He helped us grow and develop into men (and this carried off the football field as well). I still remember going into his office for career advice as I was deciding between several employment offers. He advised me to focus on “What’s Important Now” (WIN) and to secure a good foundation with a company that cared about my continued growth and development, a place that promoted excellence with people I could trust. Those words have always been in my mind throughout my career and the organizations I have been associated with.”

“Coach Holtz made sure you understood three things. One, that he cared about his players. Two, that he made sure you were ready for what you were going to face on the football field. Three, that he was your coach for life, and made sure you were ready for your future both on and off of the field. He prepared you with the details that would make you a good football player, but also prepared you to be a good man in the business world or wherever life would take you.”

“Again, one of the most important factors that led me to choose to attend Notre Dame was how well they combined academics and athletics — Coach Holtz was a big part of why this worked so well. He prepared you for the details that would make you a good football player, but this same attention to detail was also what was going to make you a good man and successful at whatever you pursued after football.”

Q: What was it like being a student-athlete at Notre Dame? How did being a student-athlete at Notre Dame prepare you for life after college?

A: “For the most part it was all about balance, work ethic, and discipline. I like to be busy anyways but you need to cut through the clutter and be organized to succeed at a place like Notre Dame as a student-athlete. I really liked the environment at Notre Dame. It was a good fit for me. At Notre Dame you are truly a student-athlete. There are no athletics dorms. You are a student first and an athlete second — you carry yourself that way. You are given certain opportunities but you are not separated and you are not made to feel special or privileged compared to your fellow students. With the exception of Wednesday training table and game day (when we had steak), we ate dining hall food just like everybody else (only a few hours later).”

“Class, film, study, practice, training table, and then you go back to your dorm and study some more. You are tired and don’t feel like studying, but you still have to get it done. I definitely spent some late nights with David Letterman on in the background while getting my work done. It took hard work and discipline to play football and get my engineering degree and my MBA from Notre Dame.”

“My wife lived in Badin. I met her at an SYR (“Screw Your Roommate”) dance freshman year (that was our first date). We dated all four years, studied together as undergraduate engineering students, and got engaged between our fifth year and the final year of graduate school. She got her graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering and I got my MBA.”

“The engineering department was a challenging place to be — it definitely was not a place for the faint of heart! I had some adversity athletically as well, suffering some injuries at Notre Dame. I had hoped to work in the NFL and pursue some business opportunities during the offseason, but the knee injuries that I suffered as a student-athlete came back to haunt me, and the NFL didn’t think I was good enough or hungry enough. Even though this was a disappointment, I was okay with it. It allowed me to go back and get my MBA. It was a wonderful experience playing football at ND and I would have loved to continue that path, but at the end of the day the NFL is a business and you learn that fact very quickly. I would not change a thing.”

“From a diversity perspective, the environment at Notre Dame was very similar to my high school experience so I was not shocked when I got to ND. I didn’t have any situations that were negative as a student-athlete and the situations that I did encounter got me ready for the business world in terms of connecting with people from all walks of life and it was a very positive experience.”

“When you come out of Notre Dame you are prepared for the next chapter. In my case, I had a great football experience (and was molded by a great coach), two degrees that I could build a career upon (and be branded as a “Double Domer”), and a bonus of meeting a wonderful young woman with whom I could build a life and future family. I definitely look back and appreciate all of the opportunity that the ND experience afforded me.”

Q: Where did life take you after football?

Byron Spruell, Deloitte LLP

A: “True to form as a coachable and approachable person given my athletics background and ability to connect, I always sought out advice. I spoke with Coach Holtz and he wanted me seek out a company where I could trust the people, love what I do, and they were committed to excellence. I talked to one of my professors, Clay Smith, and he told me that I probably wanted to start out in consulting and special services and get exposed to a lot of different things. Then, after that experience, I could move back into the corporate world if I saw fit. I simply wanted to use both my engineering skills and my MBA skills that I had attained. With all of this input, I looked at a number of corporate and consulting opportunities and decided on taking a job with Peterson Consulting, which was founded by Alan Peterson who came out of the old Andersen firm and started this business that focused on consulting and litigation support. They were headquartered in Chicago and they had an office in Houston which was great for me since my wife got a job at Rockwell on site at NASA. At Peterson, I definitely got the opportunity to use both sets of skills (engineering and MBA/financial skills), and I also got to work with attorneys to use the dispute skills that I learned in my business law class.”

“For the first seven years of my career I did bankruptcy work, construction claims, and environmental claims which was a great proving ground and exposed me to client service and what I do today. Then I made the move to Deloitte & Touche. I was on the road a lot during my time with Peterson Consulting and my wife and I were ready to start a family. The move to Deloitte allowed me to stay at home more. It got me into a new practice that had an entrepreneurial spirit like Peterson had, but with the support of a big company and brand behind me. It was also in Houston and I focused on the oil and gas industry and business insurance claims consulting.”

“In 2004 I moved to the Deloitte office in Chicago to focus on broader financial advisory services, and then in 2007 I moved to the New York Deloitte office and served as Chief of Staff to former U.S. CEO and current global CEO Barry Salzberg. I was involved in operations, communications, strategy, global, regulatory/policy, talent, and clients/market matters. I spent a great deal of time shadowing Salzberg, and foreshadowing him as well. You need to always try and be a couple steps ahead of him in order to avoid any surprises. Like Holtz, Barry had a huge impact on me as a person and helped shape my professional career. In 2011 I became Global Managing Director of Financial Advisory and now I am back in the Chicago office as the Central Region and Chicago Managing Principal.”

“One of the most important things that I have learned along my career journey is to always be coachable. Never feel as though you know everything or that you can do this alone. Be prepared for new opportunities and be flexible and adaptable. Notre Dame really teaches you how to learn — this is also the culture at Deloitte. We pride ourselves in growing leaders and also have a great connection to Notre Dame and the Mendoza School of Business.”

Q: What advice would you give current student-athletes?

A: “I currently sit on the monogram club board and one of our jobs is to be a liaison between the current student-athletes and former student-athletes through mentoring and providing advice about the professional and business world. The biggest thing, particularly for ND student athletes, is to stay focused, perform, and be coachable. Know that Notre Dame is a special brand that people really do respect. IF you come through a place like Notre Dame and do well both academically and athletically, you will have a great value in the marketplace. Use that to your advantage.”

Q: Can you talk about your involvement with the Jackie Robinson Foundation?

A: “One of the things I most enjoy is giving back to the community. I love to give back and invest in people. My passions are diversity and education. We do a fair amount of mentoring for Jackie Robinson scholars. I give my time, talent, and treasure because it is about mentoring and developing, growing them into young men and women and giving them opportunities to go to college that they might not otherwise have. I keep a fair amount of relationships going to provide advice and counsel to give them perspective on what they are going through. I look forward to continuing to work with them. They have a lot of credibility in the market with the successes they’ve achieved.”

I’d like to thank Byron Spruell for graciously taking some time out of his busy schedule to stop by the blog. We all greatly appreciate it! Stay tuned for many more great stories in the “Where are they now?” series! If you enjoy this series, you can also read more stories in my new book, “Echoes From the End Zone: The Men We Became” now available for purchase.

Cheers & Go Irish!

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Shamrock Series: Deep in the Heart of Texas

Ryan Ritter — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 05:14:12 +0000

Back in 2010, I was fortunate enough to make my way to Yankee Stadium for my first Shamrock Series game. The environment was fun and different, but the term “Shamrock Series” wasn’t even in existence yet. It was simply a neutral site game in which Notre Dame had an excuse to wear green jerseys.

For this iteration of the Shamrock Series, the Fighting Irish came into ~~my home of Dallas~~ ~~Arlington~~ North Texas for an event that was truly unlike anything that I had experienced out in New York City.

Jack Swarbrick (left) speaks with Jack Nolan (right) at the Shamrock Series luncheon while showing off a seriously on-point sock game.

My weekend started at the Shamrock Series Luncheon thanks our own Lisa Kelly and the folks over at Irish Player Charities. It was there that Jack Swarbrick mentioned how the Shamrock Series has become an event that Irish fans have embraced to the point that fans from outside the various host cities are planning vacations around.

That statement was beyond shocking to me and I honestly wrote it off as Swarbrick doing his job as our AD and just promoting the hell out of the event. I had a hard time reconciling in my head that people really looked forward to the Shamrock Series that much.

Robin Weber (right) and Tim Brown (middle) relive their playing days with Jack Nolan (right)

Next up were two former Notre Dame greats: Tim Brown, Notre Dame’s last Heisman winner, and Robin Weber, who made “the catch” to seal a national championship against Alabama in the 1973 Sugar Bowl. Many people know that “the catch” was the first that Weber caught in his career. What you may not know is that Weber had a scare that morning before the game: the hotel staff accidentally threw away his contact lenses. Weber considered not even bothering since he only blocked, but decided to go looking for them in the hotel garbage chute anyways. Thankfully for Weber and Irish fans, the only piece of trash he found were his lenses and he would have the eyesight to seal the ND victory.

Finally, Brian Kelly came out and mostly repeated his performance of his radio show from the day prior (sans crazy Twitter questions), but with a stronger focus on the importance of being in Texas from a program perspective.

All in all, it was a great experience, but the real fun was still to come.

After enjoying some drinks with fellow Monogram winners, young alumni, and some loyal readers on Friday night, it was time to get ready for some serious tailgating.

I wish I had more pictures to show you, but my focus was manning the grill to feed the crowd with easily the best food that I’ve ever consumed at a tailgate of any kind. We had secured ribs and brisket from Pecan Lodge BBQ which is not only the best in the city, but damn near impossible to actually get due to long lines and limited supply. I was also introduced to the greatness that are giggity ribs, a recipe that originated from NDNation (but I think we had a more tangy version with the rub that was used), had some fresh grilled asparagus, and, if that wasn’t enough, one tailgater brought out fresh venison sausage with jalapeño and cheese.

After stuffing our faces and enjoying multiple cold ones, it was game time in under the bright lights of Jerry World and the brighter glow of the JerryTron.

I must say the environment was incredible and it wasn’t just because the masses were still able to buy beer in the stadium. This was were I saw Swarbrick’s comment earlier in the weekend come to life. We were surrounded by people that definitely had this game circled on their calendars for a while. Some were local, some just had a quick drive, and others came from even farther away, but every ND fan in attendance was seemingly ready to burst from joy at seeing the Irish in person.

Think back to your first ever ND experience — now multiply that by a good 10,000 people who are seeing ND for the first time (and I’d wager that’s a conservative estimate). That’s an awesome atmosphere and I must say, the JerryTron was used incredibly well to facilitate that joy.

Now, before we go much further into the ‘Tron as I can already sense some heads exploding, let me start out by saying this: I absolutely, 100%, hate that abomination of an oversized TV screen that hangs above the field. In fact, I absolutely detest the stadium as a whole (there’s a reason most locals here call it the Death Star or Jerry World). There are too many distractions and for me, that thing is the pinnacle of going too damn far with everything and having the game be secondary. There are platforms for a go-go dancing team, there’s a Victora’s Secret shop inside the stadium, there’s an art museum, the acoustics are truly awful (there are some seats in which you can’t hear anything from the sound system), and there is that freakin’ huge screen that is forced into your line of sight.

I’m not joking either, this was my view:

You practically have to force yourself to look away.

I’ve been to Cowboy games before and did not care one bit for the “experience” they provided. If you watched this weekend’s game against the Broncos, you were probably treated to a shot of a seizure inducing third down graphic that perfectly sums up some of the absurdity that goes on during those games.

That all being said, Notre Dame did an absolutely fantastic job with that monstrosity.

They proved that, even in a stadium full of ridiculous distractions, they could provide programming that enhanced the gameday experience. It didn’t feel like some overdone or overhyped Cowboys game, but a football game that I was excited to watch.

The only ad run the entire time was a reminder that ND was selling Shamrock Series gear in the Stadium — I can live with that. The rest of the time, the JerryTron was used for ads that specifically promoted the University or to provide replays of the game (or to purposefully stop showing them if the play looked like it wouldn’t go ND’s way). They also ran a pregame show before hand that I wish I had caught.

Those awards given on the 30 yard line everyone hates? They happened, but were packaged with a video intro that actually got people to genuinely applaud both award recipients, one of whom was military and got a standing ovation.

When the ASU band performed, the ‘Tron ran ND content, including a fan poll to pick the opening song of the second half, the entire time. But when the Band of the Fighting Irish game out, the entire focus was on them and actually getting to see a bird’s eye view of their formations is always welcome.

Also welcomed, formations of the best damn state in the land.

The absurdly long NBC TV timeouts flew by and the crowd stayed active and engaged the entire time from the opening video (which really got the crowd fired up) to the crucial moments at the end of the game. I’ve been to three Cowboy games at the Death Star and I’ve never heard that stadium as loud as it was that night.

Now do I want a 70+ yard ‘tron hanging over ND Stadium? Dear God, no. One or two much smaller screens showing similar content would be perfect. It sure beats screaming at orange-oven-mitt-guy during TV timeouts.

To say the least, I had a blast and, in all honesty, I had one of the best times that I’ve ever had at a Notre Dame game and that includes some awesome memories from 2012 and my time as a student. It wasn’t just because the Irish were in my backyard, because we won, because I stayed well boozed up the whole game, because “better” fans showed up, or because of a jumbotron feed, but because the entire mixture that this Shamrock Series brings together is just so different from anything else that I’m used to experiencing at a ND game (previous Shamrock Series trip to Yankee Stadium included).

After this experience, I can see why Swarbrick confidently stated that people planned their vacations around this. I will definitely push the Shamrock Series higher on my most wanted list when I fill out my application next season.

I definitely encourage all Irish fans to head to a Shamrock Series game and give it a chance, especially those that think I’ve lost my mind on being happy about the jumbotron use. I think you’d be pleasantly surprised with what ND can do.

Personally, I would just love to inject even just a little bit of the Shamrock Series atmosphere into Notre Dame Stadium. If that happens with a jumbotron, great, if it happens through some other addition/modification, fine by me. That breath of fresh air would certainly be welcomed.

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Meet Tim Brown & The Heisman Trophy in Chicago

Ryan Ritter — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 20:01:44 +0000

Loyal Readers, we have just been contacted by the folks over at Nissan who have an awesome opportunity for all those attending the game this weekend in Chicago. For those not going, don’t worry there is something in store for you too.

Nissan is hosting a free fan event near the stadium before the game. Fans will have a chance to take a picture with the Heisman Trophy, get free team swag, play fun interactive games, and meet 1987 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown. For folks that aren’t attending the game but still want to connect with the Notre Dame legend, Nissan (@NissanNews) will also be hosting a live Twitter chat with Tim (@81TimBrown) from 5:30-6:00 p.m. tomorrow. Anyone who submits a question during the chat with the hashtag #NissanHeisman will be entered to win one of three footballs signed by Tim.

Details below:

NOTRE DAME HEISMAN TROPHY WINNER TIM BROWN TO APPEAR AT THE
“SPORTS ILLUSTRATED HEISMAN TOUR PRESENTED BY NISSAN”

The tour heads to Chicago, October 6, when No. 9 Notre Dame takes on Miami at Soldier Field

WHO: Meet the Notre Dame football legend on game day … and celebrate the 25th anniversary of his Heisman win!

1987 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown will appear from 4:00-5:30 p.m., participating in both an “SI Chalk Talk” session with Dan Patrick Show executive producer Paul Pabst from 4:00-4:30 p.m. and an autograph session from 4:30-5:30 p.m.

WHAT: SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and Nissan have teamed up to celebrate the Heisman Memorial Trophy and the most electrifying players in the history of college football with a 10-stop national tour at marquee matchups this season. Admission to the tour is free, and fans are encouraged to pick up a special SPORTS ILLUSTRATED special edition: “Running to Greatness” … compliments of Nissan.

Get your picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the Heisman Trophy

Take a closer look at Nissan’s all-new 2013 Pathfinder and Altima

View SI covers and images on 52” touch screen monitors

Participate in autograph sessions with former football greats

Win prizes by participating in fun, interactive games including a virtual field goal kicking challenge

Register for the BCS Championship Ultimate Experience Sweepstakes

Get an RFID credential, allowing you to check in and instantly share your experience on Facebook

Keep tabs on the weekend’s action by viewing games and highlights on plasma TVs and a custom 16’ x 9’ LED screen

WHEN: SATURDAY, October 6, 2012 – 11:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Located east of the Field Museum, 1410 S. Museum Campus Drive, Chicago, IL

So if you are in the area, make sure you don’t miss out!

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