"We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late."
Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
Today is the day, you are the team. Tomorrow is today. There is no tomorrow. Today is the day. You are today. You are the team.
36 years. It's difficult to measure in time. It can be measured in minutes. Moments, really. Randall Hill 1989. David Gordon 1993. Eddie Lacy and Amari Cooper 2012. Lives lived. Lives lost. People you watched games with, come and gone. My grandfather, the original Notre Dame fan of our family, passed in spring of 1982. That season, Gerry Faust's second, the Irish would go 6-4-1 with wins against Michigan and #1 Pitt. The Last National Championship he would see was January 2, 1978. 48 days later, I was born. I wish I'd had more time with him. Tomorrow is today. There is no tomorrow.
"One man caught on a barbed wire fence, one man he resist."
So many doubts on September 7, 2024. Is this right? Are we destined to be embarrassed, to fall short, has college football passed this program by and made it what so many of accused it of being? Irrelevant. Win at College Station, lost at home to a MAC school from the state to the west. What would happen at Purdue. Which team shows up, Game 1 or Game 2? It turns out, neither of those teams showed up. A new team showed up. This team. Reborn. Revitalized. Recalibrated. They didn't look back. They carried that pain with them to now. The fierce urgency of now. Today. There is no tomorrow.
They've made us believe again. They've made us dream. Strengthened our hope and faith. Perhaps not just in football or a football team or a university. Something bigger. Sports are the window into society. Into culture. Into families. A young man from Italy comes to America at 18 with very little. Alone. He finds work. A co worker is always going on about Notre Dame. "What is this Notre Dame?" I can only imagine is sounded better in Italian. Its not far, his co worker tells him. They play American Football. It's a Catholic university where Irish, Italian, Polish, German, anyone can go. My grandfather came to America in 1936. Elmer Layden's Irish went 6-2-1. They beat Ohio State 7-2. It was the last time they would ever do so.
"If the thundercloud passes rain,
so let it rain
rain down on him
So let it be."
The other shoe has not dropped this season. I don't think it will. Not tonight. There is such a thing as being too late. Not these boys. Not these coaches. Not this season. Tomorrow has come. Tomorrow is today. This is the day, they are the team. There is no tomorrow. For 60 minutes, we'll see out the dream. The fierce urgency of now will write a new chapter in history that has gone unwritten for far too long. So let it be.
