Gentlemen: priorities. The only way in which this media person is important to Notre Dame football is that he is read by many people interested in college football. Therefore, the only thing that is important to us is writing which enhances the reputation of Notre Dame football, and that only in a narrow category of ways.
This writer cannot influence play on the field unless players or coaches are weak-minded. None of our guys are. Kelly basically blew him off. The guys basically laughed him off. The writer can only influence the "psychological atmosphere" which exists in the public about Notre Dame football, and that is only in the very indirect way of possibly influencing current or future recruits.
His practical importance to us [all that is really important] is that he is a small part of the Emotion-o-Sphere "out there" where kids grow up and began to think thoughts about being a football star at a great university. Kelly, by the way, understands all of this brilliantly. He is the Master Farmer cultivating the entirety of national media to seed good feelings in media personages one by one. Or look at him as a missionary, converting the biased and the ignorant. It's slow work, and he has a lot still to do.
Still: Kelly is making headway. Allowing one former screw-up to come to the Sacred Grounds, and counseling his seniors to "play it light", produced a fine article for what Coach is trying to accomplish, and probably some serious subconscious influence about future articles.
People like Brian Kelly. They also like Lou Holtz and Mike Golic and Aaron Taylor and Justin Tuck and Manti Te'o etc. We have apostles out there plowing the psychological fields. The two previous coaches put us in a hole in many ways. Coach is filling it in with discipline and wins. He'll have converted nearly everyone before he's done.
Watch the smiles, folks, when our great holistic football administrator walks into one of those media rooms. ... and for the rest of us, don't get in the way of what he's doing and actually succeeding at.
All Hail the Head Coach!!!! Dammm... am I glad to see that twinkling Irishman roll out in front of either the Team in the tunnel or the cameras of the media. We are really blessed.