Another Open Letter To Notre Dame Fans From a USC Honk

As some of those who will read this piece know, I have been known in the past to agitate those who follow the Fighting Irish.

However, this was prior to my interaction with those same fans who won me over with their thoughtful and considerate rebuttals to many of the points I had to offer.

I should also point out that I write this article as a humbled USC fan, one who has shared the same kind of disappointment with my team this season as those who follow Notre Dame.

But to the point of this article, I am a bit confused.

Yesterday, Charlie Weis gave an interview in which he said that he would never forgive those fans, and there have been many of them according to Charlie, who have made their attacks personal thus invoking irreparable harm to his wife and son.

Charlie went on to say, and I am paraphrasing here, that those fans have denigrated him about his weight and other various slights regarding his appearance.

These attacks have made life miserable for his family, even prompting his wife not to attend the Connecticut game.

This was the first game she has not attended since Weis was named coach of the Fighting Irish.

Now to me, this sounds like an SEC fan or even, God forbid, a rabid USC fan who has lost their way.

But not Notre Dame fans.

At least not the dozens I have had the privilege to engage with following my articles.

No, those fans, the ones who invited me to share their tailgate parties and sit with them at the game, are nothing but class.

More specifically, they made me, a rabid USC fan, turn my utter contempt for Notre Dame and their fans, into a person who actually roots for the Fighting Irish when they aren't playing my Trojans.

One of my best memories of this season is the image of Coach Weiss, locked arm-in-arm with his players, taking the field with tears streaming down his face just prior to the Connecticut game.

Of course, I understand the passion that goes into following a program you live and die with every Saturday, because I share that same passion for my Trojans.

So I can also understand a deep seated feeling of the necessity to remove a coach from a legendary program when he fails to produce.

And certainly Charlie Weis has been a disappointment in terms of wins and losses for those who follow the Fighting Irish.

I get that.

But what I don't get are the personal attacks on Weis.

Even when Paul Hackett was driving my beloved USC program into the ground, I never read, heard, or saw those kind of attacks.

And Lord knows, if anyone ever deserved that, it would be Hackett (grumble).

Which brings me to my question.

Is this true?

Is there a large contingent of Notre Dame fans so vicious that it would prompt Weis to go out of his way to indict them for such behavior?

If you are kind enough to respond to this query, I hope that you will tell me something like, "Hell no, there are just a few meat-heads out there behaving badly."

Please don't shatter my illusions of what I have come to know as great Notre Dame fans.

I don't want to go back to hating the Fighting Irish.