Notre Dame: College Football Fans Need to Wake Up

College football fans need to do some soul searching.

On March 15, the Indiana Occupational Health and Safety Administration (IOSHA) found the University of Notre Dame guilty of six violations in regards to the death of former student, Declan Sullivan.

Sullivan, the student videographer for the Notre Dame Football team, died while the scissor lift from which he was filming practice collapsed due to 60 mph winds.

According to IOSHA commissioner Lori Toress:

“By directing an untrained, student videographer to use the scissor lift during a period of time when the National Weather Service had issued an active wind advisory...the University knowingly exposed its employees to unsafe conditions.”

While important, this report is just confirmation of what many knew long ago: The University of Notre Dame’s negligent actions led to the death of a college junior.  

Furthermore, head football coach Brian Kelly’s ignorance lead to the death of Declan Sullivan.

But the mere fact of Kelly’s disregard for safety is only half the story.

We all know the dirty and seedy world which is college football; coaches offering women, drinks and money to 18-year-olds while university presidents turn the other cheek to student indiscretions in hopes of six figure BCS bowl game paychecks. These actions have become an accepted part of the story that is college football.

The scary and alarming part is now the blind adoration of these college “leaders” has run so rampant that the death of a student has still not woken many up from their football induced naps of ignorance.  

Shortly after the death of Declan Sullivan, I wrote a blog entry for BleacherReport.com. In the piece, I touched on the incident and then wondered aloud why Brian Kelly should be allowed to keep his job.

While the incident was fresh and new, many of the facts had been reported and there was more then enough evidence to question the actions of Kelly.

The days and weeks following the blog entry, I was bombarded by the Notre Dame faithful who rushed to the support of Kelly, while bashing me and even suggesting that it was Sullivan’s fault for his own death.

As the comments rolled in from one Notre Dame alum to the next, I was getting a firsthand look at the sad state which is college football fandom.

It is to win, or have the perception that you’re a winner, and you will be protected using any rationale possible.

It is the type of mind frame that allows habitual cheaters such as Lane Kiffin to replace fellow cheater Pete Carrol as head coach at USC and is now the mind frame that is keeping a fan base numb to the fact its head football coach was a leading factor in the death of one of its students.

There will always be cheating in college football. Players who have no right being admitted to certain universities will be and certain gifts and goods will always find their way into the hands of star players. That is just as much a part of college football as apple pie and baseball is to America.

But no offseason practices or excessive text messaging can measure up to the actions of Notre Dame and Brian Kelly.

College football fans, it’s time to wake up.