Ugly Uniform, Ugly Results

Sports Illustrated has posted its Top 10 Ugliest College Football Uniforms, and checking in at number nine is Notre Dame's green and gold. I hope it's not blasphemy among the Irish faithful to greet this apparent dishonor with a hearty and sincere, "Well done, SI, and thank you."

The green and gold used to be something magical. In 1977, when I was eight, I was fortunate enough to attend the now-famous ND-USC game in South Bend (a shock, because my dad usually reserved family comps for Army or Navy... perhaps it was our elderly neighbor, Clara, who took me). This game remains my fondest sports memory. After USC took the field, home fans were greeted with a strange site--a Trojan horse being pulled through the tunnel. A door at the front of the horse opened, the Notre Dame players flooded out in green-and-gold jerseys and the crowd went wild. I didn't get the Trojan Horse reference back then, but it didn't matter. Joe Montana and Ken McAfee whipped Southern Cal 49-19 in what is now commonly referred to as "The Green Jersey Game."

Since then, the green and gold has fallen on hard times. There was the loss to Colorado in the '95 Fiesta Bowl, the loss to Georgia Tech in the '99 Gator Bowl, the loss to Boston College in Ty Willingham's first season (the last game I've seen in person), and to make the circle complete, the heartbreaking loss to USC, at home, in Charlie Weis' first season... when Reggie Bush illegally (but smartly) pushed Carson Palmer... or was it Matt Leinert... over the goal line. The green and gold has thus lost 99 percent of its lustre, and I'm sorry, but the green-clad victory at home over Army last season does not a redemption make.

A plea to Weis for the 2007 season: Relegate the green-and-gold jerseys to the ash heap of history. It is no longer an innovative motivation; it is a sign of desperation--a gimmick that exposes a shocking internal lack of confidence. And as an Irish fan, especially one who attended the mystical Green Jersey Game in that national championship year, I would not like to see that wonderfully concentrated childhood memory any further diluted.