I find it fitting that the authors of the Letter to the Editor ("Football is about victories," Sept. 21) compared supporting the football team in defeat to receiving an "F" in school. That argument is just ridiculous. Sure, football is more fun when you're winning. And of course every Notre Dame fan in his or her right mind would go to any game expecting his or her team to win. It doesn't take a "fervent" fan to acknowledge that.
But to abandon your team, or, more specifically, your fellow classmates, when things aren't going their - or, as they would argue, "our" - way, violates the very tradition about which they write. Forgive me for sounding like a sanctimonious alumnus, but when our class cheered on the Irish, it was also a tradition to stay through the entire game, win or loss, close game or blowout, until the alma mater had finished playing.
I'd like to think that hasn't changed in the mere three years since my fellow classmates and I graduated (and believe me, there were plenty of opportunities to leave early in my Notre Dame career). Even if you don't agree with that argument, look at it this way: you each paid a lot of money for the privilege to watch that game. I don't know about you, but I'd take advantage of every second of the game that I paid a decent amount of money to see. Essentially, leaving early would be akin to wasting your money.
Perhaps "winning is what football is all about." But it shouldn't be what supporting our team is all about. Your classmates deserve better. Perhaps if staying through four quarters of defeat is too much to ask, we should give these seniors' tickets to some of the many fans shut out of the ticket lottery who would have given a limb to sing the alma mater.
Bryan Kronk
alumnus
Class of 2003
Sept. 21
