Notre Dame Potentially Heading to Yankee Stadium

There has been no inanimate object or structure take as much of a beating as Yankee Stadium has in its short three month or so lifespan. Balls are flying faster than the last Peter North movie, seats are ridiculously over priced, and if you end up just short of the restaurant in center field, you're watching the game on a tv screen instead of the 40% of the field you can actually see.

And, as if having one marquee sports dynasty play there wasn't enough, there is initial talks between the New York Yankees and Notre Dame for the Fighting Irish to play a football game there. Details are still in the extremely early stages, but Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick has this to say...

"We've been in contact with Yankee Stadium and asked and inquired," Swarbrick said, according to the Times. "We will be discussing games with them, but we haven't entered into any substantive discussions."

Ideally, Swarbrick said, Notre Dame would love to play Army at the stadium in 2013 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1913 game, according to the report. In that landmark game, the Irish utilized the forward pass to great success to beat the Black Knights, popularizing what had been, up to that point, a little-used strategy. The results influenced other teams to adopt the forward pass, in effect changing the game.

If there's football at the new stadium before 2013, Notre Dame would still like to be involved, Swarbrick said. But playing the 100th anniversary of the 1913 game in New York would have great meaning for the Irish, he added, according to the report.

Oh fantastic! Let's all jump on board as probably the premier major league baseball stadium plays host to a shell-of-its-former-self Notre Dame program and Army. Yes... that Army. The same Army who isn't even expected to beat Ball State this coming season. Simply fabulous.

I, for one, am all in favor of college teams playing a game in a venue not traditionally known for football, or in areas where some of their fans may not get to watch them play. For example, a Notre Dame-Texas game at Soldier Field... clutch. Kentucky and Miami (OH) at the Bengals stadium? Perfect. Notre Dame playing a scrub ass Army team in a baseball stadium just so they can say they did? Awful. Celebrating the anniversary of the forward pass? Spare me. Let's just call it what it is... another excuse for Notre Dame to get a win.

If they want something cool, then rock out a game with national interest. Notre Dame-USC at Yankee Stadium would be tremendous. Notre Dame-Oklahoma at Wrigley. For me to look at this any other way than the Irish simply whoring about their team against a helplessly overmatched also ran, Swarbrick and co. need to bring it. A major venue deserves a major game. And Notre Dame-Army isn't it.