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From Puerto Rico via the Bronx to Notre Dame: A Fan's Journey · D-constructing Topics

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  What's going on, folks, and welcome to a special edition of the Deconstructed Topic Podcast.
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  My name is David, and I'm your host of this legendary podcast.
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  And today we got, like, I did say a special edition or special episode,
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  because this is about the University of Notre Dame fighting Irish and how a
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  Puerto Rican kid born in Puerto Rico, whoo.
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  Raised in the bronze, became one of university of notre dame fighting average
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  football biggest fan let's go Woo!
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  Woo! Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Woo!
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  Let's get it all right that's the fighting song of the
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  university of notre dame fighting average what's going on
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  my peoples yeah we doing it
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  we kind of a little bit back you know i i did an episode
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  early in the year talking about my goals whatever it
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  is that's going on this is a big year for me
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  my podcast my life everything but there's
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  little minor setbacks and those minor setbacks is
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  that here in the united states we are in
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  that season people getting sick left and right whatever
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  it is that's going on flu symptoms cold
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  symptoms whatever symptoms man that kind
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  of knocked me out for like about a week it took me like about a week and
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  a half to kind of get back on the grind get back
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  on you know let's make it happen type
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  of deal but we here and just send you the mad love for everybody out there that's
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  kind of like falling into the uh the sickness the season of the uh whatever
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  that's going on out there just get better take care of yourself hydrate rest
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  if you can A little bit of everything, you know what I mean?
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  So this episode, tomorrow, January 20th, it's an important day.
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  No, it's not that day for what's happening over there in the White House.
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  No, it's a day Notre Dame Fighting Average will be playing against Ohio State,
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  the Ohio State, for the national championship, college, and that is.
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  But today I'm going to tell a little story of how a Puerto Rican kid.
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  Raised in the Bronx, born in Puerto Rico. How did I become a great Notre Dame fighting Irish?
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  And for those people, you know, a lot of people that don't know me,
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  for those people who know me on a personal level, back in 2009,
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  I took a trek over there, watched my Notre Dame senior day.
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  Cold day, November, the third week of November, and then we played against University
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  of UConn, which is not necessarily a football powerhouse.
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  And i remember we were
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  winning but we lost so i'm hoping
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  to go back you already know we got the donation button whoever
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  wants to you know do the courtesy a little
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  hey we got to keep the lights on like they always say but
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  i'm here and once again raise your hand out
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  there hey let's go dun dun
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  dun dun dun dun dun dun so now
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  how did i become a notre dame football fan
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  just and first and foremost how did i become a football
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  fan and one of the things i did mention on
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  a football episode where i was in a sixth grade
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  oh i entered a sixth grade right middle school
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  and again my understanding is that
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  there was a budget i didn't have extra money for bilingual go teach you something
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  to that effect whatever the case might be just to give you an idea i was you
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  know i'm in the public school here's in the in the bronze and how can i say
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  to you i was in but but they call esl class english second language meaning
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  i was in a bilingual class.
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  Class mostly i gotta say spanish
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  but when i enter the sixth grade i enter what to
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  what we call a regular class mixed with
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  the other kids and mostly were you know uh some of my uh black friends some
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  of my uh grew up and those beautiful black friends back then in the sixth grade
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  and listen i apologize whatever words i'm using but i'm just trying to tell
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  a story without sugarcoating stuff because Guys,
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  that's basically the best way to tell a story is to be genuine and describe what's going on.
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  In the sixth grade, a couple of my black friends there, they introduced me to football.
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  Now, keep in mind, I'm a sucker for hearing stories of, again,
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  I'm a Puerto Rican kid, born in Puerto Rico.
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  Football is not a thing in Puerto Rico. You know what I mean?
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  It's not a thing. You know, we got, you know, when it comes to sports,
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  our Puerto Ricans have gravitated, you know, to baseball, obviously, boxing.
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  Hey, listen, we got, you know, we got some of the best boxers.
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  I still say that we got some of the best boxers of all time.
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  That's another different podcast, but let's make it happen.
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  I see your Mando Serrano. Let's get it. And then we got basketball,
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  obviously, with Michael Jordan, Magic, Larry Bird, and then in the 90s,
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  whatever, the other players, Kim Olajuwon, Shaq.
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  You know, so basketball was an easy transition for Puerto Ricans kind of like
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  and play because we got a lot of basketball courts over there, you know.
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  So football is not a thing, you know what I mean? Now, there's a lot of Puerto
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  Rican kids here racing the bronze and a lot of, you know, ghetto,
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  ghetto people, my ghetto hood.
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  Hey, the love for football in the bronze, man, it's underrated.
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  And I always have a plan.
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  I mean the football season is almost over but normally
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  I wanted to do like a little tour to go on a
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  Sunday you know if somebody over there I don't drive but hey listen I'll figure
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  this one out I gotta hire a chauffeur a chauffeur I don't even know what is
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  it somebody that's gonna drive me around wow can't believe I'm forgetting some
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  words but you know the football and I replayed that street football and one
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  of the things that gravitated to me.
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  It's the introduction to football in 1990. At that time, the New York Giants
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  were a good team, a great team. They happened to win the championship.
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  And then I remember some of my black friends at that time, they were telling
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  me about Notre Dame, how great Notre Dame is.
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  And just to give you an insight, how I gravitated to Notre Dame.
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  Now, University of Notre Dame is a big institution, famous, known.
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  They do play in NBC, Peacock, for those who have it.
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  And basically every home game they play, it's a national team.
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  So you're always going to watch
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  these teams. And we're talking about like pre-cable time, at least for me.
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  I was able to kind of be exposed to a little bit more Notre Dame games.
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  And there was that one game where if they would have won, they would have won
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  the national championship.
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  And I believe that was in 1990, Notre Dame versus University of Colorado.
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  And you know it was that famous play with rocky ishmael
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  ran it and scored touchdown when there was a flag towards
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  the end of the game the game was over no today losers
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  but my first year of being exposed to
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  no today was in 1991 let's go
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  Irish woo the days watching Jerome Battis Reggie Brooks Rick Myra Lake Dawson
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  it's if I'm not mistaken in a couple of players out there you know and I started
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  watching it and just my love for Notre Dame I'll tell you let's go.
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  And that's how I started to feel that
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  love because again I want people to understand where
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  I was grew up in the Bronx the South Boogie Brook
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  Avenue Cypress Avenue we had some
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  demons over there there's some demons
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  out there but we had demons out there the streets
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  wasn't safe for nobody but your boy decided
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  you know what let me be the small one
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  stay home on saturdays where they mostly
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  play these college football game and what i was
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  watching on saturdays for the most part notre dame and there was some classic
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  games that i watched and that year 1991 being exposed to you know these players
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  that would wind up becoming a nfl hall of famer we got the coach Lou Holtz, oh,
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  I remember Lou, Jerome Bettis.
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  You already know for those people, Jerome Bettis, one NFL, Rams,
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  then Steelers. The rest is history.
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  Ray Sellers, oh, my God, that's another gentleman out there.
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  Aaron Taylor was one I think he came after.
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  Man, we had some good stuff out there in Notre Dame. For those who remember
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  those days, ooh, man, and wake up the echoes.
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  Let's get it. And one of the things that being in that class,
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  being exposed to football, it's like I love football in general and I fall in love.
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  And 1992 season, 93 season.
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  I also remember Gravitator to the movie Rudy, which is based on Daniel Ratliff, the story.
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  You know, Rudy is a story where this person was not given a chance because either their size or whatever.
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  In the case of Rudy, he was a small football player who had a big heart who
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  wanted to play football, and he was able to be given an opportunity.
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  Now, the movie Rudy, it might exaggerate a little bit,
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  thing but it's those stories on life where they
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  everything is against you you know what i'm saying
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  and this is just genuine life that everything is
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  against you but your heart and your belief in yourself and
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  your determination that you could do it you could do it and
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  then you just made it you know what i mean and rudy
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  was that story of that young man who
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  you know you're too short you too this you know you're
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  not that smart you know going to university of nothing today was a
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  private an institution a private school and let
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  me tell you something and you know just to give you a heads up is a roman catholic
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  institution i say roman catholic because
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  i want to be sometimes specific on that situation and i
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  remember back in 2009 when i went to notre dave i remember seeing the uh how
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  can i say some couple of tailgating parties people eating their burgers their
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  beers i think that there was a tailgate part where they offered you know i think
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  it was like $25, whatever.
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  And I'm saying to myself, nah, you know, I'll wait until I go inside a stadium,
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  and have me a couple of beers and whatnot.
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  So when I go inside a stadium, I start seeing, if I'm not mistaken,
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  I start seeing the signs, Coke, Coke, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola.
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  And that's when it hits me when I'm like, oh yes, it's a religious Catholic
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  institution and they don't sell beer. Oh, come on, man.
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  Wow. What a dry day, but that's fine. I got to watch my notes today.
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  I watch, to watch my boys, woo!
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  You know, it's a lot of plays that I grew up watching. And, again,
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  I gravitate to the early 90s with Lou, you know, Rick Meyer,
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  you know, Reggie Brooks, Jerome Battison, them plays Lake Dawson.
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  So it's the good old days. And, you know, I could go on to the history and the
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  love, but my boys are playing tomorrow.
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  Marcus Peter and them, oh, we got a good team. We got a lot of good plays out there.
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  And this for me, as a fan of Notre Dame, my thing is this.
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  This is the most physical team I've seen in a long time.
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  Because sometimes Notre Dame, if you look at the history of Notre Dame,
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  you know, we had physical boys back in the 80s, 90s, but it looked like somebody
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  else was stepping up, you know, getting better, getting better.
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  And, you know, we lost our touch. We lost our aura of the uniqueness of the
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  Notre Dame fighting Irish.
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  And one of those things is that you know the the roster
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  the people that's here oh we we got some
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  ballers we got plays that are definitely physical and
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  playing where i feel like hey listen we could
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  do it we could definitely do it and it's gonna
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  be tough against the ohio state the ohio states
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  they got some good boys over there but i just want to
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  over here share my little story of how
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  I became a big Notre Dame fan in the early echoes of the early 90s in the Bronx
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  being Puerto Rican here myself you know again it's those stories and I'm a sucker
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  for those stories that that that just you know it's like two different words
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  just colliding you know what I'm saying.
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  You know, just two different words. It's like, you know, the story of the Jamaican bobsled team, right?
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  It doesn't snow in Jamaica, you know, but you got a bobsled team because you
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  have runners there, good runners. Jamaica always got good runners.
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  And you just put them in this sport that is winter, you know, which is bobsledding.
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  And I love those, you know, again, even Japanese baseball, even though baseball
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  is an American thing, you know, who would have thought, damn,
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  Japan have mastered the art of baseball.
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  You know what I'm saying? like wow even though baseball is
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  big in the caribbean and you know i would say you know
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  cuba dominican republic those people they got
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  savages out there in the in the dr but just
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  how fascinating to to think
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  like this sports especially sports that were created
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  in united state or founded in united states that other countries
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  or other people other entities enjoy it because
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  sometimes sports and if you look at the history of sports
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  it's universal so we making it happen hope you enjoyed this podcast please feel
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  free to share all that good stuff we're gonna head tomorrow we're gonna bust
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  those ohio state we're gonna make it happen let's go notre dame fighting irish you already know,
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  let's go irish let's go and i'm out peace.