Notre Dame football’s first appearance in a national championship game in 24 years is already filled with drama, the source of which is the Irish’s decision to include players’ name plates on the back of their jerseys.
As of 10:00 AM ET on Tuesday, tweets posted by Notre Dame equipment manager Ryan Grooms and the football team’s official Twitter feed with photos of the jerseys have been retweeted a combined 854 times (both were posted Monday afternoon). They’ve also spurred many responses.
@gofightinirish wow im having mixed feelings About this
— a schoett (@LYSSen_up_yalll) December 10, 2012
@gofightinirish all in all they play for the name on the front of the jersey not the back #goirish
— Kevin McCarthy (@leftylaxer10) December 10, 2012
The echoes are gonna be PISSED RT @tomfornelli: Photo: Notre Dame jerseys will feature player names during title game – cbsprt.co/VMN018
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) December 10, 2012
Notre Dame to have player names on Jerseys for BCS Championship. A new tradition. As long as we only do it for Bowl games, I’m good with it.
— Rob (@NotreDameRob) December 11, 2012
It’s become a ritual under head coach Brian Kelly for the Irish jerseys to include nameplates in the team’s bowl games. So far the team is 1–1 in such games, with a win in the 2010 Sun Bowl and a loss in the ’11 Champs Sports Bowl.
If this is confined to bowl games, we don’t mind. Plus, as College Football Nation’s Matt Fortuna points out, they’re not nearly as big a faux pas as the team’s infamous Shamrock Series uniforms.
[ESPN]
