ShareThisBy JIM CARLISLE
Notre Dame football has always been a creature unto itself. Even when the Fighting Irish have had down years, there still has been: a.) Notre Dame and b.) the rest of college football.
Considering how everything else in the sport has changed over the years, it's remarkable Notre Dame remains unique.
I know there's a lot of people who love to hate Notre Dame _ and who have really been in their element since Charlie Weis arrived from the New England Patriots to be head coach _ who are thinking, "What makes Notre Dame so special?"
The answer can be summed up in two words: Television and radio.
NBC has televised every Irish home game for the past 15 years. It's unheard of for one school to have a national TV contract. The BCS negotiates TV contracts. Conferences negotiate TV contracts. Not single schools.
Westwood One broadcasts the entire Notre Dame schedule on radio to its affiliates throughout the nation. Again, single schools just don't do that. None of them, that is, except Notre Dame.
As an independent, the Irish, however, have had that kind of pull for a long time. People my age might remember Lindsay Nelson and Paul Hornung doing tape-delayed Notre Dame telecasts back in the 1960s and '70s. The games were condensed and I can still recall Nelson's voiceovers: "... We move to further action in the fourth quarter."
These days the action on TV is called by NBC's Tom Hammond and Pat Haden. Even though it's Notre Dame's package, Hammond said he and Haden do their best to play everything straight.
"I think if the opposing fans are complaining that we're biased for Notre Dame and the Notre Dame fans that we're complaining that we bend over backward not to be biased, I think we must be somewhere there in the middle.
"People assume, since (the only college football games we do are) Notre Dame home games, that we're Notre Dame homers and I think we go to great lengths not to be.
"I think this is in keeping with Notre Dame's philosophy. I don't think Notre Dame wants us to be homers. They run their football program in a classy way and I think they want us to be classy as well."
Hammond noted other classy touches exhibited at Notre Dame that viewers may not see.
"Before the game, the band plays the opposing team's fight song as a courtesy; they invite the opposing team's band director to direct the Notre Dame band in the national anthem. Every usher at Notre Dame Stadium says, 'Welcome to Notre Dame Stadium,' whether you're a fan of the opponents or of the home team. I think it's just in keeping with the way Notre Dame runs its football program and it's in the spirit of the way Pat and I approach the game as honest broadcasters. Our constituents are the viewers and I don't think there is any room to be Notre Dame homers. Obviously we enjoy doing the games and we admire Notre Dame football, but we try to be as fair as we can be."
No. 2 Notre Dame, which hosts No. 11 Michigan on Saturday, earned a 4.7 rating and an 11 share on NBC for its home opener last week against Penn State. That's up 24 percent from last year's home opener vs. Michigan State.
Haden, ironically, does Notre Dame games after being a quarterback at USC. This season, not only will he do Irish games, but Notre Dame hosts UCLA on Oct. 21.
"I did do some Pac-10 games for CBS," Haden said, "so I have done some UCLA games over the years, but not in a long, long time."
He won't do the Nov. 25 USC game, however, because it's at the Coliseum this year.
Haden reminded reporters on a conference call the Irish also play Stanford this season.
"I figure (the Irish) have a chance of winning the Pac-10 this year," he joked.
