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An Open Letter to Tyrone Willingham

Dear "Sir", occasionally in this life, circumstances arise that awaken a need to write a letter to somebody or some thing. This is one of those times.

It is with the loosest of meanings that I address you as "sir", as my feelings for you will be evident as you read this letter. I would like to speak to you specifically about the unmanageable devastation that you have brought to the Notre Dame football program.

Mr. Willingham, why can't you just move on? Why must you continue to cause this once proud football power further embarrassment? After disappearing for two years, you have come crawling out of your Washington woodwork and are now entirely responsible for Notre Dame's deplorable start this season. Does your petty sadism know no bounds? Why won't you stop bringing this school down to your level? Mediocrity is no longer acceptable at Notre Dame, so why won't you just go away!

But since you obviously refuse to leave, would you care to explain yourself and tell us how you could have allowed things to go so wrong?

Nevermind, I know you'll never respond. You never do. I am amazed at your crass nature and your lack of acknowledgement at what you have done. It's as if you take no blame for this team's start, even though everybody knows that it is your players that have caused this. It's amazing that Charlie Weis was able to take these players to two consecutive BCS Bowl games prior to this year. But not even Charlie Weis can counter a third consecutive year of coaching your players.

But soon all of your players will be gone and your legacy of failure will finally be over. I sincerely hope this year's record is put on your career mark and not on Coach Weis', because he is not responsible for any of this.

Even the greatest pilot in the world can only fly a plane if it has wings. And what you have done is given Coach Weis a plane with temporary wings and no means to build new ones! And then you have given him a parachute and packed it with an anvil. You are a small and hateful man, Mr. Willingham!

But hear me now--Notre Dame will come back from your reign of terror. And it will be soon. The Irish will bear some scars, but with time, scars fade. As will your legacy.

And as you sit in your cozy office, undoubtedly stroking your cat "Mr. Buckles" and laughing at what you have created, I want you to know that we will not forget what you have done--and continue to do--to Notre Dame.

As I type this, Fighting Irish fans have to come to their team's defense constantly. (At least the small part of the team with Charlie Weis' players, because everybody knows that it's your players who have caused this.)

Your time-release recruiting has destroyed this season and your lack of ownership is damnable. You have left this program in such a state that it can no longer compete with the likes of Georgia Tech, Michigan State and Penn State like it once could. It is as if you have slipped Notre Dame a mickey and it has awoken in a motel bathtub full of ice and missing both kidneys. Except this is no urban legend. This is reality. Terrible, stark reality.

And now you have given every idiot with a computer and a dram of language skills free license to spew their spewings like an eastside fire hydrant on a hot summer day. And people read it and believe it like fish swallowing worms of lies! People want to blame Charlie Weis for where this program is right now and we both know that that is ridiculous. Nobody could turn a program around in the amount of time Charlie Weis has had. Not Bob Stoops, not Jim Tressel and not Urban Meyer.

And it's no coincidence that Urban Meyer turned Notre Dame down when the head coaching job was offered to him. He knew that he could not right this ship after what you had done to it. Only one man accepted that challenge. One great man. Charlie Weis stepped in to save this ship. And while he is busy bailing out the water that that you allowed this ship to take on, he is also having to steer a boat that hasn't had a steady bearing in years. And it is almost impossible for one man to do all of this. But Charlie Weis is more than just one man. He is a Notre Dame man. That is something that you will never understand. And how could you?

I only wish you had been fired after one season so that your ripples would only be felt for a few more years.

So now the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are left to battle with a handful of talented players and a slewful of your uncoachable carnage. How dare you allow this to happen on your watch! How dare you not take action before your program was this shameful! How dare you not bring in a quarterback to bridge the gap from Brady Quinn to Jimmy Clausen!

And now you act like your hands are clean. You act like there is no guilt on your part. You pretend that though you have been gone for over three years now, that your aftershocks are no longer felt. Your hubris is only matched by your wanton ignorance!

You will not win this fight!

Mr. Willingham, when you look at yourself in the mirror, what you should see is a man who has failed. A man who has failed to destroy a football program. A man who has failed to destroy the dreams and totally realistic expectations of an entire fan base. A man who has failed to destroy the multitudinous coaching ability of Charlie Weis. And a man who has failed to keep silent the echoes of Our Lady.

Because of what you have done, things may seem bleak right now. The players that you have brought to Notre Dame have infected the program like Conquistadors spreading smallpox to a once-great Aztec empire.

But this empire will not fall away into the history books.

Notre Dame's history is still being written.

There are plenty of echoes left to awake.

And your attempts to diminish Notre Dame's history will ultimately fail.

Eventually.

Infuriatingly yours,

America