Tater

April 19th, 2011 at 8:57 PM ^

I don't think ND needs to scapegoat anyone.  But it is their responsibility to make sure that the system contains safeguards against a situation like this.  

I am concerned that there is no mea culpa here.  The school needs to accept responsibility for providing an unsafe environment and make sure that a system is in place that prevents this ever happening again.  They need to provide closure to the Sullivan family.  Instead, they seem to figure that if they sling enough bullshit against the wall, it will all go away.  

It won't go away, and all they are doing is making it worse for everyone involved.  The bottom line is that ND is a lot better at talking about doing the right thing than actually doing it.

BlueDragon

April 19th, 2011 at 12:37 PM ^

No one - NO ONE - is getting fired. No one - NO ONE - is getting punished. No one - NO ONE - is accepting any real responsibility or acknowledging that the football program is such a monster that it’s steamrolling over two tragedies and driving right along as if Seeberg and Sullivan were merely losses to Navy and Tulsa.
No, don’t you dare suggest that Notre Dame president, Reverend John Jenkins, is taking any real responsibility for Sullivan’s death simply by saying he is. To cut through the spin control, what he’s doing is dispersing the blame by saying that “many individuals and departments” were to blame for the tragedy.

We-Are-N-D We Are Notre Dame.

thedayiscoming

April 19th, 2011 at 12:45 PM ^

What happened at ND was a tragic accident and I cant imagine the pain that the family of that young man has gone through.  We have no way of knowing that some deal has been cut behind closed doors to keep the family quiet.  Could it simply be that the family is accepting the situation for what it is...a tragic accident that was preventable.  How does destroying the lives of ND staff by firing everyone who could have been responsible make the situation any better?  Does making accusations about shady closed door deals without a shred of evidence make the situation any better?  The best course of action is to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again by educating everyone at ND (and nationwide for that matter) to the risks associated with the work and by putting safety procedures in place to prevent such occurances.  That seems to be the course ND is following.

blue note

April 19th, 2011 at 1:03 PM ^

Right, because there's never been an accident that wasn't one person's direct fault.

Not to get all pro-ND, but as someone who works with risk management every day, the truth  is that sometimes how we think things should be doesn't comport with reality.

 

 

Soulfire21

April 19th, 2011 at 1:05 PM ^

Anyone surprised?

Admittedly I thought Notre Dame would do better, but good Lord.  I guess what would we do as fans if it happened here?  *Trying to put myself in ND shoes, just not fitting though*

At any rate I hope it works out for everyone involved in the situation.  Except for Kelly, who is -- at least indirectly -- responsible for his death.  Not sure I want things to work out for him.

Brimley

April 19th, 2011 at 2:16 PM ^

 I live in Chicago and you had to have had your head COMPLETELY ass encapsulated that day to not know that the wind was coming.  The warnings were everywhere for a couple days ahead of time.  So while malice may have been absent, so was competence, and the result in this case is WAY past anything stupid I might do at work.

Second, my Irish friends here are in fact troubled by the lack of accountability we're seeing with two dead kids and now the Floyd deal.  Yes, you'll get the people who post stupid stuff in response to the original article, but the quiet majority I know really are concerned.

Last, "Irish" on this board surely understands how tragic this stuff is (past comments show it).  He doesn't need to be called out.

Blue_in_Cleveland

April 19th, 2011 at 5:46 PM ^

I'm a little surprised at all the hate and/or reprimand towards the family. There is no indication they took any money other than pure speculation. I am not aware of any info indicating this was anything but an accident. I am also willing to bet that a not so insignificant number of other schools said, oh crap, that could have been us, and then promptly performed a quiet internal review of the safety of their own practices.

It is not like there was any precedence of this happening before or any regulatory body suggesting before the fact that ND was engaging in unsafe taping. Lets just hope that we learn from this and no others students are hurt in similar circumstances now that we have seen a precedence.

jdog

April 19th, 2011 at 8:11 PM ^

Notre Dame has announced, after conducting a thorough investigation in the Sullivan case, that Charlie Weis will be fired.  Press release to follow.

DC_BLUE

April 19th, 2011 at 9:40 PM ^

Money was not the motivation for the family, although I would be surprised if they did not get something.  ND has this damage control down to a science, they did everything they could do to make the family feel at "home" with ND, including the special mass with people from his dorm with glasses like he wore, the declan scholarship, etc.

ND provided a choice, hang on to your anger and fight us & we take the memorializing stuff away or move on & let his death have "special meaning" (& ND save a load of $$$).

It is terrible & most ND alums I know are not happy about it, I think if Kelly was a 3rd yr coach with a 10-20 record, he would be gone but the people who have power at that school frankly do want to win again and are willing to have some rules bent to win.  If ND was still at the top of the college football world, then they would hold their head high but I think there is a feeling that they have been beaten down for a while & firing kelly would just send the program into 2/3 more years of oblivion & they dont want to do it even if it means scarificing some morals, it is sad b/c I always thought that ND was one of the cleaner programs, guess that's changed.