When I became a Notre Dame football fan, it was primarily because that’s who my grandpa said we were rooting for. He, having little good to say about BYU, meant just for this game. I took it to mean always.
It didn’t hurt that former Patriots offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis, was the Notre Dame head coach. Being from Massachusetts and already a rabid Patriots fan, that mattered to me. To add on, their nickname was the “Fighting Irish”, and being Irish was the most important thing in the world to my family. Not to mention, my nana would brag about things like the Notre Dame fight song being written by people from my hometown.