Michael Richards, best known for his portrayal of the bizarre character of Kramer on the television comedy Seinfeld, began spouting obscenities and using the word “nigger” towards two black hecklers in the audience while attempting to perform a stand-up comedy routine last Friday. He has since apologized saying:

“For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I’m deeply, deeply sorry.” and “I’m not a racist. That’s what’s so insane about this.”

He issued the apology via satellite feed on the Late Show with David Letterman.

My take on it? This is worse than Mel Gibson’s tirade. Although I find neither situation to be excusable, in Gibson’s case he was drunk and was raised by an anti-Semitic father. Richards was presumably sober, and as far as I know, not raised in a racist household, although I could be wrong. Either way, this type of behavior is despicable.

But something else from the above article bothered me as well, a quote from comic Paul Rodriguez who was also at the club that night:

“Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don’t happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining [to do].”

Why is it that it’s OK to use a racist term if you happen to be of that race? Shouldn’t we relegate such terms to the trash heap of history? I’ve heard the argument put forth that it’s a way of defusing the word, by claiming it as their own group’s, can take away its meaning. I suppose that would be the case with the gay community’s embracing of the term “queer.” But in the case of “nigger,” I agree with Bill Cosby in that it’s being embraced in such a way that seems to create more division and more strife among blacks, and between blacks and non-blacks. It just doesn’t seem right to use the word, but I guess its something I may never understand.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Here is the YouTube video of Richards’s outburst. (Obviously, it contains racial epithets.) And here’s the video of his Late Show apology.

We interrupt this week of fervent Trojan-rooting and good-natured Irish-bashing to bring you this awesome highlight video from the ND-Army game, made by famed ND highlight-video guy Nevin O’Donnell. I’m posting it here with the caveat that the Irish Trojan does not endorse or condone the sentiments expressed in the final 15 seconds of the video. :)

UPDATE: I moved my videos (and Lisa’s) to a new post, above.

Since I’m “one of the biggest dorks…on the internet,” I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is now available on Yahoo. (Hat tip: Kristin.)

Watch the whole thing. Big Ben is involved!

The movie is due out on July 13, 2007. I’ve added that date to the countdown thingy at left. Woohoo! Can’t wait!

1) I’ve been hostile in the past to Andrew’s suggestion of ad-hoc bowl configurations, particularly the idea of spontaneously adding a “plus-one” bowl “if necessary,” because of the obvious logistical problems… but it occurs to me, this is the perfect year for such an idea. If USC wins out, why not just let the Trojans play Michigan in the Rose Bowl, with the winner playing Ohio State in Glendale a week later? It would be perfect! And the only downside is that some one-loss Big East or two-loss SEC team wouldn’t get a BCS at-large bid. Who cares?

2) If Nebraska, Arkansas, and Georgia Tech win their respective conference-championship games, and assuming the foregone conclusion that Notre Dame gets a BCS at-large invitation, USC and Notre Dame will each have played three BCS bowl-bound teams on their regular-season schedules. I wonder if that’s ever happened before, particularly to a team that is itself BCS-bound? (And yes, I know there’s an extra BCS bowl this season. But in all likelihood, it wouldn’t matter: under last year’s system, Boise State wouldn’t be an automatic qualifier, and Michigan and Notre Dame would most likely have gotten the two at-large bids, assuming the Irish are still in the top 12 after losing to the Trojans on Saturday, which I think they will be unless it’s a 2002-esque blowout.)

Some Domers know the proper way to deal with good-natured taunting: not blind rage or personal insults, but by taunting good-naturedly right back! Here’s Lisa, a Double Domer, wearing last year’s Halloween costume and rubbing in my face the fact that she has tickets and I don’t:

Here’s a better view of the whole outfit, which she made from her high-school cheerleading uniform:

That’s a backwards victory sign that she’s doing, if you can’t tell.

Here she is with me and fellow Irish Trojan 3L Steve:

But, taunts aside, we Irish Trojans just wanna have fu-un. Here’s a photo of me and 1L Katherine, another USC grad:

Katherine is staying in South Bend over Thanksgiving, and says she plans to wear that shirt to a bar in town during the game. See, I have spirit. Katherine has a death wish. :)

Anyway, here’s a shot of just me and Steve:

Fight on!

Christian Lebanese Parliament member Pierre Gemayel was shot and killed today in Beirut, senior Lebanese government officials said. Visit CNN for the latest.

Call me superstitious, but this makes me nervous — not for this Saturday’s game, but for next Saturday’s. The Victory Bell is reserved for taunting UCLA Bruins only, not Cal Bears, dammit!

On the other hand, if it was used as a sort of “rally bell” after the Trojans tied the game at 9-9 on Ferris David Buehler’s 49-yard field goal, I suppose it did work rather well!

Anyway, this Boi From Troy post also mentions the Victory Bell shenanigans, but what really makes me laugh is the title. Boi notes that the Trojans “have guaranteed themselves a trip to either Pasadena or Glendale” and then asks in the title: “What about Burbank?” Heh. (Non-SoCal types, don’t try to understand.)

Also from Boi, on his AOL gig, is this video of Traveler galloping — and the Olympic Torch lighting up. With apologies to Tim McCarthy, the lighting of the Torch has gotta be the coolest start-of-the-fourth-quarter tradition in college football.

(Hat tip: Kristin on the McCarthy article.)

The Blue-Gray Sky, the dean of the Domershere, makes the case for why “Anyone But Michigan” should play Ohio State in the national championship game.

ESPN’s Rece Davis evidently agrees, writing on last weekend’s College Football Final page:

Over the last few weeks, the popular phrase, “College football’s regular season already is a playoff” has been used too many times to count. Now comes the big test for that theory. If the regular season truly is a playoff, then there can be no such thing as a rematch of Ohio State and Michigan, because Michigan would be eliminated. If a rematch occurs, then those words should never be uttered again.

Also on ESPN.com, the Page 2 crew is making the case for — and against — a rematch.

Meanwhile, over at SI.com, Stewart Mandel predicts that Michigan will fall victim to “Brad Banks Syndrome.”

I already addressed this question, or some aspects of it at least, here.

From ND blog Rakes of Mallow’s list of “links that will surely send you over the edge” this USC Week: “Irish Trojan’s Blog - This guy is a USC undergrad, ND law student and is one of the biggest dorks I have ever come across on the internet, which is saying something. Nothing will infuriate you more than some of this guy’s s**t.”

Heh. Glad to be of service. Welcome, fellow Domers! Fight on!

As I expected would happen, the folks at ND Nation are having a blast at my (and Becky’s) expense this lovely USC Week. Which is fine, as far as it goes, but it’s too bad they’re all apparently five years old. (Fat jokes are hilarious! And the best solution to any problem is physical violence!) Ah, ND Nation… the bottom of the Notre Dame fan-site barrel, totally unrepresentative of how decent and classy most Irish fans are. But hey, they sure drive traffic! So, welcome to my blog, a**holes! :)

On a more significant note, some people may be genuinely confused about the whole “dual loyalties” thing. Happens every year around this week in the football calendar. The reality is that, contra mkovac, I don’t just root for the Irish “to be the fatted cow to be slaughtered by SC to make the Trojans look good.” I root for the Irish — in every game but one — because they’re my second-favorite team. This makes perfect sense, given that USC is my undergrad alma mater and Notre Dame is my law school. I’m hardly the only grad/law student who has ever had to grapple with dual loyalties. Most handle it precisely as I do: rooting for their undergrad alma mater first, their grad school second. In my mind, that’s the “proper” order of loyalties.

What makes it a little trickier for me is that USC-ND is not just a game, but a rivalry game. I have a few classmates who attended rival schools who couldn’t bring themselves to root for Notre Dame, even in the games that don’t involve their alma maters. One Michigan grad, for example, told me that he thought maybe he’d become an Irish fan (except for the Michigan game, of course) once he got here, but then the first time he heard the ND band playing the Victory March during practice, it made him “physically ill” and he realized he could never root for the Irish. I understand that; I’d probably feel the same way if I’d gone to law school at UCLA. But I never hated Notre Dame — in fact, when I was in undergrad, I cared much more about the USC-UCLA rivalry than the USC-ND rivalry. So it wasn’t that much of a leap for me to become an Irish fan (except when they play the Trojans, of course).

It gets trickier still, though, because USC-ND isn’t just any old rivalry. Because both teams are historically good, and because it’s a non-conference, intersectional showdown, it’s often the Game. Of. The. Year. for both teams. And because this is college football, any loss is life-threatening to one’s BCS title hopes, and a November loss is almost assuredly fatal. So that makes it tough, especially in even years, rooting for one team all season while knowing that I’ll end up rooting against them in the biggest game of all. But what can I say? Being loyal to both of those schools is the hand I’ve been dealt. And while it might have been easier, in terms of my sports rooting interests, if I’d gone to Boston U. or George Washington or Cardozo for law school, it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun!

That “fun” point is one that I think most people don’t understand. There is, initially, a certain agonizing quality about having dual loyalties. (I wrote a bit about that aspect back in August.) But once you get past that, it actually becomes really enjoyable. I’ve definitely grown very comfortable in my “Irish Trojan” skin, as the name of this blog and my general enthusiasm for USC Week suggests. Why? Well, it gives me an opportunity to confuse the heck out of strangers, which is always entertaining, and tell lots of stories that fellow sports fans are genuinely interested in (like how I was an ‘SC fan in the ND student section last October 15). But above all, rooting against a team you normally root for is actually really fun. I’m not talking bandwagoning here — I mean when you’ve got genuine dual loyalties, and those loyalties force you to root against a team you like, you might as well embrace it, because it ends up being a blast. You have more ammunition for trash-talking, because you know a lot about the team, and, well, there’s a certain impish joy in poking fun at the players and coaches you normally cheer for. For example: I grew up in Connecticut, so I generally root for the UConn Huskies. But of course, my loyalty to Notre Dame trumps that general regional affiliation, so when the Huskies come to town, I root for the Irish. And if there’s one basketball game I make sure not to miss, it’s that one. Last year, I had a blast heckling UConn women’s coach Geno Auriemma from the ND student section, even though I like Geno. (Even though, in fact, I’m friends with the guy who’s dating his daughter. True story! He’s the guy at left in this picture of us tailgating at the UConn-Army game in October.) Nothing terribly mean, mind you — just harmless taunts like saying his tie was ugly and such. I can’t really explain why this is so much fun, but it is. If you’ve only ever rooted for one team, I suppose you wouldn’t understand. But if you ever find yourself in the position of having dual loyalties, for whatever reason — say you move to a new city, and “adopt” its teams except when they play your old city’s teams, or whatever — you’ll see what I mean.

Anyway, like I said, my Irish fandom isn’t some sort of elaborate ploy to make the Trojans look good. That’s ridiculous. If ND beats USC and somehow makes it into the title game, I will root like hell for the Irish to win the title, even though at that point it can’t “help” the Trojans. More realistically, I’ll root for the Irish in the Sugar Bowl, or wherever they end up, regardless of the USC-ND outcome. Just like how, after last year’s USC-ND game was over, I cheered for Notre Dame in its last six games, plus the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State. Of course I did. They’re my second-favorite team!

Frankly, I don’t understand what people don’t understand about this. Of course the initial confusion (”An ‘Irish Trojan’? Huh?”) makes perfect sense, but once it’s explained — I went to undergrad at USC, I go to law school at Notre Dame — most people “get it.” Those who don’t, I think, are generally the folks who take sports way too seriously for their own good. People, it’s football. It’s not like I’m claiming to be a “Jew for Jesus” or something. If your feelings about Notre Dame, or USC, or any sports team really, are so overwhelmingly intense that your whole belief system is shattered by the notion of a person with dual loyalties, you may want to dial down the sports obsession just a notch. Don’t get me wrong, I love sports generally, and college football specifically, as much as the next guy — but at the end of the day, it’s just a game. A small but vocal minority of Domers seems to be very confused on that point. Let me try to clear things up: just because Notre Dame is named after the Virgin Mary doesn’t mean ND football is actually a religion.

Anyway, one last point. About my calling it “USC Week”… technically, Ken is right when he says: “As a USC fan….isn’t this Notre Dame week…not USC week!!” Yeah, normally that would be true. But the thing is, I live in South Bend, and I spend a chunk of each day (well, most days) on Notre Dame’s campus. As such, for me, in my everyday life, this is USC Week. And I freakin’ love it! Fight on! Beat the Irish!

… but he’ll sure be able to tell you all about who beat them.

Johnny DuRocher, a reserve quarter back for the University of Washington, who spent some time playing during the past two seasons, was diagnosed with a brain tumor this past week during examination following a concussion suffered during the Huskies game against Stanford. Reportedly its non-cancerous but he will likely never play football again.

Okay, let me get this straight. The Dems finally gain power in Washington, and their big plan to maintain popular support is to pointlessly propose a needless draft?

No big surprise, but: ESPN GameDay is going to L.A. for the USC-Notre Dame game.

This will be the fifth time GameDay has originated from USC in the last three seasons, after never having been there before prior to the Cal game in 2004 (which I flew out for — just for GameDay, I didn’t have tickets to the actual game). It’s the second time Kirk, Corso & co. have visited the Coliseum this season (the first was Nebraska), and it’s the third consecutive USC-ND game they’ve been to.

Two students were killed today when a school bus ran off the I-565 overpass in Huntsville, Alabama, according to local officials. Visit CNN for the latest.