I have been a Notre Dame football fan since I could walk. Watching Sunday morning replays of the Notre Dame games were the highlight of my week. One of the worst days of my life was when USC's Anthony Davis scored six touchdowns against the Irish.

Recently, my family and I moved to the Annapolis area, and as a lover of college football, I purchased season tickets to Navy Football. I have grown to admire and respect what Navy Football and the United States Naval Academy represent, even with their dismal won-loss record.

I was deeply saddened by an incident this weekend in Baltimore toward the end of the hard-fought contest. After the Irish scored the winning touchdown with less than two minutes left, the Notre Dame Leprechaun danced in joy across the field and then stomped on the Navy "N" at the 50-yard line. He made sure the entire 70,000-plus crowd saw this mockery as he stomped several times, emphatically.

Since this happened during the TV timeout, I doubt the national TV audience saw this, for which I am thankful. I did find it difficult to explain this to my nine-year-old basketball-playing daughter who was sitting next to me. And I cannot even begin to describe the faces of the Navy Alumni who were sitting around me after this display.

I think I need to remind this mascot and those who follow the greatest football franchise on earth that you have to answer to a higher moral authority as a leader in college athletics. I do not think I am going out on a limb here by saying that I doubt if any one Navy football player could even make the Notre Dame football team, yet Navy out-played and out-hustled Notre Dame for 58 minutes. Players at Notre Dame are likely all either high school All-Americans or first team All-State. Navy players are usually second team All-County.

Keep in mind that this summer, while most of Notre Dame's graduating football seniors will be fighting for a job in the NFL, most of Navy's graduating midshipmen will likely be deployed on warships in the Persian Gulf.

As Edward Bennet Williams, deceased trial lawyer and ex-owner of the Baltimore Orioles once said, "Through my years of contest living, I have learned how to win with humility and lose with grace."

Rick Schwitzer

Severna Park, Md.

Nov. 11

• Republicans must avoid extremes in wake of election victories
  
• Anti-war activists should respect others' free speech as well as their own
  
• Irish must remember to win with honor, lose with grace
  
• Support for Rice and the Pope's teachings
  
• What would Democrats do differently?