The Notre Dame football program is not exactly having a great week. First there was the Monday night disappointment in losing to Ohio State in the National Championship game.
Then, there was the departure of defensive coordinator Al Golden within hours of the official end of the Irish season. And then on Friday, the Blue and Gold lost their general manager to a hated rival who reportedly offered him more than triple than what he was making in South Bend.
And now, as it turns out the allegations that the Notre Dame football team were less than professional and even more than just “amateur hour” in the moments after the game aren’t going away. A few days after journalist Dan Wolken made the amateur hour claim, the reporter said that some of the Irish players even acted “threatening” towards him.
Notre Dame football players accused of threatening reporter
After Wolken argued on Twitter with several Notre Dame fans over what they felt were reports that weren’t backed up by any other reporters, the reporter went on Reddit to continue the allegations.
Wolken said he wanted to ask Irish defensive back Christian Gray about the game clinching pass that Jeremiah Smith caught that allowed Ohio State to kick a late field goal and ice the National Championship game. Wolken said he saw that other reporters had already asked Gray about Smith and that some of his teammates took issue with it.
“A few players were shouting obscenities at the reporters who had been there,” Wolken wrote.
“I noticed that a staff member had walled off access to the locker and said that he wasn’t going to answer questions about the play,” Wolken continued. “So I turned around to leave because there was no point wasting my time and was going to go over to the Ohio State locker room. As I was leaving, a few players said some pretty threatening and insulting things to me as well.”
It’s worth pointing out that while Awful Announcing claims Wolken wasn’t the only reporter who saw this happen, there have been almost no media members who have come forward to corroborate.
Following the report of Wolken’s claims, fans took to social media to cast some doubt on the veracity.
“Can’t wait to hear the audio or see the video,” one Twitter user wrote. “Someone appears to really want attention.”
“Yeah Wolken is the only one saying this. He was tweeting about it yesterday. So now it’s gone from him saying they were yelling and being “nasty”, now to them threatening him,” another wrote. He was probably in their faces saying stupid s— and p—ng them off.”
“This article is something,” wrote another about the report Awful Announcing posted. “Not even a question about the validity of the story that no one else corroborates?”
If Notre Dame football players did threaten Dan Wolken, that’s unacceptable and should be dealt with. If they were upset because they just lost a game and reporters were being a bit heavy-handed with a young player who was distraught after a game losing play, then the reporters involved need to take a step back.
