It was a great night for Notre Dame football this past Saturday. Fresh off of a surprising loss to Louisville, the Fighting Irish bounced back with a dominant, statement win over 2022 Heisman winner Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans. After the game, Notre Dame fans stormed the field to celebrate the win over the previously unbeaten Trojans … and to troll a man who is months away from becoming the number one pick in the NFL Draft and a multi-millionaire.

Now in fairness, this is mostly harmless. No obscenities + no racial slurs + no physical violence = mostly harmless fun, at least in my book. Did Caleb Williams deserve to have salt poured in a very fresh and very open wound? Probably not, but I'm not a Notre Dame alum, so when Williams painted “F*** ND” on his nails last year, I didn't really have a problem with it. As long as this is as far as it ever goes, consider me pro storming the field. But of course, there's always a risk that it will go much further than this.

So, here's the thing: If you're a sports fan and you choose to go to a school that has even a mediocre sports program and a rival or two, storming the field and/or court after a big win is a fundamental part of the college experience. It's no different than having a party busted because the music too loud, having a laptop break the week of finals, or having a professor who has a neck beard. I say this because my firsthand experience tells me it's the case. In my time at Florida Gulf Coast University, I was able to partake in two court storming's, had one party busted because we had a window open and were bumping Rick Ross way too loud, one laptop malfunction during finals week that resulted in a minor mental breakdown, and at least four professors with neck beards. One even routinely wore argyle sweaters. Hand to God.

Now when I stormed the court, I had zero interest in engaging with any of the players from the opposing school. I just wanted to jump around, scream really loud, congratulate some of the players I knew on the team, and be an otherwise harmless hooligan. Unfortunately for college athletes, not all fans in the student section share this mindset, and in addition to that, it's not always the case that the player who is on the receiving end of the taunting will handle it as well as Caleb Williams did.