Devastating news for Delco and Northeast Philadelphia.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will not be playing football this weekend against Wake Forest because 13 of their players are self-isolating due to COVID-19.

From ESPN:

“In a statement Tuesday, Notre Dame said seven players tested positive for coronavirus out of 94 tests done Monday. Combined with testing results from last week, 13 players are in isolation, with 10 in quarantine. As a result, Notre Dame has paused all football-related activities. The two schools are working on a date to reschedule the game.

“With student-athlete health and safety our primary focus, we will continue to follow our prevention protocols and ongoing testing procedures,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said in a statement. “We managed an increase in positivity rates in August, and the players handled it wonderfully.

…

Wake Forest athletic director John Currie said in a statement they are working on rescheduling the game for Oct. 3, a mutual open date the two schools share.”

This is the fourth ACC game affected by COVID, but problems have popped up all across the country. Baylor and Houston have lost games, along with Memphis and TCU.

Notre Dame was 2-0 and supposed to have a bye after the Wake Forest game, so they’ll just try to bump it back a week, then they get Florida State, Louisville, and the stinky Pittsburgh Panthers in three straight weeks. You’ll recall the Fighting Irish were invited to play in the ACC this year despite typically playing an independent football schedule.

I documented my distaste for the school in a recent column titled “Shame on the ACC for Throwing Arrogant Notre Dame a Lifeline” –

“The bowl-game stealers should have been left to flounder, to pay for their “we’re above joining a conference” entitlement and self-placement on a pedestal that’s higher than your school. They’ve always thought themselves to be better than other programs despite going 6-8 in bowl games over the last 20 years while getting obliterated in the 2013 title game and 2018 playoff semifinal, which means that they’re not Clemson, not Bama, not LSU, and not Ohio State. They’re a second-tier team these days, whether they want to accept it or not.

Legions of Notre Dame “fans,” who didn’t go to Notre Dame and can’t point to South Bend on a map, will laud the move and say things like, “why wouldn’t the ACC invite us in?” They’ll talk about the history of the program and the national TV ratings and all of that stuff, ignorant to the fact that they can build their own schedule and qualify for the playoff without winning a conference and without winning a conference championship game. And then at 8-4 they’ll take the bowl game of a Big 10 team that went 9-3 and deserves to be there more than the Domers do.

That’s why people dislike Notre Dame. Because they think they’re above everybody else. They don’t need to join a conference. They want to do things their own way, and then when extenuating circumstances present themselves, the ACC comes to the rescue.”

Without football this weekend, Notre Dame fans will have to settle for watching the Yankees and Lakers instead.