Notre Dame fans storm football field in THOUSANDS after upset victory over Clemson Tigers

Sunday, November 8, was a historic night for Notre Dame's football team as Fighting Irish scored a double-overtime, 47-40, victory over the nation’s top-ranked team, the Clemson Tigers. The team's post-game celebration, however, soon turned sour after thousands of fans poured onto the field to celebrate the massive wins with the players. Within minutes, the football field in Notre Dame Stadium in Indiana had over 10,000 fans, with several fans spotted without masks.

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Notre Dame fans rush field despite COVID case spike in US

Sunday's game was the biggest game at the Notre Dame Stadium since the No.1 Southern California beat the Fighting Irish with the Push Bush in 2005. Despite the COVID-19 restrictions in place, the stadium reportedly had 11,011 fans in attendance, which mostly constituted of the students of the university.

After Clemson's desperate attempt to convert a late TD ended in a scrum, Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book tossed his helmet and ran onto the field to celebrate the massive victory with his teammates. Soon enough, fans flooded the field in numbers, throwing all CDC social distancing guidelines out of the window. The announcer asked the fans to leave the field but the chaos continued for several minutes before fans finally emptied the field.

Ian Book told reporters after the unexpected situation that it was fun to see all fans celebrating the big win together. "A night I’ll never forget, no matter how old I am, I know I’ll remember this game forever,” Book said after the helter-skelter celebration. “Just a special moment. When the fans stormed the field, it was actually pretty cool. It was really fun.”

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While it was indeed a special experience for Notre Dame players, the celebration was extremely reckless considering the United States is recording over 100,000 COVID-19 cases daily. The 'Notre Dame field' celebration will be under further scrutiny, considering the university reported 138 COVID cases last week. The university was heavily slammed online for doing nothing to avoid the situation even though they anticipated such an over-the-top reaction for Sunday.

Notre Dame HC Brian Kelly even warned the players that fans would definitely storm the field if his team scored a win against Clemson, which would be their first win against the Tigers in 27 years. That is exactly what happened and the authority did nothing to prevent fans from reading the field. University President Rev. John I. Jenkins issued a statement after the game, requesting students to “recommit” and exercise increased caution during the current times of increased COVID risk in the country. 

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Social media unsurprisingly exploded after the celebration with viewers at home not one bit impressed with what they saw on television. Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James found it ironic that the NBA is struggling to get the approval to allow fans in the arena, while fans in Notre Dame are raiding the field:

Notre Dame highlights

The Clemson vs Notre Dame game became the most-watched Notre Dame game on NBC in 15 years, per the stats released by Nielsen. It racked up 9.44 million viewers across NBC TV and NBC Sports Digital, with a peak viewership of at 14.2 million. It will likely be ranked as the most viewed game of the season after the official viewership numbers, which also includes the out-of-home audience, is released on Tuesday. 

Notre Dame (7-0) will face Boston College (4-3) next week, while Clemson (7-1) will take on Florida State (1-5) next.

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(Image Credits: AP/Twitter)