Stephen A. Smith mocks Notre Dame fanbase, compares them to Dallas Cowboys

The fanbase at Notre Dame is a national one, with fans around the country despite being a small Catholic school in Indiana. It’s that fanbase that has become part of who the Irish are as a program with a large following everywhere they seem to go.

For ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, it’s a little bit funny that Notre Dame has so many fans given their lack of postseason success over the last few decades. It even led to him mocking Irish fans, comparing them to the Dallas Cowboys fans ahead of the National Championship Game.

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“I want to say this about Notre Dame, if they were to win, to answer the question directly,” Stephen A. Smith said on First Take. “I don’t understand where the hell this fanbase comes from. I mean, it’s not quite the damn Cowboys but when you think Cowboys, Lakers in basketball, Yankees in baseball — you’re like damn, Notre Dame. They ain’t in a conference. They haven’t been relevant since 1988.”

At this point, Molly Qerim, the show’s host, cut in to explain that Notre Dame was the only option on TV for a long time and that the access to see the program is part of what has made the program so popular historically. However, by that time, Smith was on a roll and kept going to explain how in the past Notre Dame hadn’t even had much of a chance in the postseason.

“Even when they were in the National Championship Game against Alabama, we knew they were gonna get romped. We knew they were gonna get romped,” Smith said. “They got their ass kicked. We knew beforehand they were gonna get their ass kicked. This is different. We’re looking at this team right now and saying, they’ve got a chance.”

To an extent, Smith does have a point in the comparison. Both Notre Dame and the Cowboys have historic success at their respective levels. However, in the past few decades, neither has found much postseason success. For the Irish, the win over Georgia represented their first New Year’s Six Bowl win since the 1994 Cotton Bowl. Meanwhile, the Dallas Cowboys haven’t made the NFC Championship Game since the 1995 season. On top of that, both have fans around the country, rather than just in their geographic footprint.

Still, Notre Dame has a chance to change the postseason narrative for good by beating Ohio State to win a national championship on Monday night.