sheikh: Light the beam

Isa Sheikh

notre dame news e ditor

“When you go traveling to visit cities, do you ever go to s acramento? Is that ever on your bucket list?” b ut here we are. All through the series, I’ve texted my favorite teacher from high school each game. s acramento has long been a joke in the minds of outsiders, as evidenced by b reed’s josh. b ut so have the Kings. After amassing the most consecutive losses in nb A history over the past two decades, the team’s literally been relegated to a s aturday n ight Live punchline. “We live in cities you’ll never see on screen / n ot very pretty, but we sure know how to run things,” Lorde sings on “Team.” And when I hear it, I think of the anachronistic quiet beauty of our city, those bends I’ve known my whole life and yes, those washed-out Kings murals. b ut something in the air of Golden 1 c enter changed this year, in a season that earned the Kings a new style of attention, winning c oach of the Year and c lutch Player of the Year.

That’s a joke made by London b reed, s an Francisco’s mayor, on an nbc s ports broadcast ahead of Game 6 in the Kings-Warriors round one playoff series, as she confidently predicted the round would end that night. It didn’t, as the Kings forced a game seven, winning in such an impressive feat that I honestly thought this s ports Authority would feature a good deal of b reedesque gloating and far less eulogizing.

“ s uper sad and a horrible way to end the season,” he texted tonight in response to my simple frowny face. And while darkness seems like an easy resort at the moment, there are often alternative options.

They entered the playoffs ranked third in the western conference, which is still astonishing to type out.

After a 16-year playoff drought, our team pulled through and gave the reigning champions a run for their money. And while all credit goes to the incredible team, the phenomenon of a Kings fandom taking its first sip of success after being parched for most of my life is something else. The city that fought to the death a decade ago to prevent losing its team, that is told endlessly that it’s on no one’s bucket list, reawoke in the image of a bright purple beam that shot from the center of the city up to the heavens. The “light the beam” mantra was a new innovation, courtesy of the team’s owner, a stroke-ofgenius piece of marketing that added something to represent the new moment.

There was immense drama in the seven games we watched at the edge of our seats, from d omantas s abonis being stomped on the chest by d raymond Green or elbowed in the eye, or the thrill of watching s tephen c urry miss two consecutive free throws. When Kings fans took the 90 minute drive to go watch away games and learned that c hase c enter did not allow the team’s classic cowbells, they pulled out their phones with the team’s app, loaded with a virtual cowbell. The sense of an underdog on the rise was contagious, hard to shake off from the sports movies we’ve been programmed by our entire lives. At moments, glory felt inevitable. And perhaps, despite the loss today, the sea change this season was itself glorious.

Last semester, I sat in my dorm room without the sufficient channels to watch Kings games but watching their progress on my Twitter feed. I wanted few things more than to return to downtown s acramento, to see the beam in the sky from miles away as we drove away in the valley’s flat landscape. I found some cheap tickets for the day I was set to return and excitedly bought some to take my siblings. Unfortunately, my case of not-like-other-girls syndrome led me to once again buy a train ticket across the country, and delay after delay made it so that I was still stuck in n evada as the game was set to begin. I called my siblings an Uber in a moment of fleeting cell service and resigned myself to the less-than-pleasant meal they served us.

And then, another miracle came down and I was in s acramento with time still left in the game. After frantically negotiating with a hotel clerk to watch my luggage, I ran up the stairs of the stadium, surprising my siblings in their seats way up, high above the court. e ven the cheap seats at this largely insignificant game see sheIKh pAGE 10 games in 2022. Like Justin Ademilola, Lugg will face a strong challenge trying to make the b ears out of minicamp. The mini-camp invitation does not guarantee him a contract, though it is an opportunity to make an impression.

DL Justin Ademilola (uFA to the Green Bay packers) despite not receiving the same consistent reps as other members along the notre dame front seven, Ademilola finished third on the team in quarterback pressures in 2022. over the course of his five-year career he accumulated 9.5 sacks, 13 tackles for loss, and 108 tackles. most of that production came in Ademilola’s final two years with the program, when he cracked the rotation fulltime and played in 12 or more games each season. Prior to 2021, Ademilola had never ended a season with more than 15 tackles. he more than doubled that number each of his final two seasons.

Ademilola declined a potential additional year in college to enter the nFL draft process with his brother and was rewarded with a post-draft deal in Green bay. Ademilola was a constant rotational piece on the Irish line this year, often swapping in for Isaiah Foskey at the vyper position.

LB Bo Bauer (uFA to the Seattle Seahawks) bauer’s notre dame career came to an unfortunate and unexpected end in october when he suffered a season-ending knee injury at practice days after the shamrock series, a game in which he made a critical fourthand-goal stand. A captain on the 2022 team and a member of last year’s national Football Foundation hampshire honor society and notre dame Father Lange Iron cross Award winner, bauer was a solid, reliable presence in the Irish linebacking core dating back to 2018. bauer was the rare Irish player to receive consistent playing time from the beginning of his collegiate career. he made doubledigit appearances in each season he played in except for his injuryshortened 2022 campaign. he led last year’s team with 47 tackles, also recording four TFLs, 1.5 sacks and an interception. seattle also took a linebacker in the second round, drafting Auburn’s derick hall 37th overall.

DL Chris Smith (uFA to the Detroit Lions)

A 2021 First Team All-Ivy Leaguer at harvard, smith was solid but not spectacular in his lone season with the Irish. smith appeared in all 13 games, making five starts. he finished with

17 tackles, 10 solo and a forced fumble. That being said, detroit is an intriguing place for smith to go. The Lions are a team on the rise but finished last year with one of the league’s poorer defenses. Their d-line was not a positive exception to this rule, ranking 26th in the nFL per Pro Football Focus. It does include some intriguing pieces, such as former Irish star Julian okwara and 2022 no. 2 overall pick Aidan hutchinson.

K Blake Grupe ( uFA to the New orleans Saints)

Like smith, Grupe also spent one season in s outh bend, arriving after an incredible career at Arkansas state. Grupe too had a good but not great year with the Irish, making 14 of 19 field goals (73.7%), as well as all 49 of his PATs. he was 6-10 on 40-49 yard field goals, with his longest kick coming from 47 yards out. The Irish have not produced a consistently solid n FL kicker in recent years, so Grupe will try to be the exception to the rule. The saints’ kicker last year, Will Lutz, had the secondworst success percentage of all n FL kickers last year (min. 20 attempts), so there’s at least a chance the six-year saint and 2019 Pro bowler could lose his grip on the starting job. Whether Grupe is the one to take it from him is another story.