News to me: Notre Dame’s placekicker is a Korean junior, Justin Yoon
Kind of on a lesser degree than Ohio State, I have a tendency to root against Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish have never offended me or done anything that would warrant my antagonism, but it probably stems from the fact that they’re a nationally recognized brand with a lot of blindly-following fans, which is often times the case why I develop favor against particular organizations.
Needless to say, I was pleased when Georgia marched into South Bend and defeated Notre Dame this past Saturday, and all in all, it was a pretty good game. But I was happy to see the Irish lose, nonetheless.
However, the most surprising thing I witnessed during the game was when the Irish repeatedly made their way down the field before Georgia’s defense kept them out of the end zone, resulting in settling for field goals, I heard the name “Justin Yoon,” and my Korea-sense tingled at the surprise at seeing a Korean football player taking the field and doing work. And not just for some scrub, but for a notable, reputable football program like Notre Dame.
And as should be expected of a Korean, Justin Yoon was a perfect 4/4 on field goals this particular day, and accounted for 13 of the Irish’s 19 total points, including one extra point on the sole TD by the team.
Regardless, my mind was kind of blown that Notre Dame had a Korean guy on the squad, much less the fact that there’s Korean guys playing organized football Americano at such a high level. Immediately, my mind went towards making bad jokes about how playing for Notre Dame, he’s basically the Korean version of Rudy, since placekicking is already a thankless and difficult job to gain and retain, and the fact that he’s a pretty small guy overall, in a field full of titan linebackers and linemen.
Of course, my mind made delusions of grandeur and getting ready to anoint him the first-ever Korean guy to play in the NFL, but thankfully I have the wherewithal to fact-check myself and had my mind blown yet again to discover that three Koreans had already beaten him to the punch, and then went down the Google rabbit hole reading about other NFL Koreans in history.
But back to Justin Yoon, as much as I’m sure his Korean parents (whom are also an Olympic athlete and an actress respectively, naturally) relishes the fact that he’s a successful athlete on the way to potentially becoming a pro, I just want to make all the jokes about how his fictional, more stereotypical Korean parents are completely unimpressed with this career choices, and how he’s making a grave and big mistake pursuing football, when he should be studying up to become a doctor or a lawyer.
They’re also not pleased with him attending Notre Dame, and not Harvard or Yale.
Anyway, the revelation of having a Korean player on the squad isn’t going to suddenly make me a Notre Dame fan, but I can, root for success for Justin Yoon. I hope he’s amongst the brightest spots on the Fighting Irish’s entire squad, and that he makes it to the NFL where he’ll do something grand like hitting an Adam Vinatieri-like legendary field goal against, preferably a team like 49ers or the Seahawks.
