Amazing how you can't escape some things like Bill Belichick and Notre Dame. Goodness knows I tried, but the pundits were all over the football landscape with their assorted musings about ''Belicheat'' and the Golden Domers.

FYI: That butt whipping the New England Patriots gave the San Diego Chargers on NBC's Sunday Night Football was the former Browns coach showing the league he doesn't need to steal signals to win.

Nonetheless, opinions across assorted programs proved strong. The most notable came from ESPN's Tom Jackson on Sunday NFL Countdown when asked whether Belichick's punishment suited the crime.

''I don't think so. When you think about the players, whether it was Odell Thurman, Chris Henry, Tank Johnson, the list is endless. Those people were taken off the field because that's what actually hurts players and coaches alike. Five hundred thousand is an immense fine, but it is less immense if you are rich,'' Jackson said.

''When the commissioner said, 'I'm going to take those who have charge over these younger players to a higher level of authority, to a higher standard,' I think that that's the message that he was trying to send here, but he should have sent this by taking (Belichick's) expertise off the field for a game.''

Some would say that sheriff, I mean, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was too harsh in assessing Belichick a half-million dollar fine and the team a first-round draft choice should the Patriots make the playoffs, which is looking more like a certainty. But Jackson's right on this one. Why should the ultimate authority on a football team escape the same punitive measures his players would face?

Unlucky Irish

As for the Irish, where to start?

The disarray in the quarterback situation that sent opening-day starter Demetrius Jones fleeing to Northern Illinois? Or could it be that 0-3 start? Any way you shape it, some question whether the school's independent status is hurting. Among them, ESPN's Craig James.

''The kids now coming out of high school, they're not into history, they're not into tradition. I talk to high school kids all the time, and when they go and look at a university, they're looking for pizzazz. They want to see the big-screen televisions, the great locker rooms, the great stadiums,'' James said on Saturday College Football Countdown. ''They're not looking at all the other things. . . . They're looking at which team and coach can get them to the National Football League.

''Truthfully, they don't care about NBC's TV contract on Saturday. That's no big deal to them. . . . I know (Notre Dame's) not going to do it, but they need to look and consider going to a conference.''

That's a bold statement, given that Notre Dame, especially since hiring Charlie Weis as its coach, believes it can do no wrong.

Recent events should tarnish that golden dome, at least with respect to football, however. No bowl wins in 13 years. Rumors swirling around Weis and his future and how the New York Giants would love to make him mentor to Eli Manning as that team begins its free fall.

Unfortunately for Irish fans, James is correct. The Notre Dame mystique doesn't hold much allure given that the team is almost 20 years removed from its last national championship.

Face it: None of today's high school seniors were born. Contrast that with a USC, Florida or even Ohio State, which all claim titles and uber-hyped national exposure in the past five years.

Yes, the Irish still draw on national television, but at times you wonder whether it's just fans hoping the ghosts of football glory past make a showing whenever and wherever the team plays.

Patrick's slot filled

The thoughtful and cerebral Mike Tirico will begin to fill the slot Dan Patrick vacated on ESPN Radio from 1-3 p.m. beginning Thursday. ESPN Radio will pick up the last hour of the bombastic Stephen A. Smith's Big Apple radio show and air it nationwide. A news release announcing these changes refers to Smith as a former reporter and columnist for the New York Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer.

Smith and the Inquirer have had a quasi-public debate about his future with the paper after it demoted him from columnist to roving reporter. It had been awaiting an answer whether he'd accept his reassignment. Guess the paper got it.