Notre Dame podcast forced to delete feed after derogatory comments on Miami players

Notre Dame and Miami haven’t met since 2017, but the pair’s fanbases haven’t grown to like each other any more during their time apart. On Wednesday, the What Tho the Pods podcast, formerly known as A Notre Dame Freakin’ Podcast, riled up Miami fans when one of its hosts, Ryan Downey, made a controversial comment about the Hurricanes.

“The biggest advantage that Notre Dame has is that Miami is a bunch of unintelligent thugs that just play instinctually and not wisely,” Downey said. “And the best thing about Miami for their purposes is that they’re a bunch of unintelligent thugs who just play instinctively. So it’s the best and the worst thing about Miami.”

Along with Downey, the What Tho the Pods podcast is hosted by Jonathan Spadea, Chase Gund and Robbie Rhinesmith. After a clip of Downey’s comments surfaced online, the podcast immediately came under fire.

Numerous Miami fans claimed Downey’s phrase, “unintelligent thugs,” had racial undertones. Per Awful Announcing, the What Tho the Pods podcast deleted its previous episodes, as well as its Wednesday episode that went viral.

With the Wednesday episode deleted from all the podcast’s outlets, curious fans have struggled to examine the context around Downey’s comments any further. Per BroBible, Downey released an apology on his X account before making it private.

“Not sure if you saw…I was shocked and surprised to see people thinking this had any sort of racist undertones. It did not,” Downey reportedly wrote. “Sorry if I offended anyone. I only meant players out there picing fights, only hitting hard, taking dumb penalties. Truly sorry.”

For many fans, the pregame scuttlebutt brought back memories of the old days of the Notre Dame-Miami rivalry. Most notably, fans drew comparisons between this week’s controversy and the 1988 rivalry game between Notre Dame and Miami that was referred to as the “Catholics vs. Convicts.”

Notre Dame won the game 31-30 over the Hurricanes, and will look to pick up another win over Miami this weekend. History is on the Fighting Irish’s side. Notre Dame boasts an 18-8-1 all-time record against Miami.

Moreover, Notre Dame is a 2.5-point favorite against Miami, according to BetMGM. Of course, the Hurricanes won’t look to make it easy on Notre Dame. With the controversy leading up to the game this week, Miami certainly won’t lack motivation.

On Sunday, No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 10 Miami will square off at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ABC.