The other Touchdown Jesus goes down

In a sense, it would have been quite symbolic in some weird, perverse way had Touchdown Jesus on the Notre Dame campus been destroyed by a lightning bolt. Given that Notre Dame football has essentially died as major power, the destruction of that statue would have been the symbolic end to their football dominance, even if the actual end came roughly 15 years ago.

But the Touchdown Jesus in South Bend still stands, even as Notre Dame football goes the way of Army football and Navy football, once relevant but now completely irrelevant (actually, I take that back--Army and Navy both remain relevant in football one day a year, when they play each other). The same cannot be said of the "Touchdown Jesus" in Ohio, just north of Cincinnati.

Nicknamed as such because the Jesus statue's arms are raised like a referee signaling a touchdown, the 60-foot tall statue lasted just six years before being taken down by a lightning bolt and burning to the ground. "Burning to the ground" is probably an accurate metaphoric way for describing the state of Notre Dame football.