At a Touchdown Club meeting many years before his death, the legendary Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant told the following story, which was typical of the way he operated.

I had just been named the new head coach at Alabama and was off in my old car down in South Alabama recruiting a prospect who was supposed to have been a pretty good player and I was ‘havin’ trouble finding the place.

Getting hungry I spied an old cinder block building with a small sign out front that simply said "Restaurant."

I pull up, go in and every head in the place turns to stare at me. Seems I’m the only white ‘fella’ in the place. But the food smelled good so I skip a table and go up to a cement bar and sit. A big ole man in a tee shirt and cap comes over and says, "What do you need?" I told him I needed lunch and what did they have today?

He says, "You probably won’t like it here, today we’re having chitlins, […]

Notre Dame lost 38-0 to Michigan, who clearly is not as bad as their 0-2 start indicated. Notre Dame hasn’t scored a single touchdown in its first three games. Notre Dame is likely to loose as many as seven or eight games this year given the schedule they have in front of them. And what does Coach Weis tell the media after the game? "We are not going to watch the film from this game at all." He then added that they were not going to try to change anything but they simply would go back to training camp and start all over. What on earth is this plan but an admission that he and his staff failed to prepare this team to play at all in 2007? Combined with the cloud hanging over the Patriots present, and potentially over their past, this hire is making Notre Dame look even worse every single week. Dating back to the final games of last year Notre Dame has been a total disaster. This world class university, that takes so much pride in its football tradition and […]

Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis lost a lawsuit to a jury decision in Massachusetts a few months ago. The story might have passed by with little notice but I paid attention to it for several reasons, one being my love for college football and two my complete lack of respect for Charlie Weis as a coach. 

In 2002 Weis decided to have gastric bypass surgery. He weighed in excess of 350 pounds at the time. He was an offensive coach for the World Champion New England Patriots when he came to the end of a prolonged personal struggle by making the decision to have the  surgical procedure. (I do not criticize anyone who has this surgery at all. It is life-saving for many and may have been for Charlies Weis.) The sad fact, however, is that Charlie Weis chose not even to inform his wife until only days before the surgery. He did, however, share it with his quarterback, Tom Brady. This in itself tells you a lot about Charlie Weis I think. “Football first, family second” as Lindsey Willhite put […]