rudy 300It was bad enough that Joe Montana had to beat my Bengals in the Super Bowl (twice, even). Now he has to ruin one of the greatest sports films ever made. Montana was asked earlier in the week about the film Rudy, which was based on a true story that happened while Montana was at Notre Dame.

Well, the crowd wasn’t chanting. No one threw in their jerseys. He did get in the game. He got carried off [at the end of] the game. [...] Back then they tried to play someone at the end of [the season] that all the seniors could get in the last home game. The schedule was kind of set that way.

So he got in. He did get a sack. And then the guys carried him off, just playing around. I won’t say it was a joke, but it was playing around. He worked his butt off to get where he was and to do the things he did. But not any harder than anyone else. –Dan Patrick, via Doc Sat.

The jerseys thing was old news–the real “Rudy”, Daniel Ruettiger, said as much on his website. But Montana’s account of Ruettiger being carried off the field already has been refuted by a teammate that was there. Whether it was the case or not, Rudy remains one of the great Little White Guy That Could movies ever. And if you don’t cry at the end of that film, then you have no soul. Or maybe you’re just really, really dehydrated. Either way, I don’t think we can be friends.