Praying For Short Pudgy Guys Playing Football

Dcnats is responsible for this post! He has a weekly tradition on his blog called Film Vault Tuesday. Every Tuesday, he reviews an old movie that he digs and gives you the rundown. He's a huge baseball fan, just as I'm a huge football fan. I went to Catholic school pretty much from Kindergarten through 6th grade (I would've went further but my hometown didn't have a Catholic Jr. High or Catholic High School). So being Catholic and a huge football fan means one thing and one movie ... but we'll get to that in a minute.

Catholic school was great because the nuns pushed us hard ... academically!! Jr. High and High School were a breeze thanks to the academic standards set for us there. We were always told by the nuns and the priests that we should want to go to a good Catholic university. Of course, we all know what good Catholic university they meant: Notre Dame.

So naturally, you know what movie I'm talking about. Yeah, that one. We all, in some small way, love Rudy. It's the classic American story about the short pudgy kid who goes on to play for the most hallowed college football team in the nation even if for only one or two plays.

During Catholic school's Friday student mass, the priests would often pray for Notre Dame. During the offering, the priest would say something like "Lord, look over our departed brethren as they look to come into your eternal light and watch the boys in South Bend as our beloved Notre Dame takes on Southern California." Naturally, this sort of brainwashing had it's intended effect on me: I wanted to go to Notre Dame more than any other school in the world.

So in the movie Rudy, the movie breaks into a montage of Rudy studying, working out, sleeping in the utility room at the stadium, checking his mail and getting rejection letters. Then there's the scene where he picks up a letter from the admissions office. He walks outside sitting across the pond from campus on a bench. He opens up the letter and starts to read aloud. When he gets to the part accepting him into Notre Dame, his voice cracks, starts to cry a bit, and thanks God. If anyone knows how badly he wanted to get into Our Lady, it's me. Everytime I see this scene, I get goosebumps and have to make up some lame excuse like I need a drink or something otherwise I might start start crying like a little kid with a skinned knee.

I did apply to Notre Dame for law school and it was the only school that didn't accept me. The rejection letter was the nicest I've ever received noting that there are over 17 students applying for every seat at the law school. I still have it tucked away in some papers. I had an Ex that I lived with and her old man was a huge Michigan fan who hated Notre Dame. He bought her, as a dig at me, the book Under The Tarnished Dome and I immediately made her pack it away saying that I would not allow that sort of filth in my home. I might apply for an LLM (A masters of law) at Notre Dame in the future and take off one year to do it. Just so that I can say I went to God's school (You hear that Deeesguy, it's God's school. I'll act like a Republican or W supporter by saying "If you don't cheer for Notre Dame, you're not cheering for God.")