Thugs add to Irish’s ‘chemistry’
Notre Dame spent several decades as a shining star in the college football world.
The luster is mostly off the Golden Dome after a stretch of mediocrity not seen in South Bend since the early 1980s.
Anyone who has sported a leprechaun or shamrock has an opinion on how best to restore the Fighting Irish to greatness.
Former star running back and current Notre Dame radio analyst Allen Pinkett thinks the program is on the right track after the actions of several high-profile players this offseason drew suspensions from coach Brian Kelly.
The Chicago Tribune published the comments Pinkett made on "The McNeil and Spiegel Show" on WSCR-AM 670 on Wednesday.
"I've always felt like, to have a successful team, you've got to have a few bad citizens on the team," Pinkett said. "That's how Ohio State used to win all the time. They would have two or three guys that were criminals, and that just adds to the chemistry of the team. So I think Notre Dame is growing because maybe they have some guys that are doing something worthy of a suspension, which creates edge on the football team.
"You can't have a football team full of choir boys, you know? You get your butt kicked if you got a team full of choir boys. So you've got to have a little bit of edge, but the coach has to be the dictator and the ultimate ruler. ... You don't hand out suspensions unless you know you've got somebody behind that guy that can make plays."
Pinkett doubled down on the comments later in the interview, though he clarified he wouldn't want "murderers or rapists" on the team, preferring guys that "maybe get caught drinking that are underage, or guys that maybe got arrested because they got in a fight at a bar, or guys that are willing to cuss in public and don't mind the repercussions of it."
"Oh, I absolutely meant that," he said. "Chemistry is so important on a football team. And you have to have a couple of bad guys who sort of teeter on the edge to add to the flavor of the guys that are going to always do right. ... You look at the teams that have won in the past ... they've always had a couple of criminals."
Pinkett might have a point. The convicts did beat the guards in both versions of "The Longest Yard."
The theory extends beyond the big screen and into the NFL, as well. Look at all the Super Bowls the Cincinnati Bengals won during the stretch where it seemed one of their players was being arrested each week.
■ CLEAN IT UP - Some entrepreneurial genius on Facebook is marketing shirts to Ohio State football fans with a classy message to their archrivals in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"I'd rather shower at Penn State than cheer for the Wolverines," reads the shirt in Ohio State colors.
The product, which is a rip-off of a shirt made by Louisiana State fans about Alabama, is not officially endorsed by the university.
Perhaps the most shocking thing about the slogan is that there is an Ohio State fan willing to take a shower under any circumstances.
COMPILED BY ADAM HILL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
