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A sack?

Not only was it just a sack, but it was only made possible by his teammates running up the score at the end of the game so that he could get a chance to play. When that movie came out, I ate it up just like everyone else. I thought it was this great inspirational story about a small, unathletic guy fighting insurmountable odds to finally achieve his dream. However, when you find out that he was pitching his story incessantly to anyone that would listen so he could get a movie made and that they made Dan Devine to be a heartless villain when that was nowhere near the case, it takes a lot of luster off of the story. Toss in the recent SEC violations, along with a healthy dose of cynicism accumulated over the years on my end, and I find myself not being as impressed or enamored with his 'amazing' story as I was in 1993.

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Not only was it just a sack, but it was only made possible by his teammates running up the score at the end of the game so that he could get a chance to play. When that movie came out, I ate it up just like everyone else. I thought it was this great inspirational story about a small, unathletic guy fighting insurmountable odds to finally achieve his dream. However, when you find out that he was pitching his story incessantly to anyone that would listen so he could get a movie made and that they made Dan Devine to be a heartless villain when that was nowhere near the case, it takes a lot of luster off of the story. Toss in the recent SEC violations, along with a healthy dose of cynicism accumulated over the years on my end, and I find myself not being as impressed or enamored with his 'amazing' story as I was in 1993.

THIS.

They also should have made Charles Dutton's character more magical.

Also, why in the hell did he play defensive end at his size?

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A sack?

Well, if you look at it that way, then it does seem unimpressive. However, I think of culmination of what he did in his young life was impressive. The guy came from a blue collar background with a family that not only didn't support his wanting an education, but discouraged it. He was no brainiac, he had dyslexia, had no money, had already spent time in the service and relentlessly followed his dream after to get into ND. He persisted after getting turned down a number of times. He got in, kept the grades to stay, and managed to play on the practice squad of the premier football program of the time all while being a small guy. If you don't think that's impressive - then I don't know what to say. Especially in a world when very few people chase their ultimate dream, much less achieve it.

Sure, others have done more and I am sure the movie was sensationalized, but hard to see how what he did was unimpressive.

I agree that he's not a good speaker and the energy drink debacle is moronic. But, his accomplishments in his youth were impressive.

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Well, if you look at it that way, then it does seem unimpressive. However, I think of culmination of what he did in his young life was impressive. The guy came from a blue collar background with a family that not only didn't support his wanting an education, but discouraged it. He was no brainiac, he had dyslexia, had no money, had already spent time in the service and relentlessly followed his dream after to get into ND. He persisted after getting turned down a number of times. He got in, kept the grades to stay, and managed to play on the practice squad of the premier football program of the time all while being a small guy. If you don't think that's impressive - then I don't know what to say. Especially in a world when very few people chase their ultimate dream, much less achieve it.

Sure, others have done more and I am sure the movie was sensationalized, but hard to see how what he did was unimpressive.

I agree that he's not a good speaker and the energy drink debacle is moronic. But, his accomplishments in his youth were impressive.

A walk-on got on the field for two plays in his life and made one good play in garbage time. Yawn.

I find the embellishment of any story for a movie adaptation to be annoying; Rudy piles them on top of one another shamelessly and can't find a cliche that won't fit. And honestly, I don't have much to add to what Bizzle and Box say above. This was a guy who admittedly had some challenges to overcome, with dyslexia and not being a legacy, and was rejected four times before getting into ND. Then he got to walk on the football team after more persistence. Then he got a movie made about this persistence because he lobbied hard to every individual that had anything to do with movies. If anything, his story is only a story because he wears people down. An admissions officer, football coach, or studio employee can only be annoyed so much before they say, "FINE! You're in! Just leave me alone!"

And he's parlayed his story of wearing people down into a somehow decades-long career of sub-mediocre public speaking and an instantly-failed sports drink company built on a completely fabricated investor prospectus and nothing else. I'd bet a good chunk of the investors that got suckered were Domers, who can't resist the opportunity to stoke their own egos with a chance to own part of the school's grossly inflated mythology.

We should make a movie about Kevin Shortal. He hit a three at the buzzer against West Virginia back when I was at SLU when we were already up 27.

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Phillip Hunt who then goes on to be a coach at the small school next door

After earning a scholarship, no less.

Man, now I really want SLU to play ND this year.

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A walk-on got on the field for two plays in his life and made one good play in garbage time. Yawn.

I find the embellishment of any story for a movie adaptation to be annoying; Rudy piles them on top of one another shamelessly and can't find a cliche that won't fit. And honestly, I don't have much to add to what Bizzle and Box say above. This was a guy who admittedly had some challenges to overcome, with dyslexia and not being a legacy, and was rejected four times before getting into ND. Then he got to walk on the football team after more persistence. Then he got a movie made about this persistence because he lobbied hard to every individual that had anything to do with movies. If anything, his story is only a story because he wears people down. An admissions officer, football coach, or studio employee can only be annoyed so much before they say, "FINE! You're in! Just leave me alone!"

And he's parlayed his story of wearing people down into a somehow decades-long career of sub-mediocre public speaking and an instantly-failed sports drink company built on a completely fabricated investor prospectus and nothing else. I'd bet a good chunk of the investors that got suckered were Domers, who can't resist the opportunity to stoke their own egos with a chance to own part of the school's grossly inflated mythology.

We should make a movie about Kevin Shortal. He hit a three at the buzzer against West Virginia back when I was at SLU when we were already up 27.

I get what you're saying. All I'm saying is that the guy followed a dream aggressively and made it happen. He did what it took and you can't take that away from him. I give props to anybody who does that. Like I said above, many others have done great things and there are many other impressive things out there. At the end of the day, there was a movie made about him. The fact that you think his accomplishments were minor should even impress you more, because he then got a movie made about how he did it. This means an unimpressive guy with an unimpressive story actually got a movie made about him. Wow, that's even more remarkable if you look at it that way. This world is full of mediocrity yet when somebody accomplishes something, people want to tear them down. Why is that? Maybe it's insecurity, maybe it's lack of ambition on one's on part, or maybe people just like to be haters. Whatever the case. there will always be people out there making things happen and many millions more sitting on the sidelines grumbling about it.
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A walk-on got on the field for two plays in his life and made one good play in garbage time. Yawn.

I find the embellishment of any story for a movie adaptation to be annoying; Rudy piles them on top of one another shamelessly and can't find a cliche that won't fit. And honestly, I don't have much to add to what Bizzle and Box say above. This was a guy who admittedly had some challenges to overcome, with dyslexia and not being a legacy, and was rejected four times before getting into ND. Then he got to walk on the football team after more persistence. Then he got a movie made about this persistence because he lobbied hard to every individual that had anything to do with movies. If anything, his story is only a story because he wears people down. An admissions officer, football coach, or studio employee can only be annoyed so much before they say, "FINE! You're in! Just leave me alone!"

And he's parlayed his story of wearing people down into a somehow decades-long career of sub-mediocre public speaking and an instantly-failed sports drink company built on a completely fabricated investor prospectus and nothing else. I'd bet a good chunk of the investors that got suckered were Domers, who can't resist the opportunity to stoke their own egos with a chance to own part of the school's grossly inflated mythology.

We should make a movie about Kevin Shortal. He hit a three at the buzzer against West Virginia back when I was at SLU when we were already up 27.

Maybe Darrin Young should get a movie too. He was pressed into action during the CBI finals in 2010, getting 11 minutes and scoring 5 points in the final game, and he was just a 5'9" freshman walk-on.

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Maybe Darrin Young should get a movie too. He was pressed into action during the CBI finals in 2010, getting 11 minutes and scoring 5 points in the final game, and he was just a 5'9" freshman walk-on.

If he can pitch it to Pizzo and Anspaugh and get the movie made, more power to him.

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I'm still looking for investors for Rise and Grind: The Willie Reed Story, currently in pre-production.

There was a movie that came out the last couple of years called "The Midnight Meat Train". That may be a more fitting title.
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