There's nothing I like better than when someone from Stanford (Yeah, Stanford!) talks trash in the media. It worked well for Jim Harbaugh last year. So Stanford offensive tackle Chris Marinelli thought he would try his hand at it for the Notre Dame game this weekend.
"We'll be ready, we've seen a lot of tape and it is a good challenge for us," said Marinelli, a 6-foot-7, 297-pound fourth-year junior. "But on the same token it's going to go bad for them at one point and we are going to gash the (expletive) out of them, I promise you that. So keep bringing it, keep bringing it. They have one sack all year on 200 blitzes."
That would normally be enough bulletin board material for Notre Dame to get fired up. But just in case Notre Dame needed a little more, Marinelli was willing to go on.
"I grew up with a bunch of Irish and Italian Catholic people back home. And all the Irish Catholic people, all they talk about is Notre Dame this, Notre Dame that. And they've never even been there, ya know. So I hate those guys, I hate that school."
And now you can never go home. Marinelli did issue an apology, but after what he said I find it really had to believe he's sorry. That would be like me saying I'm sorry I wrote this post. For his part, Harbaugh indicated that Marinelli's views were not that of the Stanford football team. But that's just because he didn't say it first.
Harbaugh told Stanford beat reporters, "In Chris' case, it's out of character. He let his emotion and his passion about this game get the best of him. That's certainly not what I think is in his heart, and it's definitely not the view of Stanford football or the university."
Of course, Harbaugh took public swipes at Cal, Michigan and USC in his first few months on the job, then answered follow-up questions by saying, "We bow to no program here at Stanford University."
Sports
Hat tip: Wiz
