It seems that everyone these days is aware of the movie story side of former Notre Dame walk on Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, yet the real side of this man is something that doesn’t always match up to the movie perspective. Today Mr. Ruettiger and his 12 co-defendants in a pump and dump stock scheme agreed to a settlement to put an end to a long SEC investigation. While the settlement did not admit or deny guilt, it does put a little tarnish on the golden helmet of the Rudy image that Hollywood has put in our minds.
The movie “Rudy” is the story of how the small but always scrappy Ruettiger persevered through endless tough Notre Dame Practices and finally got the chance to play. In the movie the players demand that Rudy get the chance to suit up and he responds by making a big play. In typical Hollywood fashion he is then carried off on their shoulders to his place in sports immortality.
Now I have known for many years that this image didn’t really match up with reality in South Bend. Now of course films always take “cinematic license” to create suspense and intrigue, but there is such a thing as stretching the truth a little too far.
I’ve personally known a few people who have played football for the Fighting Irish and from what they have told me I know that Ruettiger was not as revered by them as by people on the outside looking in. I got the feeling that he was considered almost like an annoying hanger on trying to cash in on the program. Joe Montana even has made some public comments in the past that have back this up. I’ve been to Notre Dame a few times for games and it is certainly an inspiring place. Just being there you can almost feel the history just oozing out of everywhere you look. I did all the great fan things such as running down the tunnel and hitting the play like a champion sign, that did make me feel great. When I was in the locker room I was even tempted to recreate the Gipper speech just like Rudy does himself in the film, although the look of embarrassment my player friend flashed at me was enough to reel this guy’s emotions in.
The question though that everything begs, is how much of this is real? This pump and dump stock scheme it seems might be closer to the real Dan Ruettiger than the film ever got. According to the SEC complaint, the company known as Rudy Nutrition pumped up its stock through false and misleading information to generate more than $11 million in illicit profits. Through the use of shell companies, disbarred lawyers, and a series of Panamanian corporations; the company was able to make their stock soar from $0.25 all the way to $1.05 before the SEC issued a trading suspension due to delinquent regulatory findings.
The complaint states that Ruettiger claimed that the company’s Rudy sports drink outsold Gatorade 2-1. Now I know the guy is pretty much a Hollywood celebrity with a great feel good story, but Jesus Christ did investors really believe that. Part of me believes that anyone who thinks that Rudy sports drink could outsell the king like that deserves to have their money stolen. The slogan of the sports drink was “Dream Big! Never Quit!” which makes sense if its referring to audacity with which these jokers conceived to bilk their investors.
In the film when finally given the chance Rudy comes in to record a sack and is carried off into the sunset. You’d think that running a scheme like this he might be carried off to Sunset Correctional Facility or something, but nope they simply settled the case for a settlement of $382,866. That seems awfully light to me for something they claim incurred $11 million dollars in illicit profits. Then again being the little fella that he is maybe we should take it easy on good ol’ Rudy.
Now Rudy is a great film, if you haven’t seen it you should go out and rent it and enjoy it, but it’s just that a film. You should always take these based on a true story items with a grain of salt. Even Head Coach Dan Devine, who agreed to a heavier than reality portrayal, called the scene where the players come in and lay down their jerseys on his desk as “unforgiveable” and “a lie”. Dan “Rudy” Ruettiger is no hero, Sean Austin Scott’s character of Rudy is. Ruettiger is just a normal person like any one of us, probably a little more flawed than most of us, and trying to cash in on fame like hardly any of us.








Its not often that a player from a smaller school really becomes must see TV in the college basketball world. Much less from a Mormon college, and even rarer for that to carry into the country’s prison system. That however is exactly what has happened in the case of Jimmer Fredette from BYU.
This year’s NCAA tourney is set to be a big stage that Jimmer could use to further cement himself in college football lore. These hopes did seem to take a big hit though a few weeks ago when the extremely rule heavy BYU kicked 2nd leading scorer and leading rebounder Brandon Davies off the team. This happened because Davies was determined to have violated the school’s archaic “honor code”. What was his mortal sin to necessitate such a heavy reaction you might ask? The troubled Mr. Davies had the weak moral character to have consensual sex with his girlfriend, oh the horror. Of course even if they are bounced this year, Mr. Fredette already cemented himself in my book last year when he poured in 37 points, including 2 killer 3′s in double OT, to lead BYU over my beloved Florida Gators.
Fredette of course vividly remembers his experiences playing at the prison. Everything from the armed guards standing around for protection, to the big mountain of liability paperwork he had to fill out, to the extreme by any standards trash talking he had to put up with. According to Fredette the experience was a great help to his game. “Obviously there are a lot more people in big arenas in college, but what they say to you doesn’t bother you because I heard pretty much everything in those prisons,” Fredette said. “I think that helped me get better at blocking the crowd out and just focusing on the game.”
When I was a little kid, one of my favorite cartoons was The Smurfs. I think everyone anywhere near my age would have to agree. The Smurfs might have been THE dominant cartoon franchise of that time. I watch cartoons now and they are just insane. I mean Spongebob Squarepants is so out there and wacky that I’m surprised we aren’t raising generations of lunatic fringe group recruits. The Smurfs on the other hand was sensible and taught good lessons, albeit in a fantastical setting and context. One thing though you couldn’t argue with is that the system worked.
The film is a CGI/live-action hybrid film, which means that computer generated graphics are interacting with live actors and real places. This has been done many times before, but I’ve never seen it look as odd as this. You can check out the official teaser video
Yet, should they have made this film. Kids today might enjoy it, but I feel pretty confident that people that remember the original Smurfs are going to be cringing throughout the entire film. It seems a shame to go and ruin a classic no matter how much money it might bring in. I think this film is going to be a perfect example of the insane greed that’s overtaken Hollywood in the last decade or so. How many classic things are we going to willing let be butchered. Until the public stands up and stops eating up these disgraceful retreads, Hollywood is going to keep on making them. We have to change before they will. At least I think we still have a conscience.
Every day it seems the possibility of a Donald Trump run for the presidency of the United States in 2012 is becoming more and more of a distinct possibility. Yes, that Donald Trump. He of the horrible comb over and the over hashed theatrics of The Apprentice, could very well be the next President of the United States.
Another benefit to having Mr. Trump would be the hottest first daughter in the history of the White House. What can I say Ivanka has it going on and I think she would be wonderful in that department. While they both did get a Wharton Business School education, Ivanka just seems to me to have more going on upstairs than her daddy. Then again I always tend to give leggy blondes the benefit of the doubt so I might be being a little bit unfair here. Donald’s current wife Melanie would probably being the hottest first lady in the history of the White House as well, what can you say about that one except chicks dig dude’s with money.
Mr. Trump has never been one to shy away from publicity so I’m pretty confident that his decision to formally announce his candidacy is merely a formality at this point. He did purchase a Boeing 757 the other day, cause that 737 he already had is just sooooooo last week, which seems a likely move for the travel he intends on doing while campaigning. I’d look for him to try and milk the announcement for everything its worth and boost the ratings for his upcoming Celebrity Apprentice show. Whether its a good idea or not is a trickier question. Good idea for him I’d probably say so. The publicity alone makes it worthwhile in his book. Good for the United States, that’s where I’d have to bring my good buddy Lee Corso in to say “not so fast my friend”.
So it’s been almost a year since I’ve written anything on here and for that I apologize. My life has been kinda a mess and when I’m not right my writing usually slacks. Things are getting back centered now and to commemorate this achievement I decided to write about a fellow who’s year has been kinda similar to mine, everyone’s current guilty pleasure Mr. Charlie Sheen.
Now this is a guy were talking about here who already had the most popular sitcom on television and his popularity is increasing everyday. Yet those executives at CBS decided to pull the plug on that show, at least for this season. Sheen of course did not take that lightly and has embarked on an epic media blitz denouncing both CBS and the show’s creator Chuck Lorre (or the “earthworm” or “maggot” as Charlie lovingly refers to him). CBS faced with all this negative publicity has caved in a little to Mr. Sheen’s demands agreeing to pay the crew for 4 of the remaining 8 episodes, but the station is mostly sticking to its guns. This to me seems inconceivable. Can you possibly imagine the ratings a new episode of Two and a Half Men would get right now, I mean we could be talking Super Bowl like numbers.
This tour would also give Sheen a platform to crank up the pressure on CBS even more. Imagine if he got up before a packed crowd of drunken college students and told them “Now when you guys go back to your dorms tonight, I want you to e-mail the President of CBS and tell him what a jackass he is for taking my epic show off the air; and here’s his personal e-mail address”. Hopefully CBS server is big enough to handle the flood of e-mails that would result in that, one thing’s for sure it would be dam hard to ignore.
This past Saturday in Newark, NJ (affectionately known as the Brick City by some people I know) Georges St. Pierre, the welterweight champion, took on Englishman Dan Hardy as the main event of UFC 111. There was a whole lot of buildup to this fight and a few left disappointed by the dominant performance that St. Pierre put on to beat Hardy by a unanimous decision. However, I think things are not nearly as simple as they seem.
Before the fight on Saturday I think it was a very safe bet to say that most people didn’t like Dan Hardy. He’s an easy guy not to like. He’s brash, arrogant, and English; that’s 3 strikes against him for most people. With his trademark red mohawk and red contact lenses he’s like the Dennis Rodman of UFC, except without the teddy bear like quality that Rodman possesses. With Hardy its either you love him, or you hate him. Its also a safe bet that a whole lot more people were on the hate side of that equation.
This is going to go a long way for Hardy I think. He gained a whole lot of both respect and fans with his performance on Saturday night. The fans he gained were people that had been some of his biggest detractors before the fight. Sure Hardy’s ego may have taken an initial blow from the loss, but he’s certainly going to emerge a stronger more dedicated fighter from it. I think when we look to this fight in the future were going to see it as the turning point in Dan Hardy’s career. He gained more from this loss than the 7 consecutive wins he had going into it.
Well it certainly has been awhile since my last post on here, but I can assure you that I am very much still alive. It’s just been a hectic last couple months. I’ve been emotionally, physically, and creatively spent, but am hoping to get back on this horse and ensure that my loyal readers yes both of you, get their Go Sell Crazy fix.
Unfortunately, things did not go exactly according to plan. It turns out that when people are having yard sales the majority of shit their selling is just complete garbage. Now you might find some nice furniture or something like that, but all the smaller items are just pure and simple junk. They did have some books, but the kinds of people throwing these sales are not exactly what we call the literary elite. The books they had were complete garbage. The mission was an utter failure.
There also was one really hot chick running a yard sale. She was a brunette which was strike #1, but she had on a really short skirt with nice tits showing plenty of cleavage and these beautiful green eyes. Strike #2 was the fact that she was a big time dyke. I came to that determination based on the fact that she wasn’t all over me like most girls are.
If you have your finger anywhere near the pulse that emanates around this country known as pop culture, you have indeed as least become somewhat familiar with a little jewel known as “Jersey Shore”. Now I’m not referring directly to that shithole part of the country, but rather the MTV show that lets the rest of us revel in the utter stupidity and “personality” of its brief inhabitants.
For those who are out of the loop, and even my 89 year old grandfather is not counted among those, the new episodes of the show are on Thursdays at 10:00pm EST on MTV. The show is based on a group of people that are given the chance to live in a great house in Seaside Heights, NJ for the summer as long as they agree to work at a T-shirt shop part of the time. The house that their living in is actually the owner of the shop’s home that he has given up for the show. If the time slot is at an inconvenient time for you there is no need to worry as with any other MTV show it is on countless other times during the course of the week. Trust me, once you watch it you will fall in love with it.
The person with the most famous nickname on the show is of course Mike, who goes by “The Situation”. You might be wondering where that nickname has originated from and let me just tell you that it refers to his abs. This guy is so full of himself it’s amazing. Everyone on the show is full of themselves but “The Situation” takes it to a whole different level. Well someone like Pauly D’s arrogance might be given a rating of 3.5 fistpumps, only “The Situation’s” ego is a true 5 fistpumps.
I must say that my favorite character on the show is “Jwoww”. This girl really just does it for me for what reasons I don’t really know. Actually it’s mostly her amazing tits, but I also really love her hair. She has the sort of hair where she spends a whole lot of time making it look like she spends no time at all on it. Now when I say she spends a lot of time on it, she doesn’t spend nearly as much time as someone like Pauly D. Jwoww though is sexy and she knows it. It’s partly that confidence that makes her so attractive to me. She also claims to have this boyfriend who she’s madly in love with, and she is when she’s on the phone with him. Throw a couple drinks in that bod though and all thoughts of a boyfriend go out the window. So holla at me baby if you make it down to Florida, you won’t be thinking of him for very long. Could I handle Jwoww, that I’m not sure of, but I do know that I’d love to try.