Rudy, the plucky young football player who fought every obstacle placed in front of him to become a hero on the football field, is more than a man. He is a symbol that, genetics or societal givens be damned, if you work hard enough and keep a fighting spirit, there's nothing that you can't achieve. In the movie, not only does Rudy have to contend with his small stature, but he also has to overcome a football coach that refuses to see his value and heart. In one of the most famous scenes from a sports movie, Rudy has been told that he won't play the final game of his college football career, just as he'd never played any of the other games. In a heartening display of team bonding, his teammates take off their jerseys and throw them into a pile in front of their coach. If Rudy doesn't play, neither do they. The coach reluctantly agrees, and Rudy goes on to sack the quarterback in the final seconds of the game to become an unlikely hero. But hold on. Wipe those tears off your keyboard and keep reading. According to now-legendary quarterback Joe Montana, who was a freshman player at Notre Dame during the "Year of Rudy," has backed up common claims that much of the team's bond with Rudy was more than a little embellished.
"No one threw in their jerseys. Back then they tried to play at the end of the season that all the seniors could get in the last home game. The schedule was kind of set that way."
Basically, he's saying the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game was supposed to be an easy one, allowing hopeless guys like Rudy to get a little bit of playing time due to a ridiculously uneven score. Also, Notre Dame's head coach was actually a big fan of Rudy and mentored him on more than one occasion. And it was his idea to let Rudy suit up and play in that last game. Which...kind of takes all the fun out of that underdog story, doesn't it?
