http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/4903754 Weis uses play called by dying 10-year-old boy SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - Charlie Weis doesn't usually let anyone else call plays on offense. He made an exception for 10-year-old Montana Mazurkiewicz. The Notre Dame coach met last week with Montana, who had been told by doctors weeks earlier that there was nothing more they could do to stop the spread of his inoperable brain tumor. "He was a big Notre Dame fan in general, but football especially," said his mother, Cathy Mazurkiewicz. Weis showed up at the Mazurkiewicz home in Mishawaka, just east of South Bend, and talked with Montana about his tumor and about Weis' 10-year-old daughter, Hannah, who has global development delay, a rare disorder similar to autism. He told Montana about some pranks he played on Joe Montana - whom Montana was named after - while they were roommates at Notre Dame. "I gave him a chance to hammer me on the Michigan State loss, which he did very well. He reminded me of my son," said Weis, whose son, Charlie Jr., is 12 years old. Weis said the meeting was touching. "He told me about his love for Notre Dame football and how he just wanted to make it through this game this week," Weis said. "He just wanted to be able to live through this game because he knew he wasn't going to live very much longer." As Weis talked to the boy, Cathy Mazurkiewicz rubbed her son's shoulder trying to ease his pain. Weis said he could tell the boy was trying not to show he was in pain. Cathy Mazurkiewicz embraces Notre Dame coach Charlie Wies after he presented her with the Notre Dame-Washington game ball Sunday in honor of her late son Montana. (The Tribune, Barbara Allison / Associated Press) His mother told Montana, who had just become paralyzed from the waist down a day earlier because of the tumor, to toss her a football Weis had given him. Montana tried to throw the football, put could barely lift it. So Weis climbed into the reclining chair with him and helped him complete the pass to his mother. Before leaving, Weis signed the football. "He wrote, 'Live for today for tomorrow is always another day,"' Mazurkiewicz said. "He told him: 'You can't worry about tomorrow. Just live today for everything it has and everything you can appreciate," she said. "He said: 'If you're (in pain) today you might not necessarily be in pain tomorrow, or it might be worse. But there's always another day." Weis asked Montana if there was something he could do for him. He agreed to let Montana call the first play against Washington on Saturday. He called "pass right." Montana never got to see the play. He died Friday at his home. Weis heard about the death and called Mazurkiewicz on Friday night to assure her he would still call Montana's play. "He said, 'This game is for Montana, and the play still stands,"' she said. Weis said he told the team about the visit. He said it wasn't a "Win one for the Gipper" speech, because he doesn't believe in using individuals as inspiration. He just wanted the team to know people like Montana are out there. "That they represent a lot of people that they don't even realize they're representing," Weis said. When the Irish started on their own 1-yard-line following a fumble recovery, Mazurkiewicz wasn't sure Notre Dame would be able to throw a pass. Weis was concerned about that, too. So was quarterback Brady Quinn. Cathy Mazurkiewicz, of Mishawaka, Ind., holds the Notre Dame-Washington game ball presented to her by Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis on Sunday. (The Tribune, Barbara Allison / Associated Press) "He said what are we going to do?" Weis said. "I said we have no choice. We're throwing it to the right." Weis called a play where most of the Irish went left, Quinn ran right and looked for tight end Anthony Fasano on the right. Mazurkiewicz watched with her family. "I just closed my eyes. I thought, 'There's no way he's going to be able to make that pass. Not from where they're at. He's going to get sacked and Washington's going to get two points,"' she said. Fasano caught the pass and leapt over a defender for a 13-yard gain. "It's almost like Montana was willing him to beat that defender and take it to the house," Weis said. Mazurkiewicz was happy. "It was an amazing play. Montana would have been very pleased. I was very pleased," she said. "I was just so overwhelmed. I couldn't watch much more." Weis called her again after the game, a 36-17 victory by the 13th-ranked Fighting Irish, and said he had a game ball signed by the team that he wanted to bring to the family on Sunday. "He's a very neat man. Very compassionate," she said. "I just thanked him for using that play, no matter the circumstances."
F*ck McClain - He's a b****. I don't like listening to that A-hole, because he spoils the endings of the movies he sees. I've grown tired of his self-righteous rhetoric. The Weis article was very touching.
Just another example of how classy the classiest football program in the country really is. Stay classy, Notre Dame. Is that it?
Are you kidding? Did you see what McClain did to those Russian &itches at the airport? Samuel Jackson and him single handedly saved New York!! Give some respect.
Ummm they were German militants and it was all over NYC ... But he did slap some American ex-special forces guys aroud at a D.C. airport, but good ole Samuel L wasn't w/ him for that one. Yippee-ki-yay, motherf***er! touching article btw
john mcclain thinks anyone who doesn't kiss the media's a$$ is a jerk and then he will only talk bad about that person...
My Girlfriend goes to ND and grew up in South Bend (her mother also works at the school), and they are far from the classiest football program in the country. Let's not forget they FIRED their previous coach even after promising him at least 4 years to get his system and players in place. I'm not saying it wasn't a good move, but they didn't exactly hold up their end of the bargain. With that said, Weis has been a class act long before this... he just added it to his legacy of being a good coach and a great person.
Has any coach in the history of football ever done a better job in his first few months on the job than Charlie Weiss? He's already woken up the echoes, had a Babe Ruthesque bedside moment with a dying child, and won the hearts of football fans everywhere with his son's adorable comments and his unflinching support for his mentally challened daugher. Seriously, is there gonna be a diffrent Charlie Weiss human interest story every week? Is this guy real or just some kind of Truman Show creation? The only thing that's left for him to do is save a bunch of puppies and kittens from a burning building. Man, it is so good to have Charlie Weiss in college football.
I despise Notre Dame more than any other college football program in the country (even more so than Ohio State) and this post says it all: Charlie Weis is the class act; not Notre Dame. That school is damn lucky to have him, IMO.
