The Charlie Weis bio "flap" -- Much Ado About Nothing

While nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to gaffes from John Heisler and the boys, this whole resume bio flap in the media guide is dumb. Give Heisler a break. When the article came out that Weis' bio was missing the 3-9 ND season and all other losing seasons from his career, I thought we were talking about a complete whitewash of his bio. I pictured a listing of his season by season records with 2007 completely missing in there. If that was the case, I could understand why the athletic department would have egg on its face. It would only reaffirm the "whistling past the graveyard" Disneyworld act that has been permeating the athletic department for the last 15 years.

But after looking at the media guide to see what all the fuss was about, I don't see what the big deal is!! They list the 2007 season, and there's a game by game listing of his record on the next page. How is that hiding from Weis' record?? His record is right there if you want to look at it. The media made this bio out to be like it's from the Iraqi Ministry of Information or something. That's not the case.

What exactly do you want ND to do here?? Write five paragraphs about how awful we were in 2007 and go into great detail about how we started out 0-5 and 1-9 and how we lost back to back home games to Navy and Air Force?? Do you want Weis to break down his decision to go to the spread option offense two weeks before the season started even though we hadn't worked on it all offseason?? What other school would do that to their head coach??

This controversy is silly. It's a media guide. If you're doing Charlie Weis' bio, you're going to write about his accomplishments at ND and in the NFL. He's the head coach of the team and an employee of the school. You're not going to bash him in his freaking bio. I don't see what they could have possibly written about the 2007 season that would be appropriate for a bio. There wasn't one positive to discuss from the whole season.

When I go to a legal seminar, the person introducing the speaker doesn't spend ten minutes talking about all the big cases that the guy lost. They talk about his/her accomplishments and successes in the legal field. Why would it be any different for Charlie Weis?? He has had a rough time at ND, but he also has many career achievements in the NFL and at ND (recruiting, 2005 season, Hannah and Friends, etc) that are worthy of discussing in a bio.

I would love to take some time to look at other media guides from other schools. I'd be willing to bet that OSU's media guide doesn't have a big write up on Tressel getting blown out in back to back championship games. I'd be willing to bet that FSU's media guide doesn't talk much about Bobby Bowden's team being on probation for academic fraud. Does Penn State's media guide discuss all those crappy seasons Joe Pa had in a row a few years back?? Does the USC media guide go into great detail about Pete Carroll's first season when they went 6-6?? Does the Illinois media guide talk a bunch about how Ron Zook got run out of town in Gainesville?? No way. They list all the career records but focus on the positives in the bio section.

As for people calling ND out as hypocrites because of George O'Leary getting fired for a resume flap, give me a break. How are these situations remotely similar?? O'Leary lied on his resume. ND isn't lying about Weis' record. They have it listed right there in the media guide. And besides, what does Weis have to do with the media guide?? It's not like Weis submitted this bio to ND with all these glowing accomplishments while omitting the negatives. Weis didn't write the bio. He had nothing to do with it.

People should get off Heisler's back on this one. There's plenty of stuff to criticize him about on his stewardship of the ND brand and schedule, but this bio thing is piling on.

--As for the Barack Obama comments about ND football not being something he can fix in four years, lighten up for godsakes! People are actually bothered by this?? What is wrong with our society?? It's a joke!! I can't believe there are actually people who are offended by this and threatening not to vote for him and other nonsense. Put down your pens now before you actually write that ridiculous letter to President Obama about how well Weis is recruiting and about how Ty left us with no offensive linemen in his last two recruiting classes and how he's going to take us to a BCS bowl this year.

Get a grip, people. It was actually a pretty good line. The best way to make people stop joking about our football program is to actually play some good football.