Stanford Apologizes for Bulletin Board Material

In an article published today on the Stanford Rivals site, Cardinal Report.com, Stanford right tackle Chris Marinelli made plenty of bulletin board worthy comments about Notre Dame, its field, its fans, and the South Bend area. Later today Stanford issues an apology in Marinelli’s name or wait, I think they are saying it was his apology. Riiiight.

Anyway, here is what Stanford media relations released for Marinelli’s name:

“I would like to apologize to the University of Notre Dame and anybody else who I may have offended from the remarks I made in an interview earlier this week. I was caught up in the emotions of the game and should have been more thoughtful in my comments. The remarks were out of character for me and certainly aren’t reflective of my teammates or anybody else affiliated with the Stanford program. I look forward to a competitive game on Saturday in one of the great environments in college football.”

The original report was a premium article so we won’t post his exact comments here, but let’s just say Marinelli didn’t make too many friends with his comments today.  To their credit, Notre Dame captains Maurice Crum and David Bruton were asked about his comments today and they answered them like you would expect them too – very respectfully.

Q. Some bizarre quotes about Notre Dame and how — inaudible — all that stuff, how much does that stuff actually fire you up, or how much of a factor is it?
MAURICE CRUM, JR.: Well, for me, I mean, it’s not that much of a deal. I could care less what goes on in the papers and what’s said in the papers, because that’s not where the game is played. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter.
DAVID BRUTON: I’m not affected by it anyway, so I’ll just sit back and we’ll see what happens on game day.

Q. Getting back to that full-court stuff, do you guys actually — maybe it doesn’t get back to you, but is that stuff actually up in the locker room at times and are you aware that some people are motivated by something like that?
MAURICE CRUM, JR.: You know, I’m sure at some point in time they will probably post it somewhere in the locker room, but for most of our guys, I mean, it doesn’t really matter to us, because all we really care about, it’s this Saturday.

Q. I understand that, but say you’re up three touchdowns late in the game, would you like to rub it into the guy or would you whistle to have somebody point him out?
MAURICE CRUM, JR.: No. I think if you’re up by that and the game is going our way or something, they should already feel bad, because you already like put it out there or whatever. So now it’s like different.

Q. David, you don’t want to taunt anybody when you’re up with a three-touchdown lead?
DAVID BRUTON: I’m not going to say anything. I think yeah, if we’re up by three touchdowns, I believe that says enough.

I’m sure some Notre Dame fans will get upset over the kid’s comments, but personally I love that he shot his mouth off because it should help keep this team focused after a rather convincing win last weekend.  I know the players shouldn’t need any extra motivation and all of that, but does anyone actually believe Crum and Bruton that they don’t care about the comments?   I have no doubt that the Irish players have seen Marinelli’s comments and will remember them on Saturday.  So, thank you Mr. Marinelli.