There’s a problem in sports today. A problem you probably didn’t even know about.

It seems… There’s a problem in sports today. A problem you probably didn’t even know about.

It seems all you ever see in the headlines or on SportsCenter are all the drama and negative scenarios athletes create. We see pro athletes as money-hungry thugs, and the college guys don’t seem to be too much better either. All day, every day, it’s the stories about steroids, substance abuse and everything else making news.

The problem is that these stories always seem to take center stage and get all the publicity. You know what kind of stories you see in the headlines, or what makes for a lead story on SportsCenter.

Maybe it’s because the news companies think that these stories are what the people want to see, and that’s how they can make more money. Maybe it’s the sports journalists who constantly ask questions about these issues. Just last Saturday, Mark McGwire showed up at Busch Stadium to watch the Cardinals, and manager Tony LaRussa was asked about McGwire after the game, not about the actual game his team had just played. Maybe it’s the fans’ fault. Maybe TV networks and journalists across the country know that these are the things that people want to hear and read about.

But I think there are a lot of people, like me, who are sick of T.O. and his antics, and Bonds’ cream and clear. When there is a good story in sports, it should be what everyone is talking about at the water cooler – it should make the headlines.

Well, there was a good story last week, a heart-warming amazing story, and it was hardly talked about. Well, it was mentioned somewhere, otherwise I wouldn’t have heard about it. Assuming you missed the two-inch-long paragraph in Tuesday’s Post-Gazette, let me fill you in on the best sports story I’ve heard in a while.

Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis did not call his team’s first offensive play two Saturdays ago when the Irish faced Washington. That honor was left for Montana Mazurkiewicz, a ten-year old boy from Mishawka, Ind.

Mazurkiewicz didn’t get to call the Irish’s first play because he won a contest, though. He did so because, earlier that week, Weis met him in his hospital room before the team left for its game in Seattle. Weis learned that the boy had been diagnosed with an inoperable, fast-spreading brain tumor, and that he wanted Weis to visit him to raise his spirits. Weis asked him if there was anything he could do, and Montana (named after Joe Montana, Weis’ roommate at N.D.) asked to call the first play of the game.

He and Weis designed a play called “pass right,” where the entire offense flowed left with only the tight end moving to the right. The play was called and worked for a 13-yard gain. Here’s where the story made me cry.

Mazurkiewicz did not get to see his play work against the Huskies – he died that Friday.

When the team returned back to Indiana after the game, Weis presented the game ball to Mazurkiewicz’s parents.

Stories like these happen all over the wide world of sports. It’s just a shame that these stories get brushed under the table for some of the nonsense that gets blown out of proportion and over analyzed.

Say what you want about Notre Dame, but for two inches of written text and a small 2-by-3-inch picture in Tuesday’s Post Gazette, they solved the problem in sports.

It’s just a shame that it wasn’t a headline story, and that it wasn’t talked about enough.

Dave Thomas is a senior staff writer for The Pitt News. Although he wrote this column, and his favorite movie is Rudy, remember he still picked Pitt over Notre Dame. E-mail him your heart-warming story at [email protected].