As much as Notre Dame Fighting Irish Charlie Weis probably loved regaining possession of the football from the Washington Huskies, he could have hardly asked for a worse situation.

With his team sitting on their own one yard line after a fumble recovery, the risk of a safety* loomed. Playing away from home, Coach Weis hardly wished for his team to lose momentum in front of thousands of Huskie fans by falling two points behind the Huskies.

Nonetheless, he chose not to call the relatively safe play; a run up the middle. Instead, he made the risky choice to call a pass to the right, potentially exposing his quarterback to a sack, which would award the Huskies two points and possession of the ball.

Notre Dame quarterback Brad Quinn dropped back from the line of scrimmage, then looked right and zipped a pass to tight end Anthony Fasano, who promptly leapt over a defender for a 13-yard gain.

Pass complete for a first down!

Around the country multitudes of Notre Dame fans undoubtedly let out a sigh of relief, thinking, “Another brilliant call by Charlie Weis! Would we expect anything less from the celebrated former offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots?” At that time, little did they know of the circumstances which led to that gutsy call.

One week before, Charlie Weis had paid a visit to the residence of a ten-year-old boy dying from an inoperable brain tumor. Doctors had warned that Montana, a faithful fan of the Fighting Irish, would most likely die within a couple weeks. So Mr. Weis visited Montana to spend some time with him discussing their common passion; football.

During his visit, Mr. Weis told stories about Joe Montana, whom Montana’s parents had named him after and helped the partially paralyzed Montana toss a football to his mother. Before he left, Mr. Weis did two things. First, he signed the football for Montana, inscribing upon it, “Live for today for tomorrow is always another day.” Second, he promised to let Montana decide what he would call as the first offensive play against the Washington Huskies on the upcoming Saturday. Montana told him to pass right.

Friday night, before the game, Coach Weis received word that Montana had passed away, but said that he would call the play regardless. He shared the details of the visit to Montana with his team, not to inspire them to a dramatic win, but simple to remind them “that they represent a lot of people that they don’t even realize they’re representing.”

Then came the fumble recovery at the one-yard line, and Mr. Weis had to decide whether to still call the play. In his first season as the head coach of the Fighting Irish, blame for any disaster resulting from calling an ill-advised play would undoubtedly fall upon him and make a bad impression at a time when he had to try to win over fans. Nonetheless, he stuck to his word and called the call which he had promised Montana.

In Mr. Weis’s actions we evidently view a reminder to always keep our word to others. However, from another perspective, Charlie Weis also showed us another side of sports which the media hardly ever recognizes; the attempts of athletes to reach out to the community. If not for the partciular circumstances under which Coach Weis called for the pass to the right, these events would have most likely have never become public, and instead become a memory lost in time.

Take, in contrast to Mr. Weis’s actions, the words of professional basketball player Latrell Sprewell about a year ago which scoffed at a contract offer by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“I told you I needed to feed my family… They offered me 3 years at $21 million. That’s not going to cut it. And I’m not going to sit here and continue to give my children food while this front office takes money out of my pocket. If [owner Glen] Taylor wants to see my family fed, he better cough up some money.”

If Latrell Sprewell can not feed his family with 21 million dollars, at least 95% of Americans should have probably died by now. Yet despite the ludicrous nature of his comments, he still received plenty of attention by the media because of his outrageous assertions.

Sadly the press spends much of its time criticizing or poking fun at athletes such as Mr. Sprewell who goof off, make outrageous statements, and desire to focus attention on themselves. In their focus on these malevolent individuals, the press tends overlook classy actions of people such as Charlie Weis, thus encouraging athletes to assert themselves as gregarious individuals in order to become recognized.

Coach Weis hardly stands alone in the sports community when it comes to performing community service. Wouldn’t we love it if we heard more about commendable actions, such as that of Mr. Weis, rather than of the ridiculous antics of individuals in sports?

*When the defense forces the offense to down the ball in their own end zone, usually meaning that the defense player who possesses the ball in the end zone, the defense receives two points, called a safety.