the Peacemaker | by Pat

While we honestly do try to include logic and reality into our posts here, I fully admit that at times I succumb to the siren song of homerism, blinded by all things Notre Dame. How else can you explain my 12-0 prediction for last season?

Still, even I had to chuckle at this superhero account of Charlie Weis as one part Chuck Norris, one part Mr. Miyagi during a recent high school recruiting visit. Check this out:

According to Trinity football coach Ed Dalton, the Notre Dame party arrived at the same time an administrator's meeting was taking place in another part of the school.

The hallway outside Dalton's office, where Weis and his assistant were standing, would have been barren except that a fight between two students had broken out. That type of activity tends to draw a crowd.

Weis and his assistant moved toward the two combatants but were stopped in the hallway by a Trinity staffer, who demanded to know why they were not wearing visitor badges.

After identifying themselves, Weis and his partner were allowed through and immediately walked up to the two battling students.

"(Weis) said, 'You want a piece of me?'" Dalton recalled.

The two fighters stopped to size up Weis, a hulk of a man whose arms are large enough to rip a phone book in half. The fight was called because of common sense.

Then Weis turned to Dalton and asked, "What do I get for that?"

Dalton replied, "If you stay until 11 a.m., you can do lunch duty."

Weis politely declined and moved along to the next high school.

Hilarious. I can't decide what I like better, the description of Charlie's rippling physique and towering presence, or his cool demeanor after defusing the fight (My work is done here, you might imagine him saying, as he exits the front door of the high school into the blinding sunlight). Picture Charlie roaming the country, casually tearing through Yellow Pages, and setting right what once was wrong. All Charlie needs now is to fine-tune that roundhouse kick for when he runs into Pete Carroll at the next recruiting combine.