TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan -- In a move that some are calling desperate, the Notre Dame football team has exhumed the body of George Gipp who died in 1920. Notre Dame has lost four of its first five games, one of its worst starts in decades.
“We had to do something,” Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins declared, “Win one for the Gipper isn’t enough anymore - we really need Gipp to play.” The legendary football player is expected to play in the offensive and defensive backfields this Saturday when the Fighting Irish take on Boston College.
An ESPN crew filmed the exhumation as a pilot for a new series on the network. “We’re always looking for something new,” said ESPN producer Bradleys Roadhouse, “Well, Gipp isn’t new, of course, but the idea of digging someone up for sport is.”
Rob “Little Gipper” Gipp, a distant cousin of George Gipp who lives in a nearby town, told The New York Times he watched the exhumation and described it as "a desecration."
"The camera angles were all wrong,” he said, “That [ESPN cameraman] was aiming at the ground most of the time. Not one shot of the casket or what was inside.”
Fr. Jenkins declined to comment on whether the university will exhume Knute Rockne, the former Notre Dame coach who died in 1931. "We'll make a decision on the coaching situation after the football season ends," Jenkins said.
