Years ago in the pre-Brett Favre doldrums of the 80s, Paul Hornung did the color commentary for the Packers' pre-season games. I heard the play-by-play announcer (I don't remember his name) tell how ill prepared he was. Before the first pre-season game, Hornung would step into the booth, plop a media guide with all the players' names in it and declare, "Alright, let's go!"

This story along with his incorrect perception of Notre Dame football illustrates how ignorant the "Golden Boy" can be.

Here's one more item from Hornung's own mouth. While apologizing on the Dan Patrick show today, Hornung told a story of former ND coach Lou Holtz showing him a list of the top 50 high school prospects at the time. The ND administration told him he could only go after three of them because the rest didn't have the academic qualifications to get into ND. It sounds like this proves Hornung's point. One problem, Holtz won. Here's just a portion of his accomplishments at ND:

Holtz quickly proved that he could take Notre Dame back to the top of the college football world and keep the program there on a consistent basis. In just his third season at Notre Dame, Holtz led the Fighting Irish to the 1988 national championship with a perfect 12-0 record, a season in which he earned National Coach of the Year honors. Facing what was rated by the NCAA as the nation’s most difficult schedule three times during his tenure with the Irish and the toughest over a five-year period from 1986-90, Holtz’s record was a sparkling 100-30-2 at Notre Dame, including an 87-20-2 mark over his last nine seasons at the school. Holtz coached the Irish to finishes of sixth or better in the final Associated Press poll in five seasons and his five postseason bowl victories at Notre Dame are more than any other Irish coach. Additionally during his tenure at Notre Dame, Holtz compiled a 33-20-2 mark against AP top 25 teams and a 21-15-1 record vs. AP top 10 squads. Holtz led Notre Dame into 22 different games with the number one ranking in the current AP poll and three times his Irish teams knocked off the nation’s number one ranked team. His teams reeled off 23 consecutive victories through the 1988 and ‘89 seasons to establish the longest winning streak in Notre Dame history. Holtz tutored a long list of All-Americas at Notre Dame, including Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown and Lombardi Award winners Chris Zorich and Aaron Taylor. While he was at Notre Dame, Holtz had 12 players selected in the first round of the NFL draft, including seven combined in the 1993 and ‘94 drafts.

Holtz has been the only coach to win a national championship in the same year both on the field in 1988 as well as in the classroom, as evidenced by the 100 percent graduation rate of Notre Dame football players in winning the 1988 CFA Academic Award. Three times during his stay at South Bend, his Fighting Irish squads achieved the highest graduation rates in the country.

"Hornung: Irish Should Still Lower Standards"