How Rude!

Joe Montana Tears Holes in 'Rudy'
by TMZ Staff

Joe Montana has some issues with the way his former college team was portrayed in "Rudy" -- because the former Notre Dame superstar just insinuated Rudy Ruettiger was more of a joke than an inspiration.

Montana -- who played on the 1975 Fighting Irish squad with Ruettiger -- appeared on DirecTV's Dan Patrick Show this morning and said of the flick, "It's a movie remember ... not all that's true."

After a dismissive sigh, Montana undermined some of the main storylines in the movie saying, "The crowd wasn’t chanting … nobody threw in their jerseys."

Montana acknowledged that the real Rudy did play in the final home game ... and did get a sack -- but stated that when the players carried Rudy off the field, they were "kinda playin' around ... I won't say as a joke, but playing around."

Joe finished, "He worked his butt off to get where he was ... but not any harder than anybody else."

I had actually heard before from a friend of my uncle's and former ND football player that the story of Rudy was largely a sham. As Joe said he was some guy that got his ass beat in practice for four years and the coach finally threw him bone. I think the part of the movie that most of the players object too is the scene where members of the team give their jerseys back to Coach Dan Devine and say they won't play if Rudy isn't allowed to. I'm pretty sure no player on a nationally competitive team, many of them with aspirations of playing pro, are going to skip a game because a gritty, scout team kid doesn't get to suit up.