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4 Comments

At October 10th, 2007 at 5:28 pm, Tommy O said...

Fredo Corleone: I’m your older brother, Mike, and I was stepped over!

Michael Corleone: That’s the way Pop wanted it.

At October 10th, 2007 at 6:40 pm, gwzimm said...

You’re nothing to me, Fredo. You’re not my brother, I don’t know you exist. If you come to visit our mother, I want to know 24 hours in advance so I can plan not to be here.

At October 11th, 2007 at 2:14 pm, Eagle said...

I can’t take credit for this, but it is true:

Fredo Corleone was the OLDER brother. He was surpassed and eventually killed by his YOUNGER brother, Michael Corleone.

ND is the older brother. They’ve been in the CFB game longer than BC. Yet, in the past decade, BC has been the more successful program (ESPN, when ranking the most successful college football teams of the last decade, ranked BC ahead of Notre Dame). The last time ND beat BC was 6 years ago. The BC-ND series ended with BC winning more games than ND. BC has ended 2 national championship runs for ND. ND has never inflicted comparable damage on BC.

“Fredo” is much more of a fit for Notre Dame – the older brother who somehow continually gets beaten and embarassed by the gritty and determined younger brother (BC).

Why ND fans think this “insult” is so clever and appropriate is beyond all comprehension. I invite any ND fans to justify it now.

At October 11th, 2007 at 2:51 pm, domer.mq said...

1) Fredo is the mentally challenged brother in the family. That sort of fits.
2) BC tends to define itself based on things like upsetting great teams rather than, you know, actually achieving greatness. It’s a mentality of “yeah, we went 7-5, but we beat…” that is sort of pathetic, much like Fredo.

Looking at the fact that Fredo, in the movie, is the older brother is irrelevant to the original context of the nickname for BC. If the best you can do is come back with, “oh yeah, ND is older!” then, well, that’s the best you can do. Not to mention, ND as an institution is not older than BC. BC began in 1827 (chartered in 1863), ND began in 1842. And we tend to look at BC as Fredo within the context of the entire institution, not just their mediocre college football history.

All that said, it’s just a joke. One which BC fans can’t seem to get. Which of course firms up the contention that BC is just the east coast Purdue.

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