As strange Southern California invasions go, this ranks right up there with red tide and rain.
He is the Notre Dame football coach, and tonight he will enter USC country with hat in hand.
He will show up at a swank Beverly Hills hotel. He will step to the front of the room. He will make a speech.
He will ask for money.
You will wonder, how?
How can tight-jawed, chill-glaring Charlie Weis travel to the middle of a Trojans neighborhood in the middle of a Trojans dynasty and expect a gift that doesn't include a jeer or a gesture?
You will wonder, what is he thinking?
This is where he will really surprise you.
That jaw will go slack. Those eyes will go soft. His wallop becomes a whisper.
"Thinking about my angel," he says.
Her father is known for his oration skills, yet she speaks only 50 words.
Her father is known for his innate intelligence, yet she may forever have the mental capacity of a 5-year-old.
Her father is the Notre Dame football coach, yet she may never attend a game, or sing the fight song, or understand the legend.
In all the families in all the sports world, there may not be a combination more unusual than Charlie Weis and 12-year-old daughter Hannah, who suffers from a seizure disorder that causes mental retardation.
Yet, as tonight will once again show, they are one person.
Her fight is his fight.
