Pinkett pays for ND spew

SOUTH BEND (AP) — Allen Pinkett has been pulled off the Notre Dame broadcast of tomorrow’s season opener against Navy in Dublin, Ireland, following his comments that teams need bad guys to give them an edge.

Andrew Giangola, a spokesperson for the IMG Notre Dame Radio Network, said yesterday the game deserves to be distraction free and Pinkett’s comments made to Chicago’s WSCRAM were unacceptable. He said further decisions on Pinkett are pending.

Pinkett, the Fighting Irish radio analyst and former running back who led the team in rushing from 198385, said: “I’ve always felt like, to have a successful team, you have to have a few bad citizens on the team.”

Pinkett pointed to the past success of Ohio State as an example.

“They would have two or three guys that were criminals and that just adds to the chemistry of the team,’’ he said. “So I think Notre Dame is growing because maybe they have some guys that are doing something worthy of a suspension, which creates edge on the football team.

“You can’t have a football team full of choir boys, you know? You get your butt kicked if you have a team full of choir boys.”

In a statement before the team left for Dublin, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick called Pinkett’s comments “nonsense.”

Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly recently suspended top tailback Cierre Wood and backup defensive end Justin Utupo for two games for violating team rules. Earlier, quarterback Tommy Rees and linebacker Carlo Calabrese were suspended for the Navy game.