Sons of famous musicians playing college football is becoming quite the trend. With Diddy's son Justin Combs already at UCLA and Snoop Dogg/Lion/Tiger's son Cordell Broadus still fielding offers from schools like USC, it's now classic rock's turn to take the stage. Jon Bon Jovi's son Jesse Bongiovi, a football and lacrosse star from Poly Prep Country Day in Brooklyn, is going to be a walk on at Notre Dame. The elder Bongiovi is a committed Fighting Irish fan while the younger Bongiovi told Irish Sports Daily Notre Dame has been his destination of choice for quite some time:
“I came up here when I was in eighth grade and I just fell in love with the place,” Bongiovi said. “The culture here, the people here, the opportunities here, they’re unreal. They’re second to none. Given the opportunity to walk on to the team and become a part of this family was an easy decision for me.”
Bongiovi must really be a fan of the culture at Notre Dame to think that while Charlie Weis was still coach. The elder will reportedly give up lacrosse to focus on football while at Notre Dame. The journey of a walk on trying to make an impact at a major program like Notre Dame is never easy, especially given the program turnaround that's happened under Brian Kelly. Although he faces an uphill fight to make an impact, Bongiovi is looking forward to the challenge:
“I expect it to be one of the hardest things I’ll probably ever do, but I like a challenge. I like being able to overcome things and step up to occasions. Hopefully, I’ll get to persevere through something that’s pretty hard.”
Bongiovi is hoping his college football career at Notre Dame doesn't go down in a blaze of glory, you know, like Nate Montana.
At the risk of making another bad Bon Jovi song pun, maybe it's best we just stop there. Before we have to start making Rudy analogies…
