Not every athlete can relate to the pressure that comes with being the son of a former NFL great.<\/p>\n
For four members of Notre Dame\u2019s wide receiver corps, all they have to do is look around the room. <\/p>\n
Sophomore Jerome Bettis Jr. is the son of the legendary Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis, freshman Devin Fitzgerald is the son of Arizona Cardinals Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, freshman Kaydon Finley is the son of Super Bowl-winning former Green Bay Packers tight end Jermichael Finley, and sophomore Elijah Burress is the son of Super Bowl-winning New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress. <\/p>\n
The four Fighting Irish wide receivers and their famous dads spoke with NBC\u2019s Anne Thompson on TODAY Oct. 9 about their bond. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do understand that it comes with a different type of weight with the last names that we have,\u201d Bettis Jr. said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all creating kind of our own legacy,\u201d Kaydon Finley said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just cool having a few of those guys on the team with you that you can always talk to and share experiences with,\u201d Devin Fitzgerald said. <\/p>\n
There was no grand plan to have the progeny of NFL greats join the same college team \u2014 it just worked out that way. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe get to play at the highest level on the field, and we\u2019re a top-ranked academic school as well,\u201d Devin Fitzgerald said. \u201cI think that\u2019s what all these NFL greats saw, and that\u2019s why there\u2019s so many of us sons here.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to leave here from a university as prestigious as this with the degree, I think it just sets you up for success,\u201d Larry Fitzgerald said. \u201cAnd so I\u2019m not going to lie, yeah, it\u2019s important that he graduates.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI want him to be a better version of me,\u201d Jerome Bettis Sr. said about his son. <\/p>\n
While the elder Bettis played at Notre Dame himself, Fitzgerald starred at the University of Pittsburgh, Burress at Michigan State and Finley at Texas. Now they all can be seen wearing the blue and gold of the Fighting Irish. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy to start,\u201d Plaxico Burress said of wearing Notre Dame gear. \u201cI mean, you\u2019ve got to understand. I went to Michigan State, and it was a big rivalry. When I wore my Notre Dame jersey to the Michigan State game, I think that said a lot in itself. So I\u2019m all in.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t change my love and appreciation for my university,\u201d Larry Fitzgerald said. \u201cI\u2019m gonna rock my Notre Dame gear, and and I just want him to know I\u2019m always with him, no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four young receivers shared some of the advice their fathers have given them as they hope to join the ranks of the 622 Notre Dame players who have gone on to play in the NFL. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would say my dad\u2019s favorite quote he always tells me is \u2018control the controllables,\u2019\u201d Devin Fitzgerald said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that he always told me growing up is, \u2018Just don\u2019t give them a reason.\u2019 You can\u2019t give people a reason to write you off,\u201d Elijah Burress said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe spoke to me and he said that he didn\u2019t have much to give me except our last name, so there\u2019s a certain way I have to carry myself, knowing that,\u201d Jerome Bettis Jr. said. <\/p>\n
The four receivers are also hoping to achieve something only one of their famous fathers ever achieved \u2014 winning a national championship. Jermichael Finley was part of the Texas team that claimed the 2005 national title. <\/p>\n
Notre Dame is currently ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 as it seeks its first national championship since 1988. The Fighting Irish look to improve to 6-0 when they take on Stanford (2-3) on Oct. 10 on NBC and Peacock. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not every athlete can relate to the pressure that comes with being the son of a former NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-926584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}