There are college kids attending Duke games now who weren't even born when Christian Laettner was Public Enemy No. 1. ESPN's new documentary about Laettner has brought the former Duke star back into the national conversation right on the cusp of March Madness, offering a worthwhile history lesson on one of the sport's most infamous stars.
But in terms of brevity and entertainment quality, there may be no better historical lesson than the one that the late Chris Farley dished out years ago in a commercial for ESPN. The former Saturday Night Live funnyman steps into the role of Laettner himself to tell the tale of his most famous moment.
At the end of a sequence that diverges a little bit from the game's actual events, Farley declares, "And that's the way it happened. ... Well, almost."
Farley's ESPN commercial closely follows another Farley sports bit pulled out of storage last month. The University of Wisconsin posted a short sales pitch by Farley as Matt Foley, encouraging prospective football players to attend UW or face the life-long consequence of eating government cheese and "living in a van down by the river."
Farley was a bit football fan and participated in numerous sports-related sketches while on the cast at SNL. Decades later, everyone's still laughing.
