As just about everyone knows, Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio suffered a heart attack early Sunday morning after the Spartans’ unbelievable overtime win over Notre Dame.

Dantonio, 54, has since had an angioplasty and been released from the hospital. When he will return to the sidelines is yet to be determined.

Heart ailments are no joke. It’s good Coach D’s wife was able to get him to the hospital shortly after he began to take ill, or the talk around East Lansing may have been on something other than Coach’s, um, guts in calling for a fake field goal down three in extra play to Notre Dame.

Someone did decide to make light of a very serious situation, though, and it was totally uncalled for.

Matt Patrick, a morning radio host for South Bend, Ind., news/talk station 95.3 MNC, Tuesday morning got in front of a camera for a short video podcast and said God caused Dantonio to have a heart attack because MSU cheated the Irish. His reasoning was that the play clock had expired before the snap on the game’s final play.

“The moral of the story is you mess around with the Fighting Irish, you cheat on the last play of the game, overtime, and beat the Irish, God is going to get you,” Patrick said.

A little research found Patrick, a 30-year radio veteran, Tuesday was hosting just his seventh show with the station, which leads me to believe his comments served as nothing more than a way to gain listeners and draw traffic to the station website.

More research found Patrick is an avid Notre Dame supporter, which would normally raise an eyebrow, but most radio host have strong ties to teams in their area and make their feelings known.

He has since issued an apology in video form on the station’s website after reports of several Spartan fans calling the general manager of the station voicing their displeasure with Patrick’s distasteful, classless, idiotic remarks — and after pressure from said GM, I presume.

The comments shouldn’t have ever been made.

I joke all the time about games giving me heart attacks. As an MSU fan and alum and well-known sports psycho, I make that joke frequently. I decided to come up with some new material after Dantonio’s episode because heart ailments among college football coaches is becoming an alarming trend.

Florida coach Urban Meyer retired then unretired after suffering a heart attack last winter. Northwestern head coach Randy Walker, 52, died following a heart attack in July 2006.

The job is a stressful one. Running practice and watching film 20 hours a day; not being able to spend ample time with your family and friends; and worrying about 100-plus kids and hoping they don’t decide to do anything stupid.

When episodes such as Dantonio’s take place, they’re no laughing matter.

Maybe the guy was just mad his team lost. I’d be upset, too, if I supported a team that replaced one coach, Charlie Weis, with a (slightly) slimmer version — Brian Kelly, who coaches the same style Weis did. Neither is known for their defense, which has failed the Irish in each of the last two weeks. There are already rumblings Notre Dame fans are souring on Kelly.

Maybe Patrick wanted to deflect from the fact Notre Dame is the most overrated program in college football the last 25 years.
The last time Notre Dame football did anything significant, cell phones looked like laptops and MTV still featured music videos.

What big-time recruit wants to play there these days? No 17-year-old kid cares about the history of Notre Dame. No 17-year-old kid cares enough to learn the history of the Irish, either.

Maybe God hates Notre Dame. How many times in recent years has the team played well enough to get fans’ hopes up and made it to a BCS game only to get destroyed by a better team?

Patrick was talking about karma when he made his comments. If there were any real karma, he’d be searching the classifieds right now.