Rudy Ruettiger: Fairy Tale Story Forever Tarnished After Stock Scam

Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger has been forever known for his fairy tale story turned movie about his time spent on the Notre Dame football program.

Now, along with that story, he will always be remembered for the stock scam that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission caught him in.

Ruettiger founded Rudy Nutrition, which was a company that planned to compete with Gatorade in the sports drink market.

This story didn't have such a happy ending.

The SEC said that "the company was primarily a pump-and-dump stock scheme that created more than $11 million in illicit profits."

Apparently, there were also false claims that "the drink outperformed Gatorade and Powerade by 2 to 1 in a blind taste test."

Although we may not see this as a big deal from the outside looking in, it's a very big deal in the business world.

Ruettiger agreed to settle for $382,866 and didn't admit to a single charge.

He really doesn't have to admit a thing. Everybody can tell by his actions that the allegations are likely true.

It's unfortunate. There really aren't too many role models left out there in the sporting world to look up to.

Just look at people like Joe Paterno, Michael Vick, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods and now Rudy Ruettiger.

These are guys that were once idolized.

Now, there will forever be an asterisk next to their names. Maybe not physically, but mentally they will be remembered for how they failed to live up to expectations.