Sam Hartman reveals plan to turn surgically-removed rib into necklace

Humans, under normal circumstances, have 24 ribs — 12 protecting each lung. Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman possesses all 24 of his ribs, but only 23 are currently actually part of his anatomy.

His spare rib, so to speak, was surgically removed late in 2022 and has since been kept in various states of preservation in Hartman’s refrigerator and elsewhere. In the coming weeks and months, he’s hoping to finally have it made into a piece of jewelry he can wear.

“The rib is good. It’s actually clean. It looks like a fossil type deal. It is well on its way to becoming a necklace,” Hartman said to ESPN’s David Hale on “The Paul Finebaum Show” on Thursday. “I think we’re about a couple weeks out from finalizing it. We’re just making sure we take great care of it and make sure that it stays in one piece.”

Hartman, who played for Wake Forest for five seasons prior to transferring to Notre Dame ahead of the 2023 season, is used to explaining his altered bone count to new teammates. He can understand why they don’t always believe him at first.

But after they see a picture of a rib not in someone’s chest, they start to believe him in short order.

“And yeah, I think it’s a lot of disbelief. Like a lot of my teammates here, it’s kind of — they don’t always know. I guess I sometimes assume that people know your story and how much it sometimes gets told. It is a fun fact and guys kind of will be like, ‘There’s no way.’ And then I have to show them the scar. And then ultimately they’ll ask to see a picture of it and they immediately regret asking to see a picture of a human rib not inside the body,” Hartman said.

As for turning a human bone into something wearable, Hale had questions for Hartman. Namely: Where does one go for their bone jewelry needs?

After joking about Google searches for bone necklace makers raising suspicions from authorities, Hartman shared that actually his mother, Lisa, is taking on the challenge of getting the rib turned into a Puka shell-like necklace, similar to ones popular among surfers.

A nurse by trade, Hartman knows his mom has seen worse than a removed rib.

And once it’s ready, Hartman doesn’t plan to wear his rib necklace often. He did seem to hint he’ll wear it at least once or twice walking into the stadium or for some pregame activities.

“She’s seen worse, I would say. So she kind of took the bull by the horns and I asked her to try and make it kind of like a Puka shell-type deal with the rib like shark’s tooth at the end. It’s pretty close to almost being done,” Hartman said. “We might see it pop out on a like a walk or right before the game or something. It won’t be worn a lot.”