By now, most of you know that I am a purple and gold bleeding fan of he University of Washington. Things have been a touch on the gloomy side since about the second game of the 2002 season. Reached all time lows last year as the Dawgs, at 0-12, painfully found that they had neither the pot nor the window. It was a sad time for Husky fans. But we, like others before us, have been here before. It is only hopeless when you abandon hope. It is never over until you quit. If you keep trying, keep pushing, keep at it, make the necessary changes and WORK HARD, the doom and gloom might just turn the corner into the light of success. And victory will follow.
We saw that happen in 2009. We won five games. 5! One more and there would be practice today at 4 pm in preparation for a bowl game. That is a huge swing, a tremendous turn of events. I am proud of these kids and happy that I had a chance to see them live and follow their saga. Certainly motivation was an important component of this surge. And motivation, dear VBA, is a precious commodity. In short supply, an endangered species. How we motivate is of particular interest to me. It has always amazed. What is it that makes something that someone has said create a positive emotion in them? What stirs in us the heroic? What makes us our best? And, perhaps most importantly, why can't we seem to make it last?
Here are two transcripts from two football coaches speaking about, and to, their respective teams. One is fictional, one as real as it gets.
I get motivation from both.
PS. I decided yesterday that when I grow up I wanna do triathlons the same way that Jake Locker plays football.
Sarkisian Opening statement: "I'm really proud of our football team. We've been challenging these guys for 365 days now. Our first team meeting was a year ago this coming Monday and thinking back on that time and where this program was and where those kids were mentally, to where they are tonight in that locker room, it's really something pretty special as a first year head football coach. I'm proud of our staff for continuing to battle and I'm proud of these kids. This was not an easy season by any means. There was a lot of adversity that came our way and a lot of excruciating losses that these kids had to deal with. They could have easily folded up the tents and reverted back to what they were before and they just battled every single day. They battled day in and day out and got better every single day.
Tony D'Amato: I don’t know what to say, really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives. All comes down to today, and either, we heal as a team, or we're gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play. Until we're finished. We're in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time. Now I can't do it for ya, I'm too old. I look around, I see these young faces and I think, I mean, I've made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I, uh, I've pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who's ever loved me. And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror. You know, when you get old, in life, things get taken from you. I mean, that's... that's... that's a part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losin' stuff. You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game - life or football - the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that's gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You've got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think ya going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. Your gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it your gonna do the same for him. That's a team, gentlemen, and either, we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football guys, that's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do?
10 comments:
Why don't you take up Gonzaga Basketball...that way you'd have something to root for for during all the unexpected down time.
At a tipping point in my life (December 18, 1989) I made a decision to move along. I was a semi-big media guy very much involved with the sports industry. Please allow me to say at this juncture that the Sports Industry is filthy. My GF at the time was a gifted pianist, poet, scholar, ballerina. My understanding of those things was embarrassingly slight. I decided (with her support) to leave team sports behind and take up a few more 'worldly' aspirations.
We agreed that I could keep one, and only one, team sport as my warring fix. I chose Husky football. If you ask me who the shortstop is for the Mariners, I will say, "dunno". Same with Hawks, whatever the name of that basketball team that used to play here, all hockey teams and every college team outside of the Pac Ten. I could care lees who wins the Heisman, unless it's Jake.
I have plenty to root for in between. I root for me, and you, and FW and Frozen and LE, and my family, and all the kids in our spin class, and even that tool selling UGG. We need cheers more than spoiled millionaires. I think. Maybe Tiger would disagree.
There, now you know. Huskies and out. (and I have nothing against Zag BBall).
Wow, I wasn't expecting that! I was just suggesting that Steve Gray from BI is doing pretty good with that Zag team and they seem to hang in there longer than UW (at least in B-ball) so when the U runs out of steam you can switch to Zag. I, somewhat similarly, have a preoccupation with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers who are renown for giving me long seasons of cheer (e.g., I get to cheer the end of academic probation and other NCAA recruiting violations, etc.; start of Spring, kind of like Frozen..). Now, which cheap but nice hoody should I get at Costco, Gonzaga or Huskies? As for Tiger, I just want to see Chris Rock with that smile and a few jokes about the Swede lady popping Tiger's SUV window out with the steel weapon. Wondering whether she was driving the cart when she swang it...
Never saw Gray play. Heard he could jump 'n shoot some.
In a world overflowing with slime and hypocrisy, our role models and heros are few. Me and RCVman continue to hunt them down (but only in certain circles).
UW Hoodie dude.
I like both quotes very much. Strength oozes from both, and I think both are very universal, no matter what your passion. Thanks for sharing.
Here is another 'state of mind', 'apply it to all aspects of life', as well as a 'specific situation' good speech. Second or third is fine; showing up is fine; and perhaps best to train your mind to think of the broadest possible goal or focus for an acceptable personal 'win'(?) I think that the more focused one becomes upon a narrow goal or thing (however important or difficult) the more the likelihood of profound moment(s) of disappointment but then again the same narrow focus can also produce the greatest chance of profound moment(s) of success and exhilaration. Risky proposition (in time). Perhaps especially so for the modern day Huskies or Packers.
"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
"There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that's first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.
"Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.
"Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization - an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win - to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don't think it is.
"It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That's why they are there - to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules - but to win.
"And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.
"I don't say these things because I believe in the 'brute' nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour - his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has to work his heart out in a good cause and he's exhausted on the field of battle - victorious."
--Vince Lombardi
I have long held dear a (somewhat trite and pithy) analogy. When push comes to shove we get personal answers to the big questions one of two ways:
1) Ask somebody who has done it, or
2) Do it and find out.
The funny thing that I have realized in my travails is that the people in cat1 who have done it, always say that you need to do it yourself and find out for yourself. Leaving just cat2 as the sole appropriate path for the superior man.
Lombardi has taken some heat over the years for his views, mostly the competition versus sustainability debate, but, in this context, I agree with Vince 1000%.
Can we win? Can I be my best? Will I pay the price of success?
Cat 2. And if you fail the first go-round?
Repeat as necessary.
Vince, by his own admission, says here that his biggest lessons came from losing (second place twice).
There's gold between them lines.
Here is another. Part of an interview between Guy Richie, the director of upcoming movie 'Sherlock Holmes' and Robert Downey Jr., the actor who plays Holmes. They are talking about Downey's ability to do the work-outs necessary to play how they are portraying Holmes (and it seems Downey got a head start with Ironman). But I think what he is saying is relevant about the effort one can exert on oneself to reach a goal is in part about the level of anxiety one has about it and sources of motivation (which in this case was apparently his perception or stature of the character). What I also seem to recognize in especially older persons who are into or willing to do fitness and endurance sports, is the level of or a heightened recognition/sense of mortality that time or aging brings (which I guess is sub-set or type of anxiety. Here are a few of the NYT interview comments:
GR: You are pretty fit. I can tell how much of an eye you keep on your diet. This movie was so physically demanding—day after day of getting you to work out six to eight hours a day. Now that’s hard, mate. There’s not many 22-year-old athletes who could have kept up. There were times I thought, How is he going to do what we’re physically asking of him? All that knocking the s--t out of one another has a domino effect. Now that you’ve got yourself in that condition, do you find it easy to maintain? And was getting yourself into condition hard? Because I reckon you’ve got about 6 or 7 percent body fat.
RD: Wow, this is gonna be a good interview if we stay along these lines. I used to say, “Always eating, never dieting,” because it’s so much about where you are in your head—and there are billions of dollars of righteous industry devised to appeal to anyone’s illusion. Your head space will lead you toward whatever result you want, and the rest is just the mechanics. Sometimes in the thick of it, we were really tired—me and the Mrs. [Susan Downey, a producer on the film] had to pull up our bootstraps to pour out of bed. But there’s something about Arthur Conan Doyle and so much energy behind the archetype. It just seemed there was a wellspring of good juice that would come when we needed it. Again, the perception of someone before you start work is irrelevant, because it is couched in your own anxiety, your own projection and your own shortcomings in being thrown onto that canvas. But what helped us make it down that road was the sense of ease you created on the set. I think a certain amount of your energy very discreetly but purposefully created a sense that this is not rocket science. It’s tough, but there’s no reason not to enjoy it.
Precisely my dear EJ.
btw, RDjr quite easily could have stayed on the canvas, a TKO. But decided to keep after it. Get up swinging and fight some more. His victories have been legion and inspiring. I am a big fan.
I was thinkin' just this afternoon that simply the act of sharing these inspiring and motivating stories does a thousand times more good that all of what CNN has reported upon today.
Thanks for your part.
I agree. Like that "billions of dollars of righteous industry...". The media is absolutely horrible, horrifying and addicting all at the same time. Then there are the non-stop marketeers telling you that if you simply turn it off it will hurt/ruin your business.
I am looking forward to Sherlock Holmes though. Great stories.
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