I had originally planned to use this space to do my own take on Bill Simmons genius comparison of the NBA playoffs to quotes from the greatest television show of all time, The Wire. I was thinking about comparing The Wire’s demonstration of the destruction of an American city to the slow destruction of the NFL through the lockout. The problem was that I didn’t want to rip off Simmons, because as Frank Sobotka would say, “We used to make s*** in this country, build s***. Now we just put our hand in the next guy’s pocket.” I’ll get to The Wire eventually, and I’m sure you’re waiting on pins and needles for that post to come out.
But I still did want to focus on the lockout, which teased us for a day or two before making us as angry as Frank Costanza (I mean, how could Steinbrenner give $12 million to Hideki Irabu?). The players and owners are moving incredibly slowly to repair things and it’s making me concerned about the 2011 season, since I really can’t wait to see Ryan Kerrigan suit up for the Washington Redskins. It worries me that what I just wrote was only slightly sarcastic. And with my Washington Capitals now swept by the Lecavalier-led Tampa Bay Lightning, it seems that both the Caps and the NFL could use an inspiring sports movie speech right to automatically guarantee a win. With that in mind, I came up with a mash-up of the greatest movie speeches (with a few of my own words added in) to form the super speech that could end the lockout, repair a DC team’s ego, find Jimmy Hoffa, or stop the rain so the Syracuse club baseball team can get a freaking game in. Enjoy.
Great moments…are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here, tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. All comes down to today, and either we heal as a team, or we're gonna crumble.
Hatred destroyed my family. You listen, and you take a lesson from the dead. If we don't come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don't care if you like each other of not, but you will respect each other. And maybe…I don't know, maybe we'll learn to play this game like men.
We're in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the s*** kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell…one inch at a time.
There are some who’d say, ‘The game is rigged, but you cannot lose if you do not play.’ But a man must have a code. This is our corner, and we ain’t runnin’ nowhere!
None of you ever knew George Gipp. It was long before your time. And the last thing he said to me, he said, ‘Sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper.’
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 we add up all those inches, that's gonna make the f****** difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I'll tell you this, in any fight, it's the guy who’s willing to die who’s gonna win that inch.
Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory…lasts forever. But in this life, you don't have to prove nothin' to nobody except yourself.
Now, ya'll have known me for a while, and for a long time now you've been hearin' me talk about being perfect.
Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn't let them down, because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you did everything that you could. There wasn't one more thing that you could've done.
I want you to take a moment. And I want you to look each other in the eyes. I want you to put each other in your hearts forever, because forever's about to happen here in just a few minutes. Boys, my heart is full. My heart's full.
That's a team, gentlemen, and either we heal, now, as a team, or we will die…as individuals. And they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!
Their time is done. It’s over. Screw ‘em. This is your time! Now go out there and take it.
Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can’t lose!
Can you guess what movies contributed to the super speech? Did you find the Wire reference that I had to sneak in there? Are you properly inspired? Great, somebody go tell it to Goodell so we can play some football.
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