Play Or Be Played
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?
[Tony D'Amato]
On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose.
The point is -
can you win or lose like a man?
[Tony D'Amato]
You're a goddamn quarterback!
You know what that means?
It's the top
spot, kid. It's the guy who takes the fall.
It's the guy everybody's
looking at first - the leader of a team - who will support you when they
understand you.
Who will break their ribs and their noses and their
necks for you, because they believe.
'Cause you make them believe.
That's a quarterback.
[Tony D'Amato]
Let me tell you something.
For every sucker who makes it, for every Barry
Sanders, for every Jerry Rice, there's a hundred niggers you never heard
of. Sure.
The game's taught you how to strut, how to talk shit, how to
hit. But what else?
Suddenly, there's no more money, no more women, no
more applause. No more dream.
This is what I'm trying to say to you.
When
a man looks back on his life, he should be proud of all of it.
Not just
the years he spent in pads and cleats.
Not just memories of when he was
great.
You gotta learn that in here.
Or if you don't, you ain't a man,
you're just another punk.
[Luther 'Shark' Lavay, to Willie Beamen]
No intensity, no victory.
[Christina Pagniacci]
*****
