ANY GIVEN SUNDAY [1999]

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]

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