”LIFE’S A GAME OF INCHES”
Talen, som Tony D’Amato leverede den til sine spillere fra Miami Sharks før playoffkampen mod Dallas Knights.
”I don’t know what to say, really. Three minutes ’til the biggest battle of our professional lives. It all comes down to today.”
”Either we heal as a team or we’re gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play, ’til we’re finished.”
”We are 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 you. I’m too old. I look around, I see these young faces, and I think... I mean, I made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who has 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. That’s part of life. But you only learn that, when you start losing stuff. You find out, life’s a game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half of a step too late or too early, and you don’t quite make it. One half second to slow or too fast and you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are 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 fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!”
”I’ll tell you this: In any fight it’s the guy who is willing to die, who is 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 gotta look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now, I think you’re gonna see a guy who will go that inch with you. You are gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows, when it comes down to it, you’re 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?”