Life & The Game Of Football
“27 years ago I sat in this locker room just like you
guys getting ready to play a game.
I walked down the locker room and it still smells
the same.
It takes you back real quick. One of the
things that caught me is how fast 27 years goes by.
There are so many people that live vicariously through you!
I would give anything tonight to jump in one of these
uniforms with you guys.
Do Something my Father Never had the Opportunity
to…
…My Father Never saw Me Play… you Play for your
fathers tonight!
The feeling of all this,
That Feeling goes away, and it goes away and it doesn’t
come every Friday Night.
It comes when you get married. It comes when
your child is born.
So you get it…. you just don’t get it
every Friday Night.
You’re going to miss that more than anything
in the world.
That’s what I miss.
And so you Seniors that are focused on college, your focused on
your work after High School….what you’re going to
do next… your focused on tomorrow aren’t
yah?
You got plenty of time for
tomorrows.
But these tonight’s…. there going by
fast.
You Focus on Tonight.
This is about you guys.
This is about the guys in this room that care about
each other… that know that there are only so many of
these nights left.
It’s about you.
Their a faceless opponent.
They just happened to draw the short straw
tonight.
We would say to young kids, learn to dream. You can
accomplish anything you want to, what a wonderful time in your
life. I get excited when I see kids playing in the backyard or
in the school yard, the advice that I would give a group of
kids would be, to have dreams. Its okay to work at those dreams
do whatever you can, but just has fun and there’s nothing
wrong with dreaming big. I just like to see kids playing, and
when they play I hope they are just having fun. Football
lessons we learn as kids can all be applied through the rest of
your life. Life is a team game, it’s the big game.
Anybody can be a leader, be excited, be first in line when
things are going great, test it when you battle through tough
times, when things aren't perfect.
Where do you stand?
This is your night. Make it happen. Where that with
pride one time. You can't be playing, you can't be
unemotional, this IS an emotional game. On that day and at the
end of your life you look in the mirror and you know, YOU KNOW,
I gave it all I had and I gave it for a worthy cause. You think
about what that means, you think about what it means to be on
your last play. This is my last play of football
ever!
This is my last play, how do I want it to be? How
do I want to be remembered?
Now get your ases ready to play!
Win on three …. One … Two ….
Three.
Win!”