As I settled in for a quiet night in the dorms, I turned on the television to see what was going to be my nightly entertainment. I flipped mindlessly through the channels, realizing that maybe watching television is not the best idea on a Friday night. When I was just about to give up hope, I was relieved to find a classic movie on TV.
Denzel Washington was in the middle of one of his passionate half-time speeches in Remember the Titans. This movie — an instant classic — got me thinking about what it takes for a movie to resound in the hearts of sports fans and be one of those movies you will watch whenever it comes on.
As I went through the list of great sports films, including The Rookie, Any Given Sunday, Friday Night Lights and The Natural, I realized was all of these movies have that one moment. That moment where your breath is taken away when the coach, athlete or agent gives “the speech.”
Now, this is that moment when the team is down and out, when all hope should be abandoned, when any chance of success looks to be gone, until someone delivers that line that precedes an event that reminds us all why we love sports.
This speech doesn’t usually remind the athlete of the paycheck they are getting, the exceptional skills they may have or the weakness of the opponent. Instead, the speech reminds the athlete of the most important thing, why they play the sport.
Adrenaline starts to pump and fills the body as the speech begins. The crowd, pressure, sponsors, and money fade to black, and all that remains is the field, the opponent and the ball. In movies, what usually happens is the team or individual goes on to a miraculous win victory after that. It tugs at the heartstrings and moves almost every viewer to tears.
Unfortunately, this only happens in the movies — it doesn’t happen in most televised sports anymore. As each Sunday comes and goes, we see Payton Manning making another appearance in some MasterCard commercial, or we hear Chris “Boomer” Berman delivering one of his high recognizable and comical retorts about the finish of the day’s nail bitter game. What we don’t hear about is what the coach may have told the kicker before he ran out on to the field, or what the manager told his batter before he hit that walk-off home-run.
We need more of this in sports.
We want to hear about the passion, desire and fire that drive the playmakers to make the plays that make us go crazy. Maybe this is why high school sports are so exciting for so many people. The athletes are not going out there to make their paychecks, earn a big sponsorship or even hear their name on SportsCenter. They are going out to win and compete for pride.
One athlete that plays only to play and isn’t worried about anything else other than winning is University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. Tebow, whether you love him or hate him, goes out and plays because he loves the game. This is what should be admired most about him, and what more athletes need to be like.
If more athletes were to just play with passion and no other motive, it would be so much more exciting to watch sports. Don’t get me wrong, it can be pretty exciting as it is, but there seems to be something missing.
Let us compare the NBA and NCAA basketball. For the most part, the rules are the same, but each year, you hear people complaining about NBA divas. When March Madness rolls in, it seems to take over all the airwaves as fans across the country wait for that underdog small school to show its passion and make its run deep into the tournament.
This is what I think sports are about: sitting in a sports bar with complete strangers who become your close friends as you all root for American to pull that upset and stun Villanova.
So next time you are sitting down for the big game, or walking up to a stadium of 50,000 roaring fans, try your best to avoid being pulled in by Eli Manning talking about DirectTV or worrying about who to start at running back in your fantasy football league. Just ask yourself who is going out to play the game today? Who is going to play with passion and make that one amazing play? Hope that a coach or teammate will inspire someone to play with that passion all athletes have somewhere deep inside of them and send chills through the crowd. As we know, anything can happen on any given Sunday.
You can reach this writer at sports@theeagleonline.com.
