Potent Quotables

As far from poetry as you may think football may be, there is actually a poetic element buried in there somewhere. Deeply buried.

Coaches in particular are extremely verbose. They LOVE "The Speech." They LOVE postulating and motivating and rallying the troops. They LIVE on quotes and sayings. And we can all thank a guy named George Gipp for that.

What? You haven't heard of the "Gipper?" Haven't you been paying attention?

Let me help you. Mr. Gipp was a football player at Notre Dame in the early 1920's. The "Gipper," as he was known, contracted pneumonia (after spending a frigid night curled up on the back porch of a building because he had missed curfew and didn't want to be caught sneaking in!) and died. Before his death, he tells his coach, Knute Rockne, to tell the team "to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper." For the last 90 years, coaches have been borrowing this speech and delivering it with a knot in their throats to try to rally the troops:

"OK, guys. I'd like you to go out there and win this football game for a guy that wasn't smart enough to crawl through a window to avoid sleeping outside in November in Indiana. Let's go!!! (grunt grunt wooo hooo)"

Did I mention he was their quarterback? My goodness.

All that aside, there are some rather interesting quotes:

Most football teams are temperamental. That's 90% temper and 10% mental. -Doug Plank

True. So very, very true.

Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein. - Joe Theismann

Hmm. Joe, I think it is "Albert." (It should be noted, like Mr. Gipp, Mr. Theismann was a quarterback.)

I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid. - Terry Bradshaw

Wow. Yes you are and yes you are. (Again, worth noting, Mr. Bradshaw was a quarterback. And you thought only the linemen were vapid mouth-breathers. Silly you.)

One of the great disappointments of a football game is that the cheerleaders never seem to get injured. -Author Unknown

One of my aliases is "Author Unknown."

AND MY ALL TIME FAVE:

Being a football coach is like being in politics. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important. -Eugene J. McCarthy

God Bless You, Eugene. You hit the nail on the head.