Any Given Sunday

I don’t know what to say really.

Three minutes

to the biggest battle of our professional lives

all comes down to today.

Either

we heal

as a team

or we are going to crumble.

Inch by inch

play by play

till we’re finished.

We are in hell right now, gentlemen

believe me

and

we can stay here

and get the shit kicked out of us

or

we can fight our way

back into the light.

We can climb out of hell.

One inch, at a time.

Now I can’t do it for you.

I’m too old.

I look around and I see these young faces

and I think

I mean

I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make.

I uh….

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, that’s part of life.

But,

you only learn that when you start losing stuff.

You find out that life is just 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 step too late or to early

you don’t quite make it.

One half second too slow or too fast

and you don’t quite catch it.

The inches we need are everywhere around us.

They are in ever break of the game

every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch

On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us

to pieces for that inch.

We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.

Cause we know

when we add up all those inches

that’s going to make the fucking difference

between WINNING and LOSING

between LIVING and DYING.

I’ll tell you this

in any fight

it is the guy who is willing to die

who is going to win that inch.

And I know

if I am going to have any life anymore

it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch

because that is 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 are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you.

You are going to see a guy

who will sacrifice himself for this team

because he knows when it comes down to it,

you are gonna do the same thing 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, whattaya gonna do?

Tony D'Amato