TGON’s Monday Motivation: Sports Movies Edition

Football, hockey, and basketball are all in full swing right now, which means someone in your life is probably yelling at a screen. For this edition we skipped the highlight reels and went to the movies, where some of the best locker room speeches and gut check moments ever written live. No brackets, no standings, just five lines from five different sports that are very good at getting you off the couch.

A hockey coach, a baseball manager, a high school football player, a Jamaican bobsledder, and a boxer. Different games, but they all land on the same point: nobody is handing you the win, so you might as well go get it.

1. “If we played ’em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight.” — Herb Brooks, Miracle

Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, gives this speech to the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team right before they face the Soviet Union, the dominant force in international hockey. He opens by telling his players that great moments are born from great opportunity, and then he does something most coaches would not: he admits the other side is better.

He never pretends the odds are good. He just says the odds do not decide tonight. Some Mondays you are the underdog on paper, so find the one game, the one meeting, or the one conversation this week that is yours to win and put everything into it.

2. “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” — Jimmy Dugan, A League of Their Own

Dottie Hinson, the star catcher of the Rockford Peaches, has decided to quit right before the World Series. Her husband is home from the war and she tells manager Jimmy Dugan, played by Tom Hanks, that the game just got too hard for her. His answer is the line above.

Dugan spends most of the movie as a hard drinking former slugger who barely wants the job, and here he is the one who gets it right. Hard does not mean you are in the wrong place. It is the reason the place is worth being in, so walk into the hard thing on your list today.

3. “Attitude reflects leadership, captain.” — Julius Campbell, Remember the Titans

Julius says this to team captain Gerry Bertier during the Titans’ preseason camp, after a grueling practice where tension between the Black and white players has boiled over. Julius announces that he is going to look out for himself and get his, and Gerry calls it the worst attitude he has ever heard. Julius turns it right back around on him.

It lands because it is true: a team’s mood starts at the top, and Julius is the one willing to say it out loud. If people look to you this week, even informally, set the tone you want to see. Everyone around you is watching what you do first.

4. “I see pride! I see power! I see a bad-ass mother who don’t take no crap off nobody.” — Yul Brenner, Cool Runnings

Yul, one of the four members of the Jamaican bobsled team, tells his teammate Junior Bevil to look in the mirror and say what he sees. Junior answers, “I see Junior.” Yul says he will tell him what he sees instead, and then delivers the line above.

Junior sees himself, and that is exactly the problem. Sometimes someone else has to hold up the better version of you until you can see it too. Borrow a little of Yul this week: look at yourself the way your biggest fan would, and then go do the thing.

5. “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” — Rocky Balboa, Rocky Balboa

Rocky says this to his son, Robert, in Rocky Balboa (2006). Robert has come to talk him out of an exhibition fight and unloads about living in his father’s shadow. Rocky does not argue. He tells his son that nobody hits as hard as life does, and that what counts is whether you keep going.

You are going to take a hit this week: the late email, the schedule that falls apart, the plan that does not survive the first meeting. Take it, shake it off, and keep moving forward.

Which Sports Movie Quote Is Your Monday Motivation?

Five sports, five different pep talks, and not one of them is sitting this week out. Drop your pick in the comments and tell us which team you are cheering for right now. If your favorite sports movie moment did not make the list, we want to hear what it is.

TGON’s Monday Motivation is back every Monday. Next week we head to Middle-earth.

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