Pep Talk from The Replacements

Cover of The Replacements (Keepcase)

So my son has a track meet today (districts) ~ big deal yadda yadda. I don’t write often about my family here because; well, that’s separate from me as a writer.

However. It was sweet this morning. I’m giving him the pep talk. “Just finish in the top three.” They came in eighth in the preliminaries earlier this week. No one expects them to come up in the top three. They kept their best runner out of the last race because he had another event. (But he’ll be running anchor today. Yay!). As I told my son, if they all do their best and hand-off the baton correctly, they could all come in with their best time this season and go on to State. This is a four by four race (4 X 400 meter relay). As a parent, you hold your breath for five minutes while each runner sprints the 400 meters around the track once and hands off the baton to the next runner. (It’s not as exhilarating or hope dashing as the 4 X 100, but it’s a fun race to watch. Ah. I digress.)

Hubby calls me later this morning. He left for an early flight and, as is often the case, my son was awake at 5 a.m., when he was leaving so they talked. My husband gave him a better pep talk. He told me he referenced the scene from The Replacements, where Gene Hackman is talking to Keanu Reeves and team*.

“There is no tomorrow for you which makes you very, very dangerous.”

In other words, play to win.

Love that line! See? Inspiration from real life and film is all around us. Of course, I just assumed wrongly that this scene would come right up on a Google search because it’s so great. No such luck. So, here’s a clip from the movie that talks about fear(s): http://youtu.be/i3O-kYwM8qY

Cheers!! ♥

*Note: This was in a scene where the replacement football players were going up against a star-rated team and not expected to win or be back tomorrow, once the strike was over and the union players returned…

Have you seen this movie? It’s one of our Saturday matinee favorites. I wouldn’t say it’s enormously funny ~ it’s poignant, inspirational, everyday Joe doing good (in this case, Shane Falco). #loveit!