Yes, football fans, the moment is almost upon us, and, once again, it’s do or die. The Pittsburgh Steelers are set to take on the Green Bay Packers on February 6 for that most coveted of football prizes – a Super Bowl championship. Football may not be your thing, but there is something about this and many sports that evoke lessons of teamwork, leadership, sacrifice, and bearing down and giving it your all to get the job done when the odds seem insurmountable.
Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday may not be the best football movie ever made, but Al Pacino’s locker room pep talk scene is surely one of the most inspirational moments in sports cinematic history. It’s a speech about crawling and clawing your way – “inch by inch,” as Pacino memorably intones – out of what is, for a team, the worst kind of hell: a state of distrust, disarray, and most lethal of all, a lack of faith. It’s a speech about healing and coming back together, as a team, to fight, survive, and win.
Too many clichés? Perhaps…but what is undeniable is the potential of sport to be a crucible for lasting friendship, generosity, mastery, mentorship, transcendence, and a fighting spirit that can galvanize individuals to work together to turn the seemingly impossible into reality. A coach of mine once said that discipline is a myth, and that the results of hard work, whether on the playing field, in the weight room, or in some other arena, are not born out of discipline but out of love. If we love what we do and set our sights high; if we love our game and have faith in our teammates, coaches and those who support us, and trust that they will go the distance with us, then the competition and struggle of sport has the potential to transform us into something more than we thought we could be. That is the promise and power of sport – whatever yours happens to be – for LGBT people and, indeed, for all people.
So, the next time you are on the field, in the pool, on the court, or on the track, ask yourself, Why do I bother to struggle and fight and claw for every inch of ground, and with everything I’ve got, at every opportunity? Because the difference between winning and losing, living and dying – in football and in life – so often comes down to mere inches.
