Football Coach
There was an old football coach named George Hallis. You all remember him? Some of you ladies probably wouldn't remember that name maybe, but George Hallis is a very famous football coach for the Chicago Bears. He used to have a custom every year. He'd get the rookies that want to make the Chicago Bear football team, throw them out on the practice field, let them scrimmage with all the veterans, and he'd be up in his office watching them.
They didn't know he was watching them, but he'd be watching them making notes. And so after the scrimmage, he'd get them all up in the locker room and sit them all down. They'd be sitting in the locker room, kind of like all you guys are sitting in, pretending like I'm the coach. And he'd come out and of course they would be murmuring. This is before they take a shower or anything.
They're waiting for old George. Hey, there's George Hallis. Wow, this is great, man. We're going to make the Chicago Bear football team. And so George Hallis would come out and he'd do the same thing every year.
He'd say, you guys want to make the Chicago Bear football team? And they'd say, yeah, we want to make the Chicago Bear football team. He says, you know what? I've been coaching for a long time and I've had a lot of experience watching rookies come into this camp. And I got to tell you, in all of my years of coaching, this crop of rookies, you guys are the most pathetic, lily-livered wimps I have ever seen in my entire life.
I have never seen a bunch of sissies and pansies in my life like the lot of you guys. And now they're all, I mean, they're thinking, oh man, I hope he wasn't watching me, you know. And then so finally he says, I saw one of you guys got hit by some big linebacker, got knocked down and crawled off the field whining. You think that's the kind of guy we want on this football team? You want to be real quiet?
He'd get them all riled up. He'd say, well, what do you think? And they'd say, no. What about the guy who gets hit, knocked down, gets hit two or three times and he gets knocked down, gets back up again, he breaks his little pinky finger and goes whining off the field. Is that the kind of guy you think I want?
No. What about the guy gets knocked down, he's back on his feet, knocked down again, back on his feet, bloody nose, back into the game. And then finally he gets knocked down and he pulls a muscle and he goes crawling off the field. Is that the kind of guy? No.
Well, what about the guy? He gets knocked down and he's back up again. He gets knocked down again, he's back up again. He gets knocked down again, breaks his wrist. It doesn't matter.
He's back in the game. No matter how much pain, no matter how much blood, every time he's down, he's back up. He's down, he's back up. He's hit, he's back up. Is that the kind of guy we want?
And he says, yes. He said, no. I want the guy who's hitting these guys. Listen, listen folks. Some of y'all are getting hit and you're getting knocked down.
And it's time for you to get back up on your feet and start hitting back.