Word: speech
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...never had the opportunity to give that great speech, since people - even the nice people who run TIME's softball team and whose most threatening competitor is the Village Voice - keep me far away from crucial sports moments. But a true champion doesn't wait for destiny, he destinies for wait! I had a long...
...training, I turned to former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher, who won Super Bowl XL. Cowher explained that every great speech has to present players with a challenge, a plan to meet that challenge and an incentive for meeting that challenge. Then he retold the most effective speech he ever gave to a team. "When Christopher Columbus left and got on the boat, everyone told him not to go because the world is flat and he's going to fall off the face of the earth," began Cowher. I realized then that there is probably a good deal of history...
...about football. "They've heard all the football things. What can be more intriguing to them is what you do." So together we crafted a story from journalism, and then, with nothing but a dream, grit and a connection at the NFL Network, I went off to try my speech on famous football players...
...Marshall Faulk. "It won't work on me," said Faulk before I even started. "I've never sat there and really paid attention to what was being said. If I'm playing in the Super Bowl, and I've dreamed about it as a kid, what's the inspirational speech for? It's like giving Barack Obama a speech right before the Inauguration. 'I'm going to get you motivated, Barack!' Are you serious?" This was not the inspirational speech a man needed before delivering an inspirational speech...
Wanting to test my speech on someone who had actually listened to a motivational speech before, I called Rod Woodson, an 11-time Pro Bowler, NFL Network analyst and Super Bowl XXXV winner. "Everybody is not Marshall," Woodson said. "A lot of guys under pressure can fall to pieces if someone is not kicking them in the rear to get them going." I gave Woodson the old Clooney rallying speech, and the disadvantages of having an audience who listens became clear. "I'd give it a C minus," said Woodson. "You need a little more emotion behind...