The speakers we preceded The Playmaker were decent, probably pedestrian at best. Bruce Matthews was bland, thanking God, and deservedly so, every opportunity he had. The sweat dripping from Thurman Thomas' dome was indicative of his speech: erratic and free-flowing. Besides Charlie Sanders waving to the camera and directing a "Hi, Mom," to his deceased mother, the other speakers lacked the charisma and spontaneity of Irvin.
Call me a homer, because I am a Dallas Cowboy aficionado, but Irvin's speech is easily one of the best ever by an athlete. Lou Gehrig's emotional farewell speech may have been more riveting at the time, but I think The Playmaker will soon supplant him and be regarded as the best ever with the microphone in a matter of years.
Irvin brought the viewer inside his mind, allowing us to examine his most central beliefs and values. He is a man of God, and he addressed that subject with more straightforwardness than any professional athlete, possibly with the exception of Deion Sanders and Reggie White.
With his faith on his sleeve and visible to everyone, Irvin spoke of his sons, specifically about how he prays that the are both better fathers and husbands than he. He also explains how he hope
s they never make the same mistakes, as far as abusing drugs, he made when playing with the Cowboys. Then he delivers the line that resonated most poignantly with me when he mentions that God told him to instruct his sons to "Look up, get up and never give up."Basically, Irvin crafted a speech, without notes or cue cards, that provided the viewers and those in attendance a glimpse into his life. He could have easily thanked high school coaches and spent minutes dwelling on the solid relationships his maintains with Troy Aikman and Jimmy Johnson , but, instead, he chose to address those issues that some still find mysterious. And after Irvin's tell-all speech, I'm quite sure no one we describe them as mysterious any longer.
3 comments:
Did you just compare the most famous sporting address of all time to The Playmaker’s HOF induction speech? Gehrig spoke for two minutes, while Irvin has been talking incessantly his entire career. Gehrig only happened to be dying of ALS, while I am only dying from Irvin’s Sunday afternoon diatribes and awful ties. I will give Irvin credit though, at least he wasn’t screaming.
I thought Irvin's speech came from the heart. The obvious amount of emotion he put into his words, resulted in his tears. Those words he spoke, "look up, get up and never give up," can be easily related to everyones life, all in all good speech.
Good speech, no where even close to a top 10 from an all-time sports speech perspective.
Irvin's emotions come from the guilt of being a horrible person during his playing years and the realization he has been a horrible role model for his kids.
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