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Sunday, October 20, 2002

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Bill Cowher's use of a clip from the movie "Network" to inspire his team last Saturday night inspired others to reminisce about the best motivational tool or speech they ever saw or heard from a coach.

Tom Coughlin of Jacksonville often splices motivational clips of movies and other shows into tapes. Giants Coach Jim Fassel showed his team clips from the movie "Gladiator" when his team went to the Super Bowl two years ago. Bill Belichick had former Celtics great Bill Russell talk to his Patriots.

But not all of the motivational tactics work.

Tunch Ilkin remembers going into halftime of a Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit in 1983, trailing the Lions.

Said Ilkin, "Keith Willis comes in and starts yelling: 'We got guys going down, guys quitting; not me.' He gives this impassioned speech, and on the very first play of the second half, he pulls a hamstring. As he goes hobbling out of the game, Gary Dunn goes, 'Nice speech, Keith.' "

The Steelers lost, 45-3.

Giants General Manager Ernie Accorsi recalled a game against Minnesota when he worked for Cleveland in 1986. The Browns were losing by a bunch at halftime and stormed back to win by three under Coach Marty Schottenheimer.

"Lindy Infante, our offensive coordinator, came out to the bus and said Marty gave the greatest halftime speech in the history of football," Accorsi said.

What was it, Accorsi asked.

"He said, 'go out there and play one play at a time,' " Accorsi said. "That's not exactly the Gipper speech. Amos Alonzo Stagg and Pop Warner probably used that."

Accorsi and others say that motivational tactics and speeches usually don't have any effect. Accorsi also worked at Penn State and recalled one thing Joe Paterno used to say about excited players who jumped up and down before a game.

"Sooner or later, they have to put both feet on the field and play."

Maybe that's why Steelers center Jeff Hartings, who played at Penn State, doesn't think much about such things. He remembers one halftime when Penn State was losing and assistant coaches came into the locker room and started throwing and kicking things around. The Nittany Lions stormed the field for the second half and continued to lose.

Even though the Steelers beat Cincinnati, 34-7, after Cowher showed the "Network" clip -- "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" -- Hartings doesn't think it worked.

"To say that it worked means that we won the game because he showed the movie, and I highly doubt that. I think the players thought it was funny. I don't know if it gave us any motivation in the game. I don't think it was a bad idea, but to give that the credit for the way we played is kind of stretching it."

Another offensive lineman, tackle Wayne Gandy, disagrees.

"Sometimes, you have to tweak the mind to motivate players. After a while, you can't use the same stuff. Even in a professional forum, we're all self-motivated, but trying to push a couple buttons can't hurt."

Gandy said the best he ever saw at it was Frank Gansz, a renowned special teams coach and Pittsburgh native. Gansz coached the Rams' special teams when Gandy played there.

One time, Gansz brought a clip from Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier I to show them.

"Frazier knocked Ali down with one punch," Gandy said. "He was trying to demonstrate how to deliver a blow, but also how the man took such a devastating blow and almost instantaneously hit the ground and got up."

Maybe the Steelers' kickoff team could watch.

Chuck Noll won four Super Bowls without giving many speeches. But Ilkin remembers one Noll gave them before they played at Oakland on a Monday night in 1981.

"He said the Spartans were so committed to victory that when they crossed the seas to the island of Corinth to fight the Corinthians, they burned their own ships, so the only way they could return was victorious on Corinthian ships. He said that's how committed we have to be.

"Someone asked, 'Does that mean we are going to blow up our plane when we get to Oakland?' "

The Steelers lost, 30-27, the first of three consecutive losses to end the season 8-8.