The essence of the book, movie, and show overflows the sprayed sidelines of a football field onto the town, the people, the relationships, and the drama. Football is just the vehicle, and what a vehicle it is, chalk full of pep rally celebrations, playing time controversy, injuries, cheerleaders, and pregame William Wallace-esk speeches. In the movie, B.B. Thornton steals the show with his ‘perfect’ speech. It’s, pun absolutely indented, a perfect speech. It’s dramatic, inspirational, sensational, and chilling. I love it. Kyle Chandler didn’t have it as easy as his speeches were given time and time again, across episodes and seasons, to teams and to individuals, and censored due to network guidelines. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t able to elicit passion and excitement and sentiment when he rolled up his game notes and stared into the eyes of his audience.
Coach Gaines (Thornton) says, “Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn’t let them down because you told them the truth, and that truth is that you did everything that you could, there wasn’t one more thing that you could have done. Can you live in that moment, the best you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart, with joy in your heart. If you can do that, gentlemen, then you’re perfect.”
Coach Taylor (Chandler) doesn’t have just one speech to reference, but aside from a quote like “Every man at some point in his life is going to lose a battle. He is going to fight and he is going to lose. But what makes him a man is at the midst of that battle he does not lose himself,” which is fantastic, one thread can be stitched through every moment of inspiration: “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”
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I don’t love the idea of dating apps. This seems contradictory to how I seem to be spending the majority of my free time these days, but I promise, it’s not my preferred way of meeting a potential partner. I would be shocked if I was in the minority in that sentiment, which is ironic that so many people turn to it. Alas, the essence of most dating apps includes creating a profile. I do not take this lightly, in myself nor in others. It’s my job to market myself as attractively AND honestly as possible to attract a potential match. Therefore a lot of thought gets put into its construction and a lot of my time is spent reading and interpreting the content of other’s, when available. It also serves as a launch pad for early conversation, as long as there is more sustenance than ‘I love puppies, traveling, and my Snapchat is ‘ladyd5.’
Bumble requires the lady to make the opening move, resulting more often than not in ‘Hey Chris, how’s your day?’ Sometimes, and my hat is off to anyone with this sort of creativity, the opener is a question that elicits some actual thought. Someone once asked ‘You go to Target for one thing: what two things do you walk out with?’ Kudos! Recently someone opened with “Story behind using ‘clear eyes full hearts can’t lose’ in your humble profile?” I looked past whether or not ‘humble’ was genuine or slanderous and answered the question (albeit in fewer words than I’ve used below).
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I watched the movie at some point. I didn’t see it in a theater, so I’m sure it was on HBO and I gave it a watch. Baseball was my main focus in high school, so it might not have resonated quite as much with me as those that banged heads for four years. I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it. It definitely didn’t change my life.
I remember my mom vacating to the living room to watch Friday Night Lights on NBC, a show that no one else in the family watched. I was in college when it started and wasn’t as interested in that high school show as I was in something like, say, The O.C. (2003-2007), so never gave it a watch. Sometime after the show concluded, I found some shady website that was streaming every episode and decided to sit in my room and catch up on what had turned into a bit of a cultural phenomenon. I binged the show in a few months and really enjoyed the experience. I was able to keep up in conversations about Saracen v Street v Vince and understand why I have a friend that named her dog Riggins. But it definitely didn’t change my life.
Then something happened in my life exploration, in my infinite search for balance, and in my ever-growing appreciation for empathy that made it all click.
Clear eyes, to me, means honesty, integrity, transparency, authenticity, and purity. It’s the capital T truth. It’s the essence of life. It’s anti-Instagram, meaning filter-less. Pure as the driven snow.
Full hearts, to me, well I guess it’s kind of obvious, but it means empathy, and consideration, and understanding, and inclusion, and yes, love. It’s warmth. It’s acceptance. It’s the softest blanket made by caring hands.
The backdrop of a life-or-death-type sport scenario in towns where football was everything couldn’t be a better place for this quote. Where winning and losing is talked about for generations, the (overly-cliché) scoreboard of life is only concerned with that which binds us. When it comes to how we treat people, to how we meet people, and to how we live, it’s the most simple, succinct, and poignant combination of words I’ve ever taken the time to unpack. It’s a motto that can act as a backdrop to the stage of life.
In other words, it’s perfect.
I’ve always been borderline obsessed with quotes and I honestly don’t think there’s a better one out there, at least not for the life I strive to lead.
