Philosopher Nietzsche Makes Footballguys email update? (1 Viewer)

[JaxBill]

I read the opening quote of Friday's email update and wondered what the heck Bill Curry/Willie Davis were doing talking about philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nietzsche

But first, the Quote Of The Day:

"He said, 'I've been watching you at practice. I think you've got a chance to make our team. And I'm going to help you. When Nietzsche is snapping your face mask and breaking your nose. And Lombardi is screaming in your face. And there's blood everywhere and you don't think you can take another step, you look at me and I'll get you through it.'

He didn't just help me to play in the NFL for ten years. He changed my life."

-- Former Packer Bill Curry on Willie Davis and how pulling together as a team helped ease racial tensions. Curry is white and Davis is black.

It's a great and thought-provoking quote but what did Neitsche have to do with it. Then I quickly realized they were probably talking about some other historical figure. Sure enough I googled the rest of the quote and my suspicions were confirmed. I think spell-check might have been the culprit.Here's the quote from the Packers site:

I'm walking out of the dorm one night at St. Norbert College and this voice comes out of the darkness, 'Bill.' It was Willie Davis, I thought it was God. I just sat down in the grass terrified. He said, 'I'd like to speak with you,' and I thought he was going to tell me to go home. He said, 'I've been watching you at practice and I think you've got a chance to make our team; and I'm going to help. When (Ray) Nitschke's snapping your facemask and Lombardi is screaming in your face and you don't think you can take another step, you look at me and I'll get you through it.' He didn't just help me to play in the NFL for 10 years, he changed my life because I was never able to look at another human being in the same way I had. It was an unexpected, undeserved, unrewarded act of kindness by a great leader and a great man. I've never forgotten that and that is the difference in the outstanding teams and the others. If you've got Willie Davis, nobody can beat you."

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2007/01/23/2/It's not my intent to ruin a good story but I thought the name substitution was quite humorous.

 

[fatness]

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I'm an idiot.

What makes it really frustrating is I really tried hard to get that quote right from Curry.

And I wish I could have cut and pasted that quote from the packers website.

I got it from a thing he did on NFL Network. Originally I had it much larger. It's part of a really big quote where he talked about Willie Davis wanting to talk to him at night and how Curry was worried and such. So I spend time tivoing back and forth stopping and starting the quote to make sure I transcribe it right. Then cut it down to what I had.

Then making sure I had Curry's name right (I first had Currey). Then I was pretty sure Nitschke was spelled differently than the philosopher but I couldn't remember how so I did a quick google for Ray Nietzsche expecting to get the "did you mean to say "Ray Nitschke" but instead I get a google return at #3 from amazon on one of my favorite football books "When Pride Still Mattered" that says

Characters such as Paul Hornung (the coach's "Golden Boy" and favorite player), Bart Starr, Jerry Kramer, Ray Nietzsche, Alex Karras, Willie Wood, ...

At midnight, I thought to myself, "Guess I was wrong" and went with it. If I'd slowed down I would have seen that it was not amazon.com but amazon.de And of course the fact that all the returns weren't about the Packers should have hit the light for me. But it didn't.

So I try to go for a really great quote (and story) and then totally blow it. I should stick to Warren Sapp quotes.



J

 

[The Kansas Comet]

Joe's probably longing for the days when John Smith was kicking the Patriots - at least you got Kacyvenski correct. No worries - made the e-mail that much more entertaining today.

 

[JaxBill]

No worries - made the e-mail that much more entertaining today.

Exactly. I liked the quote and then thought "Did I read that right? Did he really mean that?".I just figured you were trying to see who was on their toes during the "dead period".

 

[Ed Wood]

Wow, I know Lombardi was a great coach but I had never read where he had incorporated the great German philosopher in his Xs and Os. He was definitely ahead of his time.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I just figured you were trying to see who was on their toes during the "dead period".

Yeah, that's really what I was doing... J

 

[phthalatemagic]

Just goes to show that football is pretty big in Germany

 

[The Kansas Comet]

Wow, I know Lombardi was a great coach but I had never read where he had incorporated the great German philosopher in his Xs and Os. He was definitely ahead of his time.

I'm sure he based the number of up-downs done at his practices on the idea that "What does not kill me makes me stronger." Either that or he was just a hardass.

 

[JaxBill]

I just figured you were trying to see who was on their toes during the "dead period".

Yeah, that's really what I was doing... J

Glad I could "step up".

 

[GroveDiesel]

Philosophers are a pretty rough crowd. You never can tell when they might snap your face mask and break your nose. Seriously.