Denzel Washington Motivational & Inspiring Commencement Speech

Do you know the plays? Whether on offense or defense do you know the plays? You see the quarterback in a football game right before the snap, pointing to a player and talking to that player. The quarterback, most of the time, is telling the player where to line up. For that particular play, the player is most likely lining up in the wrong place. So the quarterback tells him where to line up.

A busted play is when the quarterback is snapped the ball from the center and then something goes wrong. The quarterback turns to the right, to hand off the ball to the running back, and the running back is behind him on the left. The left guard pulls to his right and the right guard pulls to his left and they collide into each other behind the center. You must memorize the plays and not depend on someone else to tell you where to go.

Do you know your faith? You call yourself a Christian, but do you know your faith? You go to church as often as you can on Sundays, just because you always have, but do you know your faith? If I asked you to repeat the 10 commandments, in order, could you do it? If I asked you to tell me the name of the four gospels, could you do it? Who was the first martyr of the Christian faith? Can you repeat the creeds from memory? Have you read the Bible, cover to cover?

Are you one of those football players the quarterback has to tell where to line up, before the snap of the ball? I challenge you to memorize the plays and your faith.

James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

The long snapper, in a football game, is very important. He must snap the ball to the punter or place kick holder and be perfect every time. Most of the time it is no longer just the starting center doing the long snapper duties, it is a specialist who the coach trains to perform this particular duty.

As the long snapper you can have the greatest game and make every snap perfect and no one will ever notice. But if you make one bad snap in the game, suddenly everyone will know who you are and they will question your ability to do what you do.

In our Christian walk of life most of us are also called to be a niche role player like the long snapper. Most of us will never be the quarterback or the all-state running back. But the job God has given you will be just as important even though the ball is rarely in our hands.

As a Christian, people will be watching you as you live your life. They will see you go to church. They will see the cross or the rosary beads hanging from your rear view mirror in your vehicle. And when you snap the ball over the punters head (so to speak) and screw up, everyone will know your name and talk about you. “Yeah, he is supposed to be a Christian, but look at him now!”

In the football game the coach may be angry, but he will put the long snapper back in the game to snap on the next opportunity. God will do the same and forgive you of your screw up also.

John 8:3-11 The Scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do you say?” They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

Four or five of us neighbor boys were at Paul’s house. Paul was a couple of years older than us and had just received a brand new BB gun for his birthday. He was letting each of us take a turn at shooting the new gun.

When Paul finally got the gun back in his hands he turned around, took aim at my face and from about two feet away pulled the trigger. His shot hit me just under my left eye on my cheek bone and the BB bounced off my face. I immediately started running away from the area.

My house was a block away and when I got there, I ran into the bathroom. I put toilet paper on the wound and tried to stop the bleeding, which was considerable. My father followed me into the bathroom and said, “What happened?” I said, “Paul just shot me in the face with his BB gun from about two feet away.” My Dad grabbed me by the back of the neck and said, “Let’s go.” I said, “Where are we going?” He said, “To Paul’s house.”

When we arrived at Paul’s house my Dad hit the front door loudly three times with the bottom of his fisted hand. Paul’s Dad opened the door and said, “Joe, what is wrong?” My Dad said, “Your Paul just shot my kid in the face with the BB gun from about two feet away.” Paul’s Dad turned around facing into the house and yelled, “Paul get up here right now.”

Paul got to the door almost immediately. His Dad said to him, “Did you shoot Tim with the gun?” Paul said, “Yes sir.” Paul’s Dad looked back at my Dad and said, “Joe, I will take care of this problem on my end and thank you for coming over.”

I learned later that Paul had his new BB gun taken away from him forever and he received the butt whipping of his life.

A few days ago, I read a story in the news that said; about 50% of the babies in the United States are born out of wedlock with many a father not present. My first thought was, who raises these kids and tells them that shooting another kid in the face with a BB gun is unacceptable behavior?

The coach in pregame says this to his team in the locker room: “Now guys, let’s be nice out there tonight. I want you to quit being so rough on the other team. Quit hitting them so hard. Stop hanging on to the football so tightly; carry it loose so it is easier for the other team to get it away from us. Lets just be nice guys tonight.

My guess is, no coach in America at any level of football from junior high to the N.F.L. has ever said that speech and meant it.

Galations 1:10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Men (and women) need to be challenged. That is why, I think, we love the game of football, our guys against your guys. Who has worked harder in preparation for the game, both mentally and physically? The game itself is a challenge to play. It is not for the soft in spirit and body.

Our spiritual lives are also challenging. It is difficult to love everyone. It is difficult to read the Bible and pray everyday. It is at times difficult to get to church.

But once we start to do the things recommended by Coach Jesus, it gets easier to do. We start to take on the characteristics of our Coach.

So are you pleasing people instead of God? Have you gone soft?

Last Friday night at the football game, I was overwhelmed with the actual beauty of everything surrounding the game. The football field itself was green and beautiful with the painted white stripes and numbers. The colors of the two opposing team’s uniforms and helmets were like a picture painted on that field of green.

The stadium seating on both sides of the field were full of fans in all their school colors. The seating areas were full and many fans were standing on both sides of the field up and down the sidelines. You could hear the band playing their music. You could smell the popcorn and the hamburgers being cooked. There was a slight breeze and the flags around the stadium were flipping lightly in the wind.

Clouds covered about ninety percent of the sky as the sun was setting which added an orange hue to the clouds adding to the colorful and beautiful evening.

Even if you didn’t know a thing about high school football you could have just enjoyed the atmosphere, the beauty and the excitement of the situation.

In our religious life, I think we sometimes focus too much on the rules and laws of that religious life. What we need to focus more on is the beauty of our religious life. Many of us go to churches that are some of the biggest and most beautiful buildings in our town that have beautiful stained glass windows that tell the story of our Christian faith. We have music that is hopefully inspiring in both word and sound.

When the pastor or priest bless the bread and wine or juice have you ever just watched that part of the service and thought back to when Jesus actually started that tradition over 2,000 years ago? It is beautiful to watch it today.

At some point to really understand what is going on in a football game we need to know the rules of the game. Our religious lives are the same, but to start with focus on the beauty of our worship services and on the beauty of the life lived by Jesus in the four gospels.

I was the starting wide receiver for our varsity football team my senior year with a new head football coach. Through the first five games of the season, I was the leading pass receiver in both yards and catches in our combined 10 team league. But I had not played one down of defense.

In that fifth game our starting safety sustained a concussion and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. I knew the doctor would not allow that safety to play in the next game.

The following Monday, before practice, I went to our head football coach and told him I was willing to give up my starting wide receiver position just to get some playing time on defense. His comment back was, “We will see” and then he walked off. My first thought was, ‘That didn’t go very well.’

That Friday night a sophomore started at safety and that made me angry. When the fourth quarter started, the coach called for me and he inserted me into the game at safety. I had a chip on my shoulder and was still angry. As I recall, I only made two tackles in that fourth quarter. Both tackles came against our opponents All-State running back in the open field. That second tackle was right in front of my head coach, near the sideline. When I got up, I looked at our coach, he did not say anything, but had a big smile on his face.

The following Monday before practice got started, the coach said he had an announcement to make. He said, “We are changing our defense this week. We are going to drop our 5-man front and go with a 4-man front and start two safeties. Tim will be starting at strong safety and Dwight will be back also, after his concussion, at free safety.

For the final three games of the year I never left the field. I was starting both ways and was put on every special team. In those three and a quarter games, I finished the season with 19 unassisted tackles and 35 assisted tackles and one fumble returned for a touchdown.

Ten years after that season (yes it took ten years) I wrote a letter to my old head football coach, who lived in another community. I thanked him for listening to me that night before practice and giving me a chance to play some defense and thanked him for being our coach that season. I received a wonderful letter back from him which I still cherish since he has passed away.

My thought for you today is send a real snail mail letter or card to your old football coach and thank him for being your coach. You may not have agreed with everything he did, but he was still your coach.

We were doing the Oklahoma drill in practice. I stepped up to be the ball carrier and my little brother was next in line to be the tackler. The coach made a big deal out of it, being it was going to be brother on brother.

Coach then threw me the ball and I started forward as my little brother moved into the tackle zone. I hit my brother as hard as I could with my left shoulder pad and he landed on his back as I ran over the top of him. As I turned to throw the ball to the coach, the coach said, “That wasn’t very nice.” I said back to the coach, “I am never going to be tackled by him!”

1 Samuel 17:28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

Can you hear that condescending voice of Eliab? It is the same condescension in my voice about my little brother.

1 Samuel 17:43-44 The Philistine (Goliath) ridiculed David. “Am I a dog that you come after me with a stick?” And he cursed him by his gods. “Come on,” said the Philistine. “I’ll make road kill of you for the buzzards. I’ll turn you into a tasty morsel for the field mice.”

That same condescension I had in my voice for my little brother and Eliab and Goliath had in their comments for David is the same condescension some football teams have for certain teams on their schedule this fall.

Be careful what you think about your opponents this fall. My advice is to take them all as serious competitors no matter what they have done in the past.

1Samuel 17

Several years ago I was told about a grandma who had a couple of grandsons on the team. Grandma would ask when the bus would be leaving town to go to the game. She then would arrive where the bus was loading and bring dozens of cookies to the team.

A few years ago a grandma was talking to me about the basketball games being played at the high school. I asked if she still went to the games since her grandkids had all graduated. She said her and her husband talked about not going anymore, but they liked to watch the kids so much they decided to keep attending. She then said, “We adopted your two girls and went to the games to specifically watch and cheer for them.” She also said, “When your girls graduate, we will adopt a couple more kids to go and watch.”

Since I broadcast games on the radio, people approach me in town and want to talk about the local high school teams. One day another grandma was talking to me about the local teams. I asked her if she still went to the games. She said, “Heavens no, at my age I have no business being out after dark with my bad eyesight, but I listen to the games every Tuesday and Friday night from September through state basketball.” And she also said, “Before every game, I pray for the kids in the games, the coach, the parents and fans who drive to the games.”

Recently, I read a story about when the communists in 1917 took over Russia. They killed most of the priest and nuns and blew up churches to try to convince the people to stay away. The only ones left coming to the few churches left were a few old grandmothers who continued to clean and pray. Lenin said, “That is okay, in a few years, when the grandmothers die, no one will know we had churches in Russia.”

The writer of the story went to Russia shortly before the Berlin wall was torn down, about 70 years after Lenin made his statement on grandmothers. The writer of the article said there were some old grandmothers in the sanctuaries cleaning and praying in the churches they visited. Those grandmothers most likely weren’t even born yet or were little kids when Lenin said what he said about grandmothers.

Faith was somehow being passed on and the flame of Christianity was still burning.

So do you have grandmothers watching over your football team and hanging around your churches planting flowers, cleaning, cooking and praying? If not, you need to recruit some!

Those grandmothers might be just what we need to keep the game of football alive in America. I can just hear grandma now, “Just get on out there and go out for the football team, it was good for your grandpa, your uncles and your Dad and it will be good for you too.”

I just recently watched this interview with Lieutenant General Hal Moore. A part of his life story in 10 minutes is something else. How he got into West Point shows the determination that he had. We all should take a lesson. Rest in peace General, for I am sure you qualified and made the cut.