On Saturday morning, ESPN's "College GameDay" included a feature about pregame motivational speeches from football coaches. Afterward, the analysts told stories of their favorite pregame speeches.
Desmond Howard wouldn't reveal what Bo Schembechler used to say at Michigan (it would be NSFW), but he did have a pretty incredible story about what Mike Holmgren told the Packers before playing the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.
Howard said Holmgren brought the team into a meeting room that had a "cafeteria-sized table" covered in a big white sheet and revealed the real reason why the team should play hard.
Here's Howard's full story:
When I was with the Green Bay Packers and we're in New Orleans. Let me set the scene: we come down to a meeting room. There was like a cafeteria-size table with a cloth over a strange-shaped object. So Mike Holmgren, he goes over in front of this table, he starts talking about the team and why we're here and what the Super Bowl means. He takes the sheet, he takes it off the table -- almost $100,000 in cash right there on that table.
He says, "Gentleman -- this is what we're playing for. A ring and for this. Not collectively. Individually. That's what you get. That cash right there."
Enough said! I was extremely motivated.
That's putting it mildly -- Howard was highly motivated, becoming the first-ever special-teams player to win a Super Bowl MVP award.
Howard returned a third-quarter kick 99 yards for a score and finished with 244 total return yards on six punt returns and four kick returns.
There's no telling exactly how much money was on the figurative table -- win shares weren't quite at $100,000 back in the day -- but certainly the message from Holmgren hit home. Go out and win this game and you'll get a big old pile of money in addition to the ring and the fame.
For Howard, the money was a big part of that. Can't blame him one bit. And now he's got a great story to boot.
