”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Here I am, spending my lunch break snacking on a sandwich from the food court downstairs, flipping through one of my new favorite sports news sites, and I see a link:

“Ever wanted to see every classic sports-movie pep talk in one awesome montage, all backed by that “Friday Night Lights”-style guitar riffing? Best 3 minutes of the day. And after? Go get ’em!“

Legitimate thought process after reading that headline: “Why would the Caps be pushing ‘Unleash the Fury’ in the day after the all-star break and during Super Bowl week?” After all, it would be an oddly timed announcement to promote this in-game scoreboard vid that has been around for at least four seasons as a third period crowd inspiration piece. Save the online push for the playoffs.

I was wrong. It wasn’t the Caps video, but the folks at ScreenJunkies with their own offering into this catalog:

I know that there are a handful of classic sports speeches, and the overlap is natural. I’m not throwing the flag here on copying, because I know the Caps’ Fury video is probably more recognizable as a local legend. I’m still bitter, though, so to purify the soul, let’s watch the Caps’ version – complete with the crowd backing. I’ll tell you which one leaves me more inspired:

I will give the ScreenJunkies guys one thing: Baseketball as a classic sports pep talk is a brilliant idea.