Mined this nugget from Puck Daddy, to which I am addicted.

What we hadn't seen, until today, were the seeds of a future fight planted.

St. Louis Blues tough guy Cam Janssen has been on Twitter for a while now and today decided to reach out to Dallas Stars scrapper (and fellow Norton Sports client) Krys Barch and extend an invitation for the upcoming season. 

Oh, and Janssen's new Twitter page background is of he and a bloodied Barch (mostly Janssen's blood) during one of their four scraps together, of which included this display of nothing but bombs.

Barch accepted the invite with the Stars and Blues set to meet on October 16th.  No longer will fighters have to wait until they set up for a face-off to plan fisticuffs, now there's social media to do the work.

And I’ll add... a guy like Janssen could continually update this twitter account from the Blues bench ... between shifts. Of course tectonic plates move measurable distances between Cam Janssen shifts - but I digress…

Here’s a breakdown of the two future combatants, a “tale of the pine” if you will:

So lets see, what’s up…Got a text from a friend at 7 this morning asking who bought the Stars. I hit him back with a blunt IDK (I Don’t Know) and then pumped some sources for info. Nothing. Maybe it’s that group from Florida that was going to buy the Chiefs? Who knows? Cuban? Don Carter?...Those Canadians?

I do know that the recently consummated marriage between Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher has hit its first snag. I guess you can take the country girl out of Nashville, but not out of the country. She’s said to be balking at the move to Canada’s capital city. I have a solution, Fisher to Dallas for ___________. She can sing her sweet little heart out based right here in Big D and commute to the Opry, if need be - and he can make the Stars much better.

Speaking of hockey player’s not so new magnetism when it comes to hot, young, female celebs, Esquire magazine had this in their September issue article entitled “Encyclopedia of Now” under the letter “H”; Hockey Players. The kind of guys that Carrie Underwood, Hilary Duff, Jessica Stam, Hilary Rhoda are currently attracted to, and the focus of a troubling question: Hockey Players?

Have you been keeping up with the “testing” at the NHL sponsored Research, development and Orientation camp? Me neither. But every time I do read something on it the “research” reads like one of my past blogs – the ones about how to fix some issues in our game – like yellow lines behind the goal lines to help video review on goals. Your welcome Brenden Shanahan.

And finally, I stumbled across a new sport being played in Italy that makes hockey – even brawling 70s hockey – seem powderpuffy. Check out the description and marketing flick for this violent, maniacal, manly man “game”:

You probably haven't heard of the Fight Football League. By the time you finish reading this post, it will be your favorite sport.

Formed in Italy, the Fight Football League reminds one at first of something akin to rugby. Players move a ball by carrying or passing it up the field, scoring by getting it in a net at the end.

Then you notice they're wearing MMA gloves. That's because it's perfectly legal to beat the snot out of anyone on the opposing team, MMA style, whether they're carrying the ball or not.

It's more than legal; it's encouraged. If you knock out or otherwise injure a player, his team doesn't get to substitute for him. So instead of flopping around to draw a red card to put your team a man up, FFLers will simply pummel opponents into unconsciousness to gain a man advantage.

For now, Fight Football exists only in Italy. That's fitting, because according to the organizers, it's inspired by an ancient Roman ballgame called Harpastum. A dubious claim, because the rules of Harpastum remain mostly unknown, but we'll let slide anything that lends legitimacy to a 20-man battle royale.

Despite the protests of the people he works with, Daryl Reaugh returns for his 15th season as color analyst and vice president of sh*ts and giggles on the Stars Hockey Network. Reaugh came to Dallas by plane from the Nutmeg State where he was toiling as color analyst for the perennially .500 Hartford Whalers on the now defunct SportsChannel New England's telecasts in 1995-96.

Feeling a need to pollute the minds of an unsophisticated and unsuspecting national audience, Reaugh has bamboozled executives at Versus, ABC, ESPN, FOX, and CBC's Hockey Night in Canada into hiring him for their NHL coverage.

Reaugh has also used his limited yet bafflingly desirable talents beyond the hockey broadcast booth. He provided the color analyst dialogue and voice for EA Sports' NHL '98 and NHL '99 video games, games that were technical marvels for that time but also, thanks to Reaugh’s “gift”, audibly retarding. He has an "Ask Razor" column in some obscure publication called Scoreboard Sports Monthly and writes a popular – in his immediate family - web blog (redundancy alert) on the Dallas Stars' official website titled "Razor With An Edge."

As a player, Reaugh's career started extremely slowly, tapered off, before flaming out completely - all in the span of a decade. It included NHL stints with both the Edmonton Oilers and the Hartford Whalers along with a slew of minor league whistle stops that ironically did not include many actual stops). Prior to using smoke and mirrors to dupe the Oilers into drafting him in the 2nd round and hence “turning pro”, he was an all-star netminder for THE Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League and was named to their 25th Anniversary Team – presumably because they needed a goaltender to fill the team out.

Daryl, his sexy, athletic and incredibly understanding wife Kristin along with their two beautiful, brazen daughters reside - appropriately for his job requirements - in Dallas.

1. The Zamboni Czar at MSG...notoriously the worst ice in the league. It makes Reunion Arena’s surface circa 1998 seem teflon-rific! Of course housing a hockey rink on the fourth or fifth floor of a building in the middle of Manhattan does have it’s inherent challenges.

2. Rick Dipietro’s...it’s the one that started all this mess, sort of, and he never plays due to boo boos.

3. Geico…talk about putting all your eggs in the wrong basket. Mike Green? Bruce Boudreau? The Washington Capitals? And no one named Ovechkin to be found? (Unless that was him playing “The Caveman” - sans make-up) The Caps played one round in the playoffs but the spots ran for all four. Woopsy. And besides, it featured some of the stiffest acting since…second thought, probably shouldn’t go there. Well, maybe just this; the soundtrack should have rhymed with "boom-chick-a-wow-wow". Got it?

4. The lawyer’s who didn’t think term limits on contracts should be added to the 2005 CBA conversation.

5. The Bulin Wall’s...the minute he gets the book thrown at him in that Phoenix courtroom (There should be plenty of books to throw considering the legal affairs in that state recently!). If going 60 in a 45 zone in your Ferrari while “extremely intoxicated” isn’t enough to constitute the voiding of it then the league should just cite Khabibulin’s “Rice Paper Wall” performances with Oilers last season.

Rocky Wirtz

Revenue Sharing - Playoffs

- For instance, the Blackhawks keep ticket revenue from their regular-season home games. But for every playoff home game last season, the Hawks had to give the NHL at least 50 percent of what their gate receipts would have been at a regular-season United Center sellout. And gate receipts are everything in hockey. Ticket sales typically account for up to half of a team's income. "You can technically lose money during the playoffs if you don't raise your ticket prices" for them, team owner Rocky Wirtz said.

Revenue Sharing - TV

- While the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and the National Football League also operate under revenue-sharing agreements, professional hockey has a tougher financial road because the sport lacks broad appeal and therefore doesn't command lucrative television contracts. The NBA, for instance, receives about $930 million per year from its national broadcasting partners. In contrast, the NHL receives between $200 million and $300 million per year from Canadian and U.S. broadcasts. Split among the league's 30 franchises, that equals less than $10 million per team per year.

- Unlike baseball, "where small market teams can get revenue from both television and Internet and a number of other sources," in hockey, that isn't there, Wirtz said. "You have your gate receipt, your local TV and radio package, and that's about it."

Parting Salvo

The easiest way to make money from an NHL franchise, Wirtz said, is to sell it.


Yikes!

Hey playas, its August 2nd. Time to spark the blog up again, eh?

So Turco is a Blackhawk. Thoughts on this: He was a massive Tony Esposito fan (same hometown) so there is some nice karma there, however, he will not be donning his familiar #35 cause that was Tony “O”s number and it is hanging in the rafters at the UC - a place where Hawk fans hope Turco’s jock doesn’t reside this season.

Speaking of numbers, if Modano signs with the Red Wings he’ll have to pick a different jersey number too. Some guy with the audacity to call himself “Mr. Hockey” wore #9 in Motown and they thought he did well, so they retired his number. (Oh, and incase you’re starting a pool, double-nines won’t work either – that guy called himself the “Great One” and the league was so smitten with him that they forbid any future wearing of 99 throughout the thirty teams.)

Questions: If News Corp buys the Stars do I have to be Fair and Balanced? Will Hannity host the pregame? Does Celena take Ellen’s spot on Idol? Will our post game shows be No Spin Zones? Does Doocy get a box? Will Gordon Ramsey cook the pregame meals? Will Ralph guest on Glee?...

But with the news of this past week Mike also joins another list – that is if he chooses to keep playing. The list he’ll be on is of Hall of Fame players who spent most of their careers starring and winning with one organization but, awkwardly for longtime fans, finished in another city - in another jersey.

Mario played his whole career in Pittsburgh, so did Steve Yzerman in Detroit, but Wayne Gretzky finished in New York with the Rangers, as did his Edmonton compadres Messier and Lowe. When it ended Guy Lafleur was a Nordiques not a Hab. Ray Bourque was with the Avalanche not the Bruins when he called it quits. Brian Leetch was a Bruin not a Ranger. Mats Sundin was a Canuck not a Leaf. For cripes sake Bobby Orr was a Blackhawk! Anybody remember that?! And so on.

A lot of those divorces were a product of altered financial situations for the various teams. For instance Gretzky, Messier, Lowe and others were not retained because the Oilers market - coupled with the Canadian dollar’s value at that time - just couldn’t afford them. And that was without a cap on payroll.

But another factor with many of them was the inevitable diminishing skills and impact of the player not jibing with said player’s desired role and salary expectations. The star isn’t as starry on the ice as he once was even though his name power is second to none and his past accomplishments speak for themselves. It’s the old joke: How many Stars fans does it take to change a lightbulb? Four. One to change the bulb and three to stand around and talk about how great the old bulb used to be.

Bottom line, it’s just business.

Reality is, with an uncapped payroll Ownership and Joe Nieuwendyk probably find room for Mike Modano, but in the tough finances of 2010, with the downward pressures of not only a league-wide cap but also an internal Stars cap as this ownership shift slowly sorts itself out, there is a need to “take Mike’s money” to pay those serviceable others you need to fill out a competitive roster.

As observers and fans we want our idols and icons to finish their playing days in fairytale fashion. But that rarely happens. (Although Mike’s final home game was just that). We want our memories to be a certain way while the performer wants the juice of competition or the postponement of that final stage exit to be perpetuated for as long as humanly possible. Take Michael Jordan’s final years as a prime example.

What makes all this even tougher is the fact that Mike’s body isn’t broken down. He isn’t fighting chronic pain or hobbling on a wounded knee like so many of his contemporaries are, or were, in their final seasons. He can still get around the rink. But it’s his desire to dig in and connect with a younger, rebuilding Stars club that would be in question. That, along with the reality that during an 82 game grind the younger legs would be more in demand.

Maybe going elsewhere and playing with a team that’s currently in a different place in their cycle would rejuvenate him mentally. If so, he could finish out his playing days enjoying the game and the competition again, rather than waving goodbye at the conclusion of two non-playoff years – but there are no guarantees.

The Stars did what they had to do.

Now Mike has to do what he feels he wants to do.

And we should all be fine with both decisions.

Of course, there is some irony involved. The Hawks play fast – like a rabbit on Red Bull with a Lynx breathing on it’s bobbing bunny tail. But they were constructed at a much more pedestrian pace.

Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith

Their seemingly meteoric rise to NHL prominence was in fact years in the making. Sure the last few have been accelerated - thanks to a shift in ownership, a management upgrade and a payroll that is wedged up against the salary cap like the front row of pre-pubescent girls at a Justin Bieber concert – but when you breakdown their genetic code the DNA shows that the championship was built over time, not overnight.

Captain and Playoff MVP Jonathan Toews was a draft pick – in 2006.

Cup Clinching goal scorer (and mullet-rocker) Patrick Kane was a draft pick in 2007.

Stud defense pairing Keith and Seabrook were draft picks in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

You following my drift?

Bolland, Burish, Byfuglien, Brouwer, and Hjalmarsson are all Blackhawk draft finds.

Of course, in order to get high-grade talent you have to have a hiccup or two. Chicago was a 20-30 win club in the early years of the new millennium. You pick early at the draft when that’s your success rate.

They drafted a lot of defensemen back then. Some worked out, others flamed out. (Hmmm, sounds a little familiar)

They made a few astute trades: Andrew Ladd for Tuomo Ruutu, Patrick Sharp for a pick and a prospect, Kris Versteeg for Brandon Bochenski (who?)

And when they felt their prospects were ready to win they spent some cash on July 1: Brian Campbell in 2008, Marion Hossa, John Madden and Tomas Kopecky in 2009.

The Blackhawks won it all in 2010, but the first seed of success was planted 8 years earlier at the draft table when they chose a defenseman named Duncan Keith in the second round, and they’ve been racing toward this championship like a herd of turtles ever since.

So the moral of this NHL version of the Tortoise and the Hare: Draft well. Develop slowly and steadily. Navigate intelligently. Get lucky here and there. And enjoy the journey toward the Stanley Cup.

Our Stars race is still in its infancy, but it seems to be moving at the right pace.

Cheer the turtle, boil the bunny…and Go Stars!

All you have to do is...get into the playoffs to succeed in the playoffs - at least in the East.

Elias statistics service is...like having a "Hey, I was wondering" genie at your game day disposal.

Seat 31F on American's S80 from Dallas to Philly...is a kinesiological ass-whipping for any human larger than Vern Troyer.

Micheal Farber of Sports Illustrated...is the most poetic and intelligent hockey writer of this generation. (thank god his press box heart malfunction in Dallas years ago was only a scare, not a sign-off)

Dave Tippett...can't beat Mike Babcock

Alex Ovechkin...is a one trick pony and a big game gagger.

Where else other than Montreal... Can you stroll five blocks from your homoginized chain hotel and feel like you've arrived in an urban market in Paris?

Some one told me...Michelob has introduced a "light" version of it's reduced calorie Ultra beer. Really? Is it called water?

Which Canadiens fans hyperbole-dripping love of their yet to prove anything young goalies is best. "Jesus Price"? Or "Halak" instead of "Stop" (or, "Arrette") inside a stop sign?

Sade's Soldier of Love...helps peel away hours of travel.

Goaltending...isn't as important as it used to be, unless your goalies name is Nabokov.

Kirk Muller (the #2 pick in 1984) is...a better coach than the #1 selection that year (Mario Lemieux), but SuperMario has him in about everything else. In case you care, the #42 pick has them both trumped in the broadcast booth.

The Flyers could put...Manon Rheaume in net and she'd answer the call, just as each of the 6 or 7 they have suited up have done. Goalie coach Jeff Reese deserves some credit, and so does that stout Flyer D.

Three people who I think are outstanding at what they do, and you should know their names, are...Lauren Hart, Pierre Houde, Elliotte Freidman

Flyers Player Development man (and still the only American to captain a Stanley Cup winner) Derian Hatcher...looks exactly the same as he did 8-10 years ago. No pudge, a new knee, that long curly mane, and has an eldest son who is now 16 - and a player.

Telestrators...are over-rated

Versus rinkside reporter Charrissa Thompson...has the best girl hair in the playoffs. Hockey Night in Canada's superb reporter Scott Oake must have follicle envy. (So would, 70s Farrah)

At the conclusion of a period I like...to hear sirens, not eardrum piercing horns.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville...looks the way I want my Chicago Blackhawk coach to look: greyed, with a no-nonsense haircut, favoring dark pinstripe suits with a stogie in the cigar pocket and a testosterone fueled moustache adorning his frenulum. Quenneville, Phil Jackson, Mike Ditka. All moustache-ioed. All champions. All loved.

Legendary HNIC play by play man Bob Cole...undoes his pants to call the games.

Tumi luggage costs a lot...cause it's worth it.

Flyer fans...could intimidate a Hun.

Habs fans...intimidate officials

Hawks fans...intimidate their young players.

Sharks fans...deserve better results

A taxi from a North American airport to a hotel will make you...want to bath in Purell. Will take 0.63 years off your life. And will challenge your understanding of what the driver is passing off as the English language.

ESPN's hockey guru Barry Melrose...looks like General Custer - if he were Canadian, wore bold suits and pronounced unbelievable, "unbeleebull". Get a buckskin suit Barry, and plenty of ammo, cause those Blackhawks are back on the warpath!

After calling my third consecutive Conference Final...I'm ready for summer!

It was reported that Lance Armstrong, through his Twitter account, slammed Versus decision to bail on some bicycle race called "The Tour of California" in favor of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final between the Flyers and Canadiens. (the end of the race and the cheek-kissing was bumped to the website)

The legendary American cyclist really had his blood boiling over this (but then again heating and doctoring one's blood is aledgedly the norm for those in his sport)...but I digress, and Armstrong wrote: "Who's the dumbass @versustv that cutoff @ AmgenTourofCali coverage w/ a mile to go for pregame hockey?? # pathetic."

No Lance, what's pathetic is equating a beach bike race in bankrupt California to the Final 4 in the NHL. Sorry bud, this time of year the "Flying Frenchmen's" unlikely pursuit of Lord Stanley's Cup takes precedent over every cycling event - save for following the yellow jersey wearer and pursuit-group as they fly by Frenchmen on the rural roads of cycling's S. Cup, the Tour de France. And further more, any future griping from the big thigh bike race world would be misguided, bordering on just plain dopey - Pun fully intended.

Razoire out!

As I write this I'm somewhere between Vancouver and Dallas for the fourth time in the past week and looking forward to tomorrow as it will be my fifth day at home since the Stars season ended. I feel like the George Clooney character in Up In The Air, only without the philandering.

So what has been going on as I fly and call playoff games for Versus, let's see...

Just yesterday the city of Glendale, Arizona rebranded itself "Greece" following a vote to agree to cover the Coyotes losses for next season.

My suggestion to the Vancouver Canucks: sometime over the next 12 years of Roberto Luongo's contract relieve him of the "captaincy" burden (it's just plain ridiculous for a goalie) and winnow his addiction to practice because he looks like a guy who uses practices as a wooby blanket instead of as a tool to be in prime shape and game situation ready. In a nutshell (sorry Sammi Salo) his performance is receding, not improving.

Speaking of Salo. His "injury of the testicular variety" created more than it's share of manhood humor. You can guess what they were. An early, and sarcastic one from a Vancouver scribe was more a statement, "I didn't realize Salo had any balls." For my part, I think I was able to exhaust every euphemism known to man for testicles. (wedding tackle, berries, jewels, marbles, walnuts, cash and prizes, onions...well...you get the picture.)

American Airlines Admirals Club is a godsend!!!!

#1 question I get asked: What's going on in Dallas?

#2 question: Weren't you in _____ last night?

The San Jose Sharks have the look of a winner not because of their top end guys but rather their support staff, and their coach.

The Blackhawks are deep on the playoff warpath thanks to speed, depth, a competitive Finn in goal, a swagger, and the most complete 22 year old center this side of Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews.

The East has been wildly competitive and chock full of upsets (well, one) but whichever team comes out of there should get their ass handed to them by either Chicago or San Jose.

My iPhone keeps me sane on these flights. Thanks Steve Jobs.

The Yard House restaurant needs to come to Dallas. I suggest somewhere near AAC.

My golf game is non-existant. Royal Oaks, I miss you every bit as much as you miss me.

The new Ritz Carlton in downtown LA is Razor-approved.

And finally...only a couple thousand more miles to Platinum status!!!!!!!!!!!

I heard it in 2004, and in 2007, and again at the conclusion of the 2009-10 season. It goes “ Everyone has to stop living in 99’ and 2000” - or something close to that.

Heard it from free agent signees. Heard it from newly forged coaching staffs and hockey departments. And I heard it uttered from the lips of new core leaders.

“Stop living in the past” they would mutter with furrowed brows, as if those ghosts were somehow impeding present day success.

The Montreal Canadiens have won a record 24 Stanley Cups. They have a passage from the war-time poem In Flanders Field emblazoned on the walls of their dressing room: “"to you from failing hands we pass the torch; be yours to hold it high"

Great franchises have their identity cemented in rebar and their goals perennially set on living up to what previous incarnations of the team have established as the bar for accepted excellence. The more they un-tether themselves from those expectations, whether they are real or imagined, the easier it becomes to fall well short of what was previously a given.

I guess in a way the Stars have probably felt like the younger sibling trying to step out from the vast shadow of a popular, letterman, valedictorian brother who has always been perceived to be mom and dad’s (and everyone else’s) favorite - male version of "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha" perhaps?

Success leaves clues. I truly believe that. Unfortunately these recent Stars teams have been more Clouseau than CSI.

Funny how things work themselves out sometimes though, isn’t it? In an ironic twist, because of these last two non-playoff years -- instead of comparing the current to the halcyon years -- everyone is now going to be “Living in 1987 and 88”. Those two years are the last time this franchise missed the playoffs in two consecutive seasons.

So kick your feet up 99’ and 2000, the memories of your Cup Championship and Cup Final can take a respite, just as the 2009-10 Stars can – for the next 5 months.

1.) Those one handed, uppercut, puck-jack moves he uses with his stick to steal the pill. (I think he calls it “the snake”)

2.) That blistering backhand shot that in its heyday was as lethal as any other player’s best forehand efforts.

3.) The way he sauntered into and out of arenas in those Italian designer suits that always seemed to drape on him as if athletic build cuts were invented just for him.

4.) Those lengthy answers to some of the most mundane and uneducated questions ever uttered. He learned early on, the more you talk the fewer idiot questions you have to answer – and he’s just a good guy.

5.) Those teeth that were put in line as a teenager and somehow kept intact through all of the elbows, sticks and pucks of a 20 year career. Big, bright and visible chompers.

6.) The rapidity with which he did everything on the ice.

7.) Those searing and accurate passes that have been: One part “test” for young teammates. One part “That’s how it’s supposed to be done.”

8.) That cameo in The Mighty Ducks and that emotional, epic starring role against the far less than mighty Ducks in maybe his final home game in Dallas.

9.) Those thousand or two full gallop rushes with the puck, from the Stars zone to the attacking zone, Modano’s jersey wafting like a sheet of fine Egyptian cotton on a clothesline during a breezy May day, opposing forwards left in his wake, opposition defensemen capitulating out of respect - and fear of embarrassment, netminders bracing for the inevitable. Then that celebratory glide through one of the corners, smile on his face, stick in one hand - stabbing the sky.

True.

But what about what he did do?

I would say 75% of the league’s General Managers during Turco’s time in the Stars net would have traded their #1 guy for him, and would have done it in a heart beat. He was durable, regularly playing 65-75 games a season. He was stingy, setting the modern mark for lowest goals against average in 2003. He acted as a 3rd defenseman, essentially allowing the Stars to play with too many men on the ice, reading forechecks, crisply out letting the puck, and occasionally sending a teammate in home free. He was consistent. He was a leader. He was a spokesman. He was community involved. He was, well, he was quite a package.

Turco owns most of the franchise’s goaltending records, having all but erased the names Belfour and Maniago from the pages of the Stars media guide in recent years.

And, when he arrived on the scene back in 2000 he did something very few athletes are able to do in their sports, he revolutionized a skill. Before Marty no goalie held his stick in that “claw” manner that he does when handling the puck – now, they all do - think Gretzky setting up behind the net to give yourself a comparable. And let’s not kid ourselves, the league’s little trapezoidal areas that they defined as “no handling the puck in there if you’re a goalie, zones”, well that was aimed at the Martys (Turco and Brodeur)

This might sound like swan song hyperbole but you could make the argument that Marty Turco is the best goaltender this franchise has ever had. (But you’d have to be ready to wrestle The Eagle and his supporters on the lawn at The Mansion if you did – and he’ll probably be wearing his S. Cup ring, so look out)

Nine seasons, over 500 games, four all-star teams, two save percentage titles, 40 shutouts. The dual with Luongo in 2007, Game 6 versus the Sharks in 08’, Game 82 in 03’. Decent resume, indeed.

He adds one more line to that resume tonight before sending it out to NHL G.M.s looking for a guy to guard their cage.

And so, Marty, if this game is indeed the end of a nine year run in the pipes in Big D, soak it in, do what you do, and add an exclamation point!

There is nothing more unnatural for a professional hockey player with even an ounce of competitive drive than playing games with no meaning attached to them. How do you fake enthusiasm? How do you ramp up the give a crap?

Well, you find a way to muster it up out of respect for your organization, your teammates and yourself. That’s why you get called a “professional”. That shows your character.

Nothing is easier than giving a half-assed effort. Nothing is more disappointing to fans than witnessing said half-assed effort. Spirit and drive, and a go down swinging attitude are infectious, but so is uncommitted clock watching.

A sage coach once warned, “Never confuse activity for achievement.” (John Wooden) Translation: Just because you’re moving around doesn’t mean you’re accomplishing jack.

Not to over mantra/quote you to death but here’s three good ones from Vince Lombardi to end on:

“Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.” – Lombardi

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” – Lombardi

“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it.” – Lombardi

Go Stars!