Colorful Speech

Take this lighthearted break and enjoy a brief break from life’s load.

Coaches are aces at using colorful speech. These comments by former coaches illustrate this.

“Son, you got a good engine, but your hands aren’t on the steering wheel.” Bobby Bowden

“Line up by height alphabetically.” Bill Peterson

“Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football.” John Heisman

“If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, ‘Roll Tide, roll!” Bear Bryant

“If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a good education.” Murray Warmath

“We didn’t tackle well today, but we made up for it by not blocking.” John McKay

“I’ve found that prayer works best when you have big players.” Knute Rockney

When asked if Fayetteville was the end of the world. “No, but you can see it from there.” Lou Holtz

“Lads you are not to miss practice unless your parents or you died.” Frank Leahy

“I never graduated from Iowa, but I was only there two terms – Truman’s and Eisenhower’s.” Alex Karras

“They cut us up like a boarding house pie, And that’s real small pieces.” Darrell Royal

“The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do, in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be.” Tom Landry

“I celebrate a victory when I start walking off the field. By the time I get to the locker room, I’m done.” Tom Osborne

“A metaphor is one thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.” They are often colorful speech. The Bible is full of metaphors, such as, the bread of life, the light of the world, the vine, and the door. All of these illustrate a characteristic metaphorically.

The Old Testament is littered with them, none more peculiar than these two.

“As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion” (Proverbs 11: 22).

“Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint” (Proverbs 25: 19).

Few Bible passages have a grouping of more metaphors that Psalm 18: 2. Read them and meditate on each. “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18: 2).