A Quote by Ray Nitschke
That's what you work all season for, to get into the playoff games, and you don't want to blow it.
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I have done a lot of NFL games, a season-opening home games, playoff games, championship games, and of course Stanley Cup games, World Series, NBA championship games. But I have never done a Superbowl. It's probably the only major sporting event I've never done and I would like to.
Not only do you have 16 regular-season games, you also have four preseason games. Then if you make the playoffs, you can have four more games before you get to the Super Bowl. So you can already have 24 games without the 18-game season. And 24 games takes a real toll on somebody's body.
We literally had all 10 teams alive for a playoff position in the final week of the season. That outstanding balance and those close races created a major surge in attendance in the last month of the season.
Pre-season is a lot of hard work and no player really enjoys it, but you look forward to the start of the season when the competitive games start.
We work extremely hard here to get better each and every day to put ourselves in a position to win games when the season starts.
Obviously I bet on games I officiated. I passed on information based on the meetings that the referees were having, and based on what the league office wanted us to call in playoff games. With that being said, I was able to win at a high percentage when we were betting on NBA games.
The regular season games are much more intense. And also, I believe that in 16 games, some teams separate themselves. The good teams separate themselves from the not-so-good teams. The longer the season is, the bigger that separation will get.
My durability is just something I took a lot of pride in, that I was able to play 70 games over and over and over and they add up to 1,200-and-something games, plus the playoff games, plus whatever.
And now we're in a world where players are skipping some of these bowl games, people are talking about the only bowl games that matter are the playoff, and I just happen to disagree with that wholeheartedly.
Whenever we're all getting ready for a playoff game, you know how serious those games are, and you try to motivate your guys. There's a lot of emotion that goes into those games, and when I play, it's all about winning, and it's all about doing whatever it takes to fire guys up and to get that emotion running.
These are tough games to play. We shared the puck and we wanted everyone to get a chance to score. Tough games to play in. We want close games. That is why we train so hard. We want to show our fans some even games.
I've been to NBA playoff games.
Inside the first 20 to 25 games of the season, we were losing these games, getting beat by two and three points. Over the last 10 games, it seems like we're starting to win these games and putting some good things together.
Playing 82 games is a haul, and with eight or nine exhibition games, it's a long process. You've got to take care of your body and make sure you're getting your work in and staying healthy throughout the whole season.
You want to have a great pre-season, you want to play games.
Whenever you're blessed and given a second season, you can really let the characters evolve. That first season, you're setting everything up. It's background, where they're coming from, what they want to do. And then you get to marinate in it that second season.
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