Miracle Speech

For my speech I chose Coach Brooks' pregame speech for the USA hockey team in the movie Miracle. I love sports and therefore love pregame speeches and how they have the ability to inspire unlike anything else. I have experienced this first hand and I think this is why I love great pregame speeches. The movie Miracle, is set in 1980 when the USA hockey team played the USSR hockey team in the gold medal game of the 1980 winter olympics. The USA hockey team were major underdogs and the game attracted increased media attention because of the great tension at the time between the United States and the USSR.

This is the link to the speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwpTj_Z9v-c

This speech is made by Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 USA mens hockey team. His audience is the entire team and the speech occured in the locker room before the gold medal game. I think his purpose is solely to inspire his team. He knows they are ready and that they are prepared for the game so his goal in this speech to get them pumped up and inspired.

Coach Brooks does not use a lot of ethos in this speech because his players already know who he is and respect his tremendously. There is no need for him to prove his credibility in this pregame speech because he has already proved it long before this game.

He does use some logos in this speech when referring to his teams chances, saying that if the USA team played the Soviets 10 times, the Soviets would probably win 9 times.. He uses these statistics to inspire his team and let them know that beating the Soviets can be done. No one else but the people in the locker room believe the team can win and this creates a sense of camaraderie amongst the team.

However, Coach Brooks' main appeal is pathos. He is appealing to his team's emotions because he knows if they look at stats, it appears they will not win. He tells them that this is their moment and their time. He tells them if they believe in themselves, then they can accomplish their goal of beating the Soviets and inspiring the country.