North Dallas Forty (1979)

G.D. Spradlin: Coach B. A. Strothers

Photos 

Quotes 

• B. A. Strothers : Oh, you think it's funny? Well, I fail to see any humor at all. Maxwell changed the play that I sent in, Elliott broke his pattern, and the catch was a fluke! There's no room for flukes in winning game plans. Why do you think that we go over and over the printouts of a game plan? Because deviating from that plan can cost us a championship!

• B. A. Strothers : You hurt the team.

  Phil Elliott : Team? Oh, Christ's sake, B.A., we're not the team! They're the team!

  [points to the ownership] 

  Phil Elliott : These guys right here, B.A., they're the team. We're the equipment! We're the jock straps, the helmets. And they just depreciate us and take us off the goddamn tax returns!

• Phil Elliott : B.A., I've always given you 100%.

  B. A. Strothers : 100%! You're talking about individual effort. Yes, you do give that. I don't deny it. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a team. I'm talking about a winning team. A winning team is 45 finely meshed gears working together in perfect synchronization.

• B. A. Strothers : The key to being a professional is consistency - and the computer measures that quality. No one of you is as good as that computer. I hope I'm understood.

• B. A. Strothers : Can I count on you, Phil, and your knee, for the entire game?

  Phil Elliott : B.A., you can always count on me to do whatever it takes to play.

• B. A. Strothers : It's dedication. It's discipline. It's sacrifice. You can't *take* all the time. You have to give something back to the game.

  Phil Elliott : Oh, for Christ sake, B.A. My nose is busted. I can't even breathe through it. I can hardly stand up. You know, I haven't slept more than three hours at a stretch in two years. Now, isn't that giving something back? Oh, for Christ sake, B.A., there's pieces of me scattered from here to Pittsburgh on these football fields. Now, isn't that giving something back to the game? Isn't it?