All right, so our conversation tonight, I cannot take full credit for it. I'm going to paraphrase some, but how many of you, just by a show of hands, know who PJ Fleck is? Interesting. All right, so our coaching staff does, who obviously like college football. So PJ Fleck, former head coach at Western Michigan, now and has been for what, six years roughly, give or take, the head coach at Minnesota, University of Minnesota, the Gophers, okay? Had a saying in his time up at Western Michigan, which was Row the Boat. All right, now it may not sound like a lot, Row the Boat, like, yeah, duh, obviously, otherwise, you're not going anywhere.

The Origin

Row the Boat stemmed from a major setback in his life. And that setback was, I believe it was September of 2011, his second son, right after birth, died of a cardiac failure in his lap. And that is what prompted the Row the Boat. Okay, now I'm going to keep it less grim than that. But what was Row the Boat for him and how does that apply to us? What do you need to row a boat? It's rhetorical. We don't need the answer, but here's what you need: you need an oar.

The Oar

To him, to PJ Fleck, that oar was the energy. It's the energy that you bring into your life. It's the energy that you bring to your family. It's the energy that you bring to your team. Each person on a longboat, in a Viking longboat, had to carry their oar. They had to use their oar. Nobody else used it for them. They brought their own energy. That was his oar.

The Boat

The next part was the boat or the ship that they were on. That stands for sacrifice. The sacrifice that you give to go ahead and do something. All right, when maritime travelers went out early on, prior to phones, prior to everything else, they went out not knowing what laid in front of them. They sacrificed everything they had in hope of something better.

The Compass

Third part to that is their compass. Now, as you know, a compass points north. It gives you direction. But with PJ and his teams, their compass was the people they surround themselves with, that give them guidance, that put them on the straight and narrow. That's what Row the Boat meant for them.

The Wind

Now, I'll add two more parts to that. Maritime travel started about 7,000 years ago. Oars were replaced. Compasses have been digitized. But in 1600, sails overtook the oars. If you add that equation into what we have and how that applies to us, what you need to understand is the sails, they collect the wind. Here's what the wind is for us: wind is our experience. Wind is our past. If you know anything about sailing, you want to keep the wind at your back. Why do you keep the wind at your back? Because it propels you forward. You don't look back, but you learn what has happened in the past and how it can guide you in the future.

Application: Why Vikings Must Row Together

Think about how that applies to this team. You're facing a familiar opponent. We have the oars. You are the oars. You need to bring the energy. You need to bring the energy. If we have to coax it out of you, then it's not your energy. We're not rowing the boat. You're rowing the boat. That boat. That is the sacrifice each of you have made. Sacrifice for each other. If you sacrifice for each other, that boat gets bigger. That boat is sturdy. But if you're only sacrificing for yourself, you're in a canoe. Those can't make long trips.

The compass together. Your compass has to be aligned with those that are seated across from you and at the tables up and down this row. And your lessons is that wind hitting your sails. What have you been through that will go ahead and guide you with the four elements of row that boat? If you row in the wrong direction or you're rowing against your teammates, that boat will not make any progress. That was Row Your Boat.

The Horizon of Success

Guys, I've had the blessing, honestly, to go ahead and be 16 miles off the coast of Florida on a dive boat. I don't know how many of you have ever been that far off of the mainland, but there is nothing, absolutely nothing, but you and the horizon. I don't know what that horizon holds for us. Neither did the sailors thousands of years ago. But you know what? They took a chance. They took a chance on the people on the boat with them. They took a chance on each other. They sacrificed. They came together. They rowed in the same direction.

There's nothing tonight or tomorrow that can guarantee us a win, but there is a very strong correlation that if you go sailing tomorrow, figuratively speaking, and you have your oars aligned and you have that ship of sacrifice and you have the compass and your lessons learned from past experience with the wind at your back, then you can strike gold somewhere. That's what your mindset should be. But it's this room, these guys across from you that are going to be that guiding principle. You guys know the answers to this. We can only put you in positions to have success. You have to have that success. It's by rowing together, staying together, sacrificing together. That is Row the Boat from PJ Fleck. Make sense? Very good.