WILLIE PILE
Special to Argonauts.ca
Leave it to Adriano Belli to change the mood of the locker room. The veteran Defensive Lineman for the Argonauts has gained a reputation, which can be positive or negative depending on who you talk to around the CFL, for his actions both on and off the field. But what no one can deny is his work ethic and his passion for the game of football.
However, his other passion just might be his singing. Nicknamed the “Kissing Bandit” and “Canadian Idol dropout”, Belli could easily be the lead singer for a cover band if he chose to do so. In our locker room, on team flights, and even on the field during TV timeouts, it’s not surprising to hear Belli lighten the mood by belting out a classic hit from the ‘80s, when stonewash jeans were all the rage.
With Belli as my inspiration, the next song on my playlist is Matthew Wilder’s 1983 classic hit “Break My Stride”. The song is about a dream Wilder had about a woman who left him and went off to mature and do her own thing while not looking back at the relationships of her past. It was his only real hit, but a great motivational song for anyone dealing with a negative experience.
The part of the song that I found interesting and pertinent to the 2010 Argos is the hook that says, “Ain’t nothing gonna break my stride, nobody’s gonna slow me down, oh no, I got to keep on moving. Ain’t nothing gonna break my stride, I’m running and I won’t touch ground, oh no, I got to keep on moving.”
Hearing Belli sing this song in the locker room before a kickoff, or even at halftime, we as a team understand that he’s not just preparing for his post-football job as a lounge act, but rather he wants us to focus on what WE do to affect our opponent, and not the reverse. We understand that he wants us to not look back on past games, successes or failures, but to live in the moment and keep on moving. The funny thing is once the defensive and offensive linemen jump in on the song, the rest of the team chimes in, the locker room transforms into a group of focused (and singing) individuals who want to execute the game plan and perform to the best of our ability.
What’s also inherent in this song is the reality that things exist that can break a team’s stride and ruin their mojo. Things like overconfidence, discord among teammates, and a lack of the daily focus it takes to prepare for every practice and game. A favourite quote of mine is, “Obstacles are what we see when we take our eyes off the goal.”
Discussed in every team meeting during the week are the critical goals for the upcoming game such as not taking penalties, which we’ve improved a thousand-fold from last season; turnovers, which we practice creating and preventing in practice; and situational plays, which is recognizing the moments in the game where momentum can swing from one team to the other.
Can you imagine when a team of 46 individuals remains focused on a goal long enough to achieve it? When a team doesn’t let the ebbs and flows of a game or a season ruin its stride? The 2010 Toronto Argonauts are planning on being the affirmative answer to those questions.
Right now we are 2-1, but we also realize that we could easily be 3-0, or 0-3. We’ve played hard for each other, for our coaching staff and for our fans, and we know that this team is a very unique blend of veteran leadership and youthful enthusiasm. The challenge for us, and every team in the CFL for that matter, is maintaining the focus and consistencies required for a full 18 game schedule to reach the goals laid out in front of us and not break our stride.
With a pivotal home game against the BC Lions on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Rogers Centre, I can already hear Belli singing before kickoff, “Ain’t nothing gonna break our stride, nobody’s gonna slow us down, oh no, we’ve got to keep on moving!”