The issue is not certain

"Point bein', even in the contest between man and steer, the issue is not certain."

Movie fans reading this will recognize these previous words as a quote from the Coen brothers Academy Award winning film, No Country for Old Men.

I'm a big fan of the brothers Coen, going back to the bizarre and hilarious Raising Arizona through Fargo and beyond. I love their ear for sharp, memorable phrases that stay with your long after the final credits have rolled.

In No Country for Old Men (adapted from the Cormas McCarthy novel of the same name), set in 1980, a kinda of regular guy with shifting ethics comes across a boatload of money left in the aftermath of a drug deal gone murderously wrong. Llewelyn Moss, a Vietnam vet, is a survivor at heart and believes he ultimately will be able to outsmart and escape the sociopath hit man who's been tasked to retrieve the money Llewelyn found in the Texas brush.

Llewelyn's wife, Carla Jean, knows her husband's gotten himself into a mess, but knows none of the details. She also doesn't know what the local sheriff, Ed Tom Bell, has seen in the wake of this debacle -- more dead bodies and more brutality that ever in his decades on the job.

Ed Tom Bell believes that Carla Jean's husband is involved in some way, and that Llewelyn has bitten off far more than he can chew in this situation. Bell tries to persuade Carla Jean that her man needs help. She doesn't disagree, but knows Llewelyn has complete faith in his ability to make things turn out right.

So Bell tells a little story about a freak accident involving a man slaughtering cattle and concludes:

"Point bein', even in the contest between man and steer, the issue is not certain."

The coach in me sees this two ways.

1) Even when all the cards are stacked in your favor, even with all the preparation in the word, the outcome is not certain.

But that also means 2) Even when all the cards are stack against you, you still have a chance.