Motivation Quote by Mark Messier

Messier’s line is doing the kind of public work hockey players have always been asked to do: defend brutality without sounding bloodthirsty. “It’s a tough game” isn’t just descriptive, it’s pre-emptive. It frames whatever controversy is in the air - a vicious hit, a crackdown on fighting, a concussion debate - as an attack on the sport’s essence rather than a question of safety or accountability. By calling it an “aspect,” he softens the thing he’s actually protecting: sanctioned violence as entertainment, intimidation as strategy, pain as proof of legitimacy.

The sentence is also slippery in a very athlete-media way. “You never want to take that aspect out” avoids naming what “that” is, which lets different audiences hear what they want. Traditionalists hear grit, courage, and the moral theatre of getting back up. Critics hear a refusal to evolve. Owners and broadcasters hear the quiet part said carefully: the product sells because it has an edge other sports have mostly regulated away.

Context matters because Messier isn’t just any former player; he’s a leadership symbol, a captain whose brand is toughness with purpose. Coming from him, the claim isn’t “let them brawl,” it’s “don’t domesticate us.” Subtext: the sport’s identity depends on a certain threshold of danger, and any attempt to lower that threshold threatens a whole mythology - of masculinity, merit, and what counts as “real” competition.