A NY football fan, Al Pacino acolyte, or sucker for redemption-driven story arcs would recognize the rallying cry of 1999’s Oliver Stone-directed film, “Any Given Sunday.” The crux of a fist-pumping, foot-stomping, helmet-smashing half-time speech meant to unite a football team mired in self-pity, “life is a game of inches,” insists Coach Tony D’Amato, Al Pacino’s character. “So is football,” he claims, “because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small — I mean one-half step too late or too early, and you don’t quite make it. One-half second too slow, too fast, you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us.”
Phil Crescenzo, Jr., quarterbacks a small team, given his large reputation — just shy of a dozen people, or by his measure, just enough to field a football team. After more than two decades in the game, the Southeast Division Manager for Nation One Mortgage Corporation sees every loan file as a chance to run a play, each closing as a score. “The next play you run could work,” he says about closing the difficult files in which his Charleston, S.C.-based team specializes. “It’s constant, rigorous, breaking things down, and analyzing, and not being afraid to take a little bit of a risk.” In this market, he says, too many lenders are playing ‘prevent defense,’ and could lack the rhythm required to handle a surge in volume if rates drop measurably.
