Better would be this:
“Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you’re not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. ‘Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That’s just the way it is.”
Most excellent! It would bring down the house if he said this at the end of his remarks.
And then he should spit.