Football Quotations | Page 4

Football spectators appreciate a bit of loyalty, and we're seeing that less and less. There are echelons of football, as in society, where some players are clearly mercenaries. I regret in a way that somehow the local identification, the local bonding between the community and its football team has been commercialised to such an extent.

The key to any good sports story is identifying the defining moment. In football games or a boxing match, it's usually pretty obvious. But in golf, sometimes it happens on Thursday. Usually it's Sunday, but guys who don't know the game, they can miss it.

Faith is the most important thing in the world to me. It's the greatest strength I've had. It's helped me get through the hard times. You're not going to win every one of your football games. I've always said I'm not going to make football my god. A lot of coaches put so much into coaching football games that they have nothing left.

In England, it's a rare thing to see a player smoking but, all in all, I prefer that to an alcoholic. The relationship with alcohol is a real problem in English football and, in the short term, it's much more harmful to a sportsman. It weakens the body, which becomes more susceptible to injury.

If you look at old football pictures, the jerseys were hanging, the sleeves were dangling, but now everything is tucked and tailored.

There's no point in making predictions. It's not worth speculating because nothing is set in stone and things change all the time in football. Today there are opportunities that no one knows if they will come round again in the future.

You know, it's a different deal - throwing a football as opposed to throwing a baseball.

Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.

I was a football player at college and dislocated my thumb. I was out for a bit and passed the theatre and saw some lovely drama students walking into an audition for 'Much Ado About Nothing' and thought: 'That's what I'll do when I recover.' I joined that production and was hooked.

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates the weak ones.

When all the girls were getting all made up and getting into all that girl stuff in junior high I was out playing softball or touch football with the guys.

Football is a passion that she holds dear to her heart. She's really going for her dream and there are obstacles in the way, but deep down she knows what she wants, and she pursues that.

I also watched a lot of football and sports. I haven't had much time to watch too much TV lately.

With good coaching, proper motivation and the right club structure with organic growth, you can achieve an awful lot in football.

I've lived most people's dream by playing football.

Writing a song is like playing a series of downs in football: Lots of rules, timing is crucial, lots of boundaries, lots of protective gear, lots of stopping and starting.

So I know all about the ups and downs of football, I know that one day I will be sacked.

I've been fortunate and blessed to further my career in the Arena Football League, and I've had a good time doing it.

I liken actors and movies and TV shows to football teams. We all have our favorite ones.

Soccer is a continuous game, rugby is a continuous game, but for the physical elements that are involved in playing a football game and the number of plays that you play, I don't know that it was ever intended to be a continuous game.

The biggest thing I've found since I left the game - and I'm glad I chose to leave rather than being sacked - is that so many people are in football for the wrong reasons. Not because they love the game, but because they smell money.

I was set to go to Oregon to play college baseball and football.

If football taught me anything about business, it is that you win the game one play at a time.

It took me a while to realize that basketball wasn't football.

For me, football is just a game, not a drama.

I like both athletic girls and girly girls. It depends on their personality. I like girls who can go out and play sports with me and throw the football around, but you don't want a girl who's too much tougher than you. I like brainy girls who can respond to what I'm saying.

Football is a game designed to keep coal miners off the streets.

The level of football in England is the top. English football is the leader in the world.

As I learn more and more about the six-year extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, it's obvious to me that NFL owners understood that they were going to get a new deal done at all costs.

We have our own reasons for what's motivating us right now.

I just hate losing and that gives you an extra determination to work harder.

I think the greatest all-around athlete ever was Jim Brown. He played lacrosse, basketball and ran track at Syracuse. He played professional football for the Browns.

In football, the result is an impostor. You can do things really, really well but not win. There's something greater than the result, more lasting - a legacy.

It's weird... people say they're not like apes. Now how do you explain football then?

A lifetime contract for a coach means if you're ahead in the third quarter and moving the ball, they can't fire you.

I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one.

You never know how a horse will pull until you hook him to a heavy load.

I love playing football, being out on the pitch with a ball, and I will be a little sad when that ends.

First of all, I'm so glad that the city of Houston has a football team again. They have such great fans. I'm really happy for the people of Houston because they deserve a football team.

I love the flow of the game. There's a certain fluidity to basketball. I don't enjoy watching baseball or football in the same way.

I take football as an avenue to different opportunities. Football is not using me; I'm using football.

Never make a major decision based solely on money.

I'm married to football, baseball is my girlfriend.

There is no formula to making it to the NFL other than good fortune and and playing well in college.

I didn't watch cartoons, I was too busy playing football.

There is a lot of luck in football. Following England is like following Wycombe Wanders or Leyton Orient. You hope for the best and hope you are lucky.

So if one day the result becomes 3-3, for me it doesn't change my mind, because it's football, it's normal. What is not normal is that we haven't been scoring enough goals playing such good football as we've been playing in the last few weeks.

We South Africans are also crazy about football, so the World Cup can be nothing but successful.

I wouldn't be surprised if this game went all the way to the finish.

Football is my base; that's where I learned to be tough. I was a strong safety, and that's what I do: I hit people. The mentality is football, the wrestling is precision.

That smell of freshly cut grass makes me think of Friday night football in high school. The smell of popcorn and cigar smoke reminds me of the stadium. The cutting of the grass reminds me of the August practice.

The essence of football was blocking, tackling, and execution based on timing, rhythm and deception.

Some guys practice like all-Americans but they can't play.

I think I could have become an outstanding professional baseball player, but I don't think I could have reached the heights that I have in football - being one of the very top players in the game, being a world champion.

There is a movement in club football, which I don't necessarily consider a prime example of solidarity, because it leads us to conclude the rich are getting richer and they are using everything in the market to create an exodus from Africa.

For me football is more about making the right pass at the right time.

My God given talent is my ability to stick with training longer than anybody else.

Football makes nonsense of class. It may make nonsense of colour in some circumstances.

I just want to continue to play football and be myself.

Sometimes I miss coaching, but often things are not how they appear in football.

I was very poor. As a child my dream was to have a leather football.

Football is football and talent is talent. But the mindset of your team makes all the difference.

I am a National Football League player of American Samoan heritage. Because of my status as a professional athlete, I have been blessed to play a role in educating players and fans about the culture and history of America's southernmost territory.

I learned in high school that I was going to have to outwork people. I remember running around the track, training for football, and a faster guy ran past me. I just figured, I can outlast him. If I work harder than him, I'll beat him. And to this day I overprepare.

Football is, after all, a wonderful way to get rid of your aggressions without going to jail for it.

There are two types of football - there's physical football and football talent.

I went to Ohio University studying arts and history, and playing football. But I was only interested in girls, my pals and sports. I only did the minimum for school.

I see myself not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon.

My thing is trying to convince them they can win.

Things are neither clear nor clean in the world of football right now and many people recognise this reality.

I'm a very traditional person. The tattoos are about my grandmother dying and they tell the story about my mother and father, my brothers and my sister, my kids. It's pretty much a family tree on my arm with my life in football too.

Sometimes in football you have to hold your hand up and say, yeah, they're better than us.

At the end of the day, I'm a footballer who has played at some of the biggest football clubs in the world and played with some of the best players in the world.

I've got a great life that I really enjoy. But there is something chewing at me inside: that adrenaline rush from football, I miss that.

We look for opportunities to play together including basketball, tennis, swimming, riding bikes and touch football. I try to provide a loving environment where we can play. I think that's good on so many levels - emotionally, for family interactions and, of course, physically.

My parents weren't very sporty, and football wasn't part of my everyday life. I was never a massive football fan either, but, like everyone else, I used to watch matches on TV.

If I had spent as much time in the weight room as I did designing football uniforms, I probably would have had a free college education.

All this cuddling and kissing on stage these days, well it's all right in football when someone scores a goal, but not when you're playing darts.

The negative side of football. The negative side of our society. People sometimes go to football and bring to it the negative aspects of our society.

There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life.

I can remember running around at the age of 3, wanting to play golf, cricket and football. I was always active, one way or another, driving my parents mad.

Football needs its roots, it needs its connection with the supporters. But those in charge seem to think they can do without them.

There are few secrets in football. So execute.

After I hurt the knee, football wasn't nearly as much fun. I was limited. But you make do with what you have. I adjusted some. I was lucky to play as long as I did, with the different kinds of injuries I got. I played with two severed hamstring muscles in my leg late in my career. I could barely run, other than to drop back to pass.

What I am most proud of is the legacy of hope that FIFA and football leaves around the world. It makes all of the efforts and energy I pour into this job worth it.

My whole body is a wreck. I've injured myself so many times with jujitsu, skateboarding, football. I guess I like to live hard.

Without a doubt in my mind, I should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. You look at my stats without my USFL stats, and I don't know how you can argue with that. Look at my combined yards. I'm not one to make excuses, so I'll play by their rules and not even count the USFL stats.

You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That's the mark of a true professional.

I want players who are always striving to improve.

I've always said winning's the great deodorant, and conversely, when you have a bad record - everything stinks - and everything starts to unravel, and everything falls apart.

I'm not religious. In Spain all 22 players make the sign of the cross before they enter the pitch. If it works all matches must therefore end in a draw.

Pro football was taking off when I became commissioner, and when a sport's successful and you're its chief executive officer, much of the credit flows to you and you develop a good track record.

I always had a philosophy which I got from my father. He used to say, 'Listen. God gave to you the gift to play football. This is your gift from God. If you take care of your health, if you are in good shape all the time, with your gift from God no one will stop you, but you must be prepared.'

America pays its bills. It always has. It always will. The fact that Washington is now debating whether to honor its debts and obligations, then, should come as a surprise. But playing political football with a necessary vote to raise the nation's debt ceiling has become as predictable as a Twitter rant from Charlie Sheen.

I am a believer in passing the ball on the ground, I was lucky to be part of teams like that at Arsenal, with the French national team and with Monaco and at Barcelona. I know you can win in other ways, but I believe that is the way football should be played.

Athletes, coaches and parents today are increasingly aware of the danger of concussion, and this awareness influences decisions about buying new and reconditioned football helmets.

To go to the next level, you have to be special, and I look for those special qualities in those players, those qualities that I think will translate to the NFL.

You can talk about what you see from the outside; it's hard to tell me who I am when you're just looking at me with a football uniform on. That's a totally different person. That's my job, that's it.

No matter how much money you have or what kind of cocoon you live in, the reality is that you have lost a game of football and let England's fans down. We are bothered.

You know, I started this process of being a football player and I'm going to make it to the NFL very soon and I plan on finishing that. And by 'finishing that,' I mean that I'm going to go out and be the best that I can be and put everything forth to make that happen.