Last Updated: October 25, 2022 by Quote.cc Team
Whether you’re a fan of the NFL, college football, the Friday night lights of high school, or all of the above (raises hand), there’s nothing quite like America’s favorite sport. Baseball and basketball have their places in our hearts too, but no sport ignites passion and creates rivalries like the gridiron.
Football, a game that brutally tests the minds and bodies of even its most vital players, brings forth many lessons about the importance of perseverance, dedication, and hard work. It’s a demanding contact sport requiring physical and mental strength to succeed. From pee-wee football to the NFL, any player will tell you there’s always more to learn.
It stands to reason that the words of football’s most remarkable minds can inspire and entertain as few others can. Even if you’re not putting on the pads and taking the field or looking to lead a team to victory, these quotes can motivate you for any task. As a result, some of the best and most inspirational quotes from football minds, players, and coaches — current and former — made their mark in the NCAA and NFL ranks.
Most of these inspirational football quotes can be applied to any profession, so it’s not just for coaches and players.
Football Quotes
Top 10 Football Quotes
“You’re never more dangerous than when everyone’s counting on you. You just have to believe.” – Nick Foles
“You have an appreciation that each play is so important throughout the course of the game. You don’t ever want to just really feel like you’re wasting plays.” – Sean McVay
“Without self-discipline, success is impossible. Period.” – Lou Holtz
“Winning isn’t getting ahead of others, it’s getting ahead of yourself.” – Roger Staubach
“To me, football is so much about mental toughness, it’s digging deep, it’s doing whatever you need to do to help a team win and that comes in a lot of shapes and forms.” – Tom Brady
“To me it was never about what I accomplished on the football field, it was about the way I played the game.” – Jerry Rice
“I expect us to be in every dog fight. I expect us to fight all four quarters, and I think we have proven just that!” – Cam Jordan
“I’m a pretty good winner. I’m a terrible loser. And I rub it in pretty good when I win.” – Tom Brady
“Football doesn’t build character, it reveals character.” – Marv Levy
“Do you want to know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.” – Mike Singletary
Inspirational Football Quotes
“You have to play this game like somebody just hit your mother with a two-by-four.” – Dan Birdwell
“The whole idea is to get an edge. Sometimes it takes just a little extra something to get that edge, but you have to have it.”
“I can honestly tell you that I would play this game for free.” – Troy Polamalu
“I am going to outwork everybody because no one was going to give me anything.” – Dawson Knox
“Hungry is a word that I’ve been analyzing here of late. It’s not hunger that drives me, it’s not hunger that needs to drive our football team. Hunger and thirst are things that can be quenched. We have to be a driven group, we have to seek greatness.”
“How great a life is this? To get to knock guys’ heads off for 60 minutes and not get thrown in jail?” – Brian Urlacher
“How do you know if you’re doing the job? If you’re up at 3 am talking into a tape recorder and writing notes on paper, have a knot in your stomach, rash on your skin, losing sleep and losing touch with wife and kids, have no appetite or sense of humor and feel everything might turn out wrong, you’re probably doing the job.”
“Hey fellas! This is what you work all off season for. This is why you lift all them weights! This is why you do all that!”
“Health, happiness and success depend upon the fighting spirit of each person. The big thing is not what happens to us in life, but what we do about what happens to us.”
“Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.”
“Football is a game of controlled anger. It is a game of retribution. It’s about will.” – Brian Dawkins
“Do you know my favorite part about the game is? The opportunity to play.” – Mike Singletary
“I am happy to say that everyone that I have met in my life, I have gained something from them; be it negative or positive, it has enforced and reinforced my life in some aspect.”
“Do force yourself to stop looking backward and dwelling on the professional “train wreck” you have just been in. It’s mental quicksand.”
“I am who I am. In the end, I feel that what I’m accountable for is doing a good job as a football coach.”
“Do expect defeat. It’s a given when the stakes are high and the competition is working ferociously to beat you. If you’re surprised when it happens, you’re dreaming; dreamers don’t last long.”
“Do allow yourself appropriate recovery—grieving—time. You’ve been knocked senseless; give yourself a little time to recuperate. A keyword here is “little.” Don’t let it drag on.”
“First become a winner in life. Then it’s easier to become a winner on the field.”
“Find out what the other team wants to do. Then take it away from them.”
“Fame is fleeting. That stuff comes and goes. You know, as soon as I play poorly, you won’t be doing this interview—you’ll be interviewing the next guy.” – Tony Romo
“Failure is part of success, an integral part. Everybody gets knocked down. Knowing it will happen and what you must do when it does is the first step back.”
“Expect rejection, but expect even more strongly to overcome it.”
“Getting to the final is everything, and winning is icing on the cake.”
“Game management, game decisions, adjustments, seeing things during games – it’s all important.”
“Forget the past – the future will give you plenty to worry about.”
“For members of your team, you determine what their inner voice says. The leader, at least a good one, teaches the team how to talk to themselves. An effective leader has a profound influence on what that inner voice will say.”
“For me the starting point for everything – before strategy, tactics, theories, managing, organizing, philosophy, methodology, talent, or experience – is work ethic.”
“For every pass I caught in a game, I caught a thousand in practice.” – Don Hutson
“For a good life: Work like a dog. Eat like a horse. Think like a fox. And play like a rabbit.”
“Confidence comes from knowing what you’re doing. If you are prepared for something, you usually do it. If not, you usually fall flat on your face.”
“Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results, the process rather than the prize.”
“Communication creates collaboration. Big ears are better than big egos. When you’re not listening, ask good questions.”
“After all the cheers have died down and the stadium is empty, after the headlines have been written, and after you are back in the quiet of your room and the championship ring has been placed on the dresser and after all the pomp and fanfare have faded, the enduring thing that is left is the dedication to doing with our lives the very best we can to make the world a better place in which to live.”
“Afford each person the same respect, support, and fair treatment you would expect if your roles were reversed. Deal with people individually, not as objects who are part of a herd-that’s the critical factor.”
“A vital team characteristic is the ability to overcome adversity. Any team acquires experience and endurance as it learns to fight back. This in turn builds the kind of character which seldom crumbles at a time of crisis or testing.”
“I don’t believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game.”
“Yeah, it’s nice to look up to people, but the more you try to be somebody else, the less you are of yourself.”
“The only thing that counts is your dedication to the game. You run on your own fuel; it comes from within you.”
“If I had to pick my greatest strength as a football coach, I say it would be innovation.”
“The only sign we have in the locker room is from The Art of War: ‘Every battle is won before it is fought.’”
“Remember, once you set a goal, it’s all about how hard you’re willing to work, how much you’re willing to sacrifice and how badly you truly want it.” – J.J. Watt
“Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.” – Peyton Manning
“If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?”
“If I’m going to get hit, why let the guy who’s going to hit me get the easiest and best shot? I explode into the guy who’s trying to tackle me.”
“If I have affected someone in a positive way, that means a lot to me.”
“If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.”
“Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”
“People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.”
“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit.”
“The more one emphasizes winning, the less he or she is able to concentrate on what actually causes success.”
“If you’re just saying, hey, I’m doing this. I’m working to make money. I’m working to increase my status. If that’s all there is, I think you will find out that it’s meaningless.”
“If you’re a coach, you’ve got to have a lot of confidence in what you’re doing. Your egos are so large that you know it all anyway if you’re a coach.”
“I don’t think it’s about who you play, I think it’s about who you are.” – Nick Saban
“To be successful, a man must exert an effective influence upon his brothers and upon his associates, and the degree in which he accomplishes this depends on the personality of the man. The incandescence of which he is capable. The flame of fire that burns inside of him. The magnetism which draws the heart of other men to him.”
“If your dream ain’t bigger than you, there’s a problem with your dream.” – Deion Sanders
“If you’re growing a garden, you need to pull out the weeds, but flowers will die if all you do is pick weeds. They need sunshine and water. People are the same.”
“If you’re a pro coach, NFL stands for ‘Not for long.’” – Jerry Glanville
“Talent sets the floor. Character sets the ceiling.” – Bill Belichick
“I’ve been accused of lacking compassion. But that just shows I’m not without compassion.”
“I’ve always avoided publicity. I’ve never been good copy at any stage of my life. I don’t strive for it, because I don’t think it’s important whether I’m good copy or not. The two can go together, if that’s your personality, but every person on this earth is unique.”
“I’m very humbled and I’m very honored. I certainly think about how grateful I am for all the teammates and coaches that I’ve played with and played for throughout my career.”
“I’m trying to go out there and play good football.” – Joe Flacco
“Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result.”
“You know, there’s a rule in sports, ‘Don’t do anything great if you can’t handle the congratulations.’”
“To a winner, complacency and overconfidence can be destructive. To losers, desperation and despondency are just as harmful.”
“You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional.” – Joe Paterno
“You have to make the tough decisions and avoid the outside noise.” – Steve Keim
“If you’re sensitive, you will have a hard time with me.”
“You have to hit the reset button. It’s zero-and-zero each week and you’re trying to go 1-0 for the week.” – Matt LaFleur
“You ask yourself, ‘What do you want your legacy to be?’ I’m content at this point to say, ‘Those who follow me.’ Romeo Crennel, Bill Belichick, Sean Payton, to name a few. I think I’ve got a pretty good group, so far.”
“If you’ve ever won a championship, then that’s all you’re interested in doing.”
“Work isn’t work unless you’d rather be doing something else.” – Don Shula
“Work hard, stay positive, and get up early. It’s the best part of the day.”
“You can easily separate ‘team guys’ from ‘me guys’ by how they accept coaching. The guys that accept it are about winning.”
“You can achieve only that which you will do.”
“We like to win. The haters out there are going to have their own little snide comments. I think winning is better than losing.” – John Harbaugh
“We know how rough the road will be, how heavy here the load will be, we know about the barricades that wait along the track, but we have seen our soul ahead upon a certain goal ahead and nothing left from hell to sky shall ever turn us back.”
“We have no leadership. They rule by herd. Nobody is in charge. It reminds me of a bunch of cows.”
“If you don’t want to be the best, then there’s no reason going out and trying to accomplish anything.”
“If you forget your roots, you’ve lost sight of everything.”
“As I look back now on my coaching career, I think of my family, I think of the days that we spent together. I say this to coaches everywhere: If you ever have a chance to take your kids with you, take them. Don’t miss that opportunity. Because when it’s all over and done with, when you look back, those are going to be your fondest memories.”
“As a quarterback, there’s no better way to finish your year, in winning a Super Bowl, than with a touchdown pass. The chances of that happening, by the looks of most of the Super Bowls, is a very rare chance. Fortunately for me, I had an opportunity.”
“If you can raise the level of effort and performance in those around you, you are officially a leader.” – Urban Meyer
“I would say that the quality of each man’s life is the full measure of that man’s commitment of excellence and victory – whether it be football, whether it be business, whether it be politics or government or what have you.”
“If you do the bare minimum, expect bare minimum results. You want to be great, work to be great.” – J.J. Watt
“If you could go back and change things, you might not be the person you are right now.”
“We have got to use every opportunity to improve individually so we can improve collectively.”
“I think practice preparation is always an indicator of game performance – not necessarily 100%, because there are still a lot of variables there, but it’s still an indicator.”
“I think confrontation is healthy, because it clears the air very quickly.”
“If you got anything to you at all as an athlete and a competitor, you don’t care what the circumstances are. You still got competition.”
“If you don’t believe it yourself your team darn sure won’t.” – Rex Ryan
“I want to thank my haters. I want to thank the people that told me through other people that I wouldn’t be where I am today…My haters became by elevators, they helped me out so thank you.” – Brian Dawkins
“I want to do a good job. I’m just learning and I just want to have fun with it.”
“If a guy doesn’t work hard and doesn’t play well, he can’t lead anything. All he is, is a talker.”
“I’d rather have a second-best decision diligently pursued than a first-best decision lackadaisically pursued.”
“If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.” – Lou Holtz
“If we just be ourselves and trust in each other, we will go down there, we can put points up, we can do what we do.” – Patrick Mahomes
“If wanting to win is a fault, as some of my critics seem to insist, then I plead guilty. I like to win. I know no other way. It’s in my blood.”
“If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a quarterback who thinks playing quarterback is just about passing.”
“If someone needs help, I can offer advice. I’m not always right and people don’t always listen.”
“If our team doesn’t face enough adversity early on in a season, I create it. Nothing builds a team like adversity.”
“Average leaders have quotes. Good leaders have a plan. Exceptional leaders have a system.” – Urban Meyer
“Attack each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.” – Jim Harbaugh
“At many a moment on many a day, I am convinced that pro football must be a game for madmen, and I must be one of them.”
“At least 80 percent of the success of the football team is determined by the fight and spirit that they put into their play.” – George S. Halas
“As long as I have my legs and commitment to the team, then I’ll keep playing.” – Aaron Rodgers
“I’m not afraid to die – it’s just that I had so much left to do in this world.”
“I’m a football coach. I’m not a doctor. They don’t call plays, I don’t do surgeries. We have a great deal here.”
“I’d rather have preparation than motivation. Everyone likes to play, but no one likes to practice.” – Bum Phillips
“I wouldn’t want to coach at some place where they didn’t have high expectations for what they thought you could accomplish.”
“I think that at the start of a game, you’re always playing to win, and then maybe if you’re ahead late in the game, you start playing not to lose. The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.”
“I think teams that win championships, they win them right now by the work they put in and by doing it the right way.” – Adam Thielen
“All the buildup and hype, everything else, is foam. The game is the beer.”
“I tried to look around to see what I wanted to do. Football was something I knew the most about.”
“I have always felt like you really don’t have a genuine confidence unless you demonstrate the ability to do something. You can talk about it, but you have to demonstrate it.”
“All people, regardless of whether they’re athletes or not, should treat people the way they want to be treated.”
“I heard I was too small to play in high school, in college, in the NFL. It just made me work harder.” – Darren Sproles
“I have yet to be in a game where luck was involved.” – Urban Meyer
“I have no magic formula. The only way I know to win is through hard work.” – Don Shula
“Today, you’ve got a decision to make. You’re gonna get better or you’re gonna get worse, but you’re not gonna stay the same. Which will it be?” – Joe Paterno
“I just try to do the best job I possibly can – put the blinders on, go to work and be the best you can possibly be. Once you have done everything that you possibly can – you’ve put forth your greatest effort – then I can live with whatever’s next.”
“I just coach the way I was coached when I was young, in my formative years. I grew up under demanding people, that demanded things from you, expected you to toe the mark.”
“Trust that you can get back up and not give in. Ever.” – Patrick Willis
“I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field.”
“I want to be out there every single snap, every single play.”
“You got one guy going boom, one guy going whack, and one guy not getting in the endzone.”
“I have always believed that you win as part of a team effort. I’ve learned that if everybody does a little bit, it adds up to a lot.” – Jim Harbaugh
“I have a memory, and I can just eliminate mistakes when they come up because I’ve already made them.”
“I had to work hard and hit the books because the opportunity to play in the NFL is not really that big, so I knew I needed something to fall back on. That’s the message I want to send to those kids when I talk to them in person and let them know the most important thing is getting your education.”
“You fail all of the time. But you aren’t a failure until you start blaming someone else.” – Bum Phillips
“I think that we’ll continue to try to look at ourselves in the mirror and see where we can do a better job, maybe where we can improve the process. But I think the fundamentals of the process will remain the same.”
“Winning coaches look for opportunities to praise. Anything that reflects a commitment to the team is praiseworthy.”
“Winning as a team is better than anything. It’s great to share success.” – Jim Harbaugh
“I talked to the team a lot about staying power. You never find out if you have that until you’ve been beaten down a few times.”
“I set my standards so high, no one could be harsher on me than I was.”
“I normally run the 40-yard dash in 4.9, but when a 280-pound guy is chasing me, I run it in 4.6.” – John Elway
“I love football; I enjoy it. That’s why I’ve been in this game as many years as I have. I still like it. I get excited about it.”
“I know what it takes to win. If I can sell them on what it takes to win, then we are not going to lose too many football games.”
“I keep all my letters saying I wasn’t good enough in my living room as motivation to prove them wrong.” – Aaron Rodgers
“Winning is a habit. Watch your thoughts, they become your beliefs. Watch your beliefs, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character.”
“I never left the field saying I could have done more to get ready and that gives me peace of mind.”
“I may win and I may lose, but I will never be defeated.” – Emmitt Smith
Famous Football Quotes
“You can’t dream up confidence. Confidence is born of demonstrated ability.”
“You want to be the best at work in order to go out and celebrate.” – Rob Gronkowski
“You never win a game unless you beat the guy in front of you. The score on the board doesn’t mean a thing. That’s for the fans. You’ve got to win the war with the man in front of you. You’ve got to get your man.”
“You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat. Then you’ve got yourself a team.”
“You might reduce Lombardi’s coaching philosophy to a single sentence: In any game, you do the things you do best and you do them over and over and over.”
“Winning isn’t everything, but the will to win is everything.”
“Winning is not everything … but making the effort to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
“You don’t go into the game to compete. You go into each game to win.” – Cam Newton
“You continue to dream the wild dreams that you dream when you were young.”
“You commit to me; you can’t go see another place. Not because I’m insecure. But if you want to be committed, you’re going to be committed. Too many people teach young people to be committed but also one foot in and one foot out.” – PJ Fleck
“We should favor innovation and freedom over regulation.”
“We prepare hard. We come to the game with 45 guys, and everyone needs to be ready to go.”
“We never use the condition of the footballs as an excuse. We play with whatever or kick with whatever we have to use and that’s the way it is.”
“What sets disciplined people apart? The capacity to get past distractions. Focus on the task at hand.”
“The street to obscurity is paved with athletes who perform great feats before friendly crowds. Greatness in major league sports is the ability to win in a stadium filled with people who are pulling for you to lose.”
“The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.”
“The single most important thing we had in the Steelers of the ’70s was the ability to work together.”
“The secret to success is good leadership, and good leadership is all about making the lives of your team members or workers better.”
“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.”
“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”
“The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence.”
“A team divided against itself can break down at any moment. The least bit of pressure or adversity will crack it apart.”
“A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive, and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.”
“A lot about coaching is building relationships and having fun out there, so those moments mean a lot more.” – Brian Flores
“A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning.”
“A leader must identify himself with the group, must back up the group, even at the risk of displeasing superiors. He must believe that the group wants from him a sense of approval. If this feeling prevails, production, discipline, morale will be high, and in return, you can demand the cooperation to promote the goals of the community.”
“A good teacher creates an environment which allows the student to succeed.”
“Before I can embrace freedom, I should be aware of what duties I have.”
“Becoming a champion is not an easy process… It is done by focusing on what it takes to get there and not on getting there.”
“Because, they’re only thinking about one team when that game’s over. Before the game, they’re talking about two football teams. When the game’s over, there’s only one winner.”
“Be clear in your own mind as to what you stand for. And then stand up for it.”
“You try to stay within the rules for the sake of the game, but you can always turn up the intensity.” – Lawrence Taylor
“A good leader gets people to follow him because they want to, not because he makes them.”
“The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.” – Bum Phillips
“A coach wouldn’t throw you to the wolves if he didn’t think you had some wolf in you.”
“We’ll fight ‘em until hell freezes over, then we’ll fight ‘em on the ice.” – Dutch Meyer
“We’ll continue to work hard to do a better job in every area going forward. I don’t know where those little things will come from but we’ll continue to be diligent on them.”
“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” – Vince Lombardi
“We talked about some of our experiences, focusing, hanging together down the stretch, important games. It’s not necessarily who has the most talent but what team sticks together and executes their fundamentals the best.”
“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” – Vince Lombardi
“Winners act like winners before they’re winners…The culture precedes positive results. It doesn’t get tacked on as an afterthought on your way to the victory stand. Champions behave like champions before they’re champions; they have a winning standard of performance before they’re winners.”
“Whether it’s checkers or jump rope or football, to stop me you’ve got to bring everything you’ve got.” – Chris Peterson
“Whenever you go on the field, you need to rule as a unit.” – Aaron Donald
“When you’ve got the momentum in a football game, that is a time to keep going and get it into the end zone. We want to score for America’s families.” – Vince Lombardi
“The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vince Lombardi
“A good football coach needs a patient wife, a loyal dog and a great quarterback – but not necessarily in that order.”
“The more successful you become, the longer the yardstick people use to measure you by.”
“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vince Lombardi
“The objective is to win: Fairly, squarely, decently, win by the rules, but still win.”
“A good leader is always learning. The great leaders start learning young and continue until their last breath.”
“A good back makes his own holes. Anybody can run where the holes are.” – Joe Don Looney
“The only competition that matters is the one that takes place within yourself.” – Pete Carroll
“The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.”
“When you’re good at something, you’ll tell everyone. When you’re great at something, they’ll tell you.”
“Nothing is work unless you’d rather be doing something else.”
“Like water, many decent individuals will seek lower ground if left to their own inclinations. In most cases you are the one who inspires and demands they go upward rather than settle for the comfort of doing what comes easily.”
“Accept false steps as opportunities to learn. It’s one thing to hate failure, it’s another to fear it.”
“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz
“Every year, you have to perform and win. I just am going to go out, do my job, coach as hard as I can and see what happens.” – Ron Rivera
“Every quarterback can throw a ball; every running back can run; every receiver is fast; but that mental toughness that you talk about translates into competitiveness.”
“Every game is an important game for us. Doesn’t matter what’s the next week – who we play, whether it’s a bye week, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, Columbus Day. We don’t care. We’re just trying to go out there and win a game.”
“Every experience, good or bad, you have to learn from.” – Patrick Mahomes
“Coaches who scrimmage all the time don’t know what to practice.”
“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.” – The Panthers, Friday Night Lights
“Character is the ability of a person to see a positive end of things. This is the hope that a man of character has.”
“Calculated risks are part of what you do, but the idea that something completely crazy will work just because it’s completely crazy is completely crazy.”
“Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another and of strength to be derived by unity.”
“Being the best at whatever talent you have, that’s what stimulates life.”
“Before you can win the fight, you’ve got to be in the fight.”
“I enjoy winning and very much dislike losing- but I did not allow either of them to obsess me. I was a silent loser, believing that if you won you said little, and if you lost you said even less.”
“I enjoy talking to young people, and talking to people about helping young people. That part is not a chore. It’s pretty fun, and something I like to do because I think it’s important.”
“I don’t live in the past. I just live in the enjoyment of the game.”
“I don’t deal in frustration. I’m a fighter. And everything I’ve ever gotten, I’ve had to fight for.”
“I directed our focus less to the prize of victory than to the process of improving — obsessing, perhaps, about the quality of our execution and the content of our thinking; that is, our actions and attitude. I knew if I did that, winning would take care of itself.”
“A failure becomes just one time at bat if you refuse to let it defeat you.”
“A disciplined person is one who follows the will of the one who gives the orders.”
“A defining characteristic of a good leader is the conviction that he or she can make a positive difference — can prevail even when the odds are stacked against him or her. A successful leader is not easily swayed from this self-belief. But it happens.”
“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.”
“The more you prepare beforehand, the more relaxed and creative and effective you’ll be when it counts.”
“To succeed…You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” – Tony Dorsett
“To reach your own goals and dreams, you must learn how to assist others in reaching theirs.”
“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” – Jerry Rice
“To the young: work, work, work, and then work some more.” – Ed Reed
“To the winner, there is 100-percent elation, 100-percent fun, 100-percent laughter; and yet the only thing left to the loser is resolution and determination.”
“The hardest thing to do is work hard when no one is watching.” – Ray Lewis
“The greatest mistake is to continue to practice a mistake.” – Bobby Bowden
“The good teams, the dominant teams, aren’t necessarily dominant in stadiums, but they are dominant largely in moments, when they do what’s required to get out of stadiums with victories.”
“The further you go in life, the more you realize what you’re going to leave this Earth. It’s not going to be, ‘It was a great platform. It was great to win the Super Bowl,’ but really and truly what you’re going to leave on this Earth is the influence on others.”
“The enemy of the best is the good. If you’re always settling with what’s good, you’ll never be the best.”
“I’ve never known a man worth his salt who, in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline.”
“If you can accept losing you can’t win. If you can walk you can run. No one is ever hurt. Hurt is in your mind.”
“I tend to attack the challenges that are right in front of me, the ones that I have today.”
“I’ve been in football all my life, gentlemen, and I don’t know whether I’m particularly qualified to be a part of anything else, except I consider it a great game, a game of many assets, by the way, and I think a symbol of what this country’s best attributes are: courage and stamina and a coordinated efficiency or teamwork.”
“Any penalty – I’ve told you a hundred times – can be eliminated by concentration or good judgment.”
“Always persevere, always have a great perspective, and always have great purpose in your life.” – Russell Wilson
“Always compete. It’s truly that simple. Find the way to do your best. Compete in everything you do.” – Pete Carroll
“Always be prepared to start.”
“All you have to think about is that guy across from me is human, and so am I. And he’ll never out-work me. He’ll never out-think me. And if you can’t out-work me, and you can’t out-think me, you’ll never beat me.”
“After the first day of practice, there’s not one guy who’s playing at 100 percent or who feels great. Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day – it all just hurts.”
“If winning or losing is going to define your life, you’re on a rough road.”
Funny Football Quotes
“Your path and purpose will become crystal clear when you begin to trust your vision.”
“When you’re in a situation, you can complain about it, you can feel sorry for yourself, you can do a lot of things. But how are you gonna make the situation better?”
“The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.” – Vince Lombardi
“The less versatile you are, the better you have to be at what you do well.”
“The leader can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control he must exert.”
“The key to being a good manager or a good entrepreneur is to pick the right people. Pick the right people, and they’ll make you look good.”
“Teammates are there for each other even after the noise of the crowd is gone.” – Jim Brown
“When you’re good at something, you’ll tell everyone. When you’re great at something, they’ll tell you.” – Walter Payton
“When your arm gets hit, the ball is not going to go where you want it to.”
“When you’ve got the momentum in a football game, that is a time to keep going and get it into the end zone. We want to score for America’s families.”
“When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.” – Terry Bradshaw
“When you’re good at something, you’ll tell everyone. When you’re great at something, they’ll tell you.” – Walter Payton
“We don’t talk a lot about winning. We talk about what you have to do to consistently be your best. Focus on high standards.”
“We all have experiences in our lives that change us, and we all learn from people, like my dad, but at the end of the day, it’s only us. And we’re only responsible to make ourselves happy.”
“Victory is produced by and belongs to all.”
“Unless a man believes in himself and makes a total commitment to his career and puts everything he has into it – his mind, his body, his heart – what’s life worth to him?”
“Try not to do too many things at once. Know what you want, the number one thing today and tomorrow. Persevere and get it done.”
“When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn.”
“When you stand and overcome a significant setback, you’ll find an increasing inner confidence and self-assurance that has been created by conquering defeat. Absorbing and overcoming this kind of punishment engenders a sober, steely toughness that results in a hardened sense of independence and a personal belief that you can take on anything, survive, and win.”
“When you lose, talk little. When you win, talk less.” – Tom Brady
“When you lose, everyone can do a little bit more. Everyone can coach better; everyone can play better. And everyone has to do that for us to win.” – Mike Vrabel
“When you have a room full of competitors, it’s easy to coach. A competitor you prepare; a non-competitor you have to motivate.” – Urban Meyer
“When you go through a difficult space, what were the lessons learned? You want to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.” – Dan Quinn
“Success is like anything worthwhile. It has a price. You have to pay the price to win and you have to pay the price to get to the point where success is possible. Most important, you must pay the price to stay there.”
“Success is based upon a spiritual quality, a power to inspire others.”
“Success doesn’t come from pie-in-the-sky thinking. It’s the result of consciously doing something each day that will add to your overall excellence.” – Nick Saban
“Success doesn’t care which road you take to get to its doorstep.”
“The key to a winning season is focusing on one opponent at a time. Winning one week at a time. Never look back and never look ahead.”
“Talent determines what you can do. Motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz
“Success isn’t owned, it’s leased. And rent is due every day.” – J.J. Watt
“Success isn’t measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace.” – Mike Ditka
“Success is what you do with your ability. It’s how you use your talent.”
“If you want to win, do the ordinary things better than anyone else does them, day in and day out.”
“If you want to be great, do it. There’s nothing holding you back. It’s all in your control.” – Pete Carroll
“Success is the peace of mind that comes when you know you have given everything you have to give to the opportunities that life has presented you.”
“Success is not only for the elite. Success is there for those who want it, plan for it, and take action to achieve it.”
“Success is not a goal. It’s a byproduct.” – Coach Taylor, Friday Night Lights
“Stay hungry, remain humble, and get better today.” – Pete Carroll
“If you’ll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.”
“If you work hard and you play well, all those critics quiet themselves pretty quickly.” – Peyton Manning
“If you talk, you only repeat something that you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something that you don’t know.”
“If you sit back and spend too much time feeling good about what you did in the past, you’re going to come up short next time.”
“If you see a defense team with dirt and mud on their backs they’ve had a bad day.”
“Some people try to find things in this game that don’t exist but football is only two things – blocking and tackling.”
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi
“The definition of discipline is to do what you’re supposed to do when you’re supposed to do it.” – Jim Larrañaga
“The critics are always right. The only way you shut them up is by winning.”
“That old saying that you’re only as good as the next one, right? That holds true in the National Football League. I’ve been around long enough to know that. You’ve got to keep grinding.” – Andy Reid
“Strength of will – is essential to your survival and success. The competitor who won’t go away, who won’t stay down, has one of the most formidable competitive advantages of all. In evaluating people, I prize ego. It often translates into a fierce desire to do their best and an inner confidence that stands them in good stead when things really get rough. Psychologists suggest that there is a strong link between ego and competitiveness. All the great performers I’ve ever coached had ego to spare.”
“You can play hard. You can play aggressive. You can give 120% but if one guy is out of position then someone is running through the line of scrimmage and he is going to gain a bunch of yards.”
“You can learn a line from a win and a book from defeat.” – Paul Brown
“When things are going best is when you have the opportunity to be the strongest, most demanding, and most effective in your leadership.”
“When the going gets tough, I’m not always sure what you do. I’m not saying that I know how to fix everything when the going gets tough, but I do know this: when the going goes tough, you don’t quit. And you don’t fold up. And you don’t go in the other direction.”
“When the game is over I just want to look at myself in the mirror, win or lose, and know I gave it everything I had.”
“When people told me I wasn’t going to make it, I listened to the one person who told me I was: me.” – Shannon Sharpe
“The coaches can only take you so far. You have to want to learn and work.” – Aaron Rodgers
“The biggest thing is, whatever 11 are in that huddle, we believe we’re going to get it done… I think you just say, ‘Shoot, let’s go.’” – Philip Rivers
“The attitude with which we approach the situation can determine our success or failure.”
“The ability to help the people around me self-actualize their goals underlines the single aspect of my abilities and the label that I value most — teacher.”
“That’s the biggest gap in sports, the difference between the winner and the loser of the Super Bowl.”
“Winners, I am convinced, imagine their dreams first. They want it with all their heart and expect it to come true. There is, I believe, no other way to live.” – Joe Montana
“What I am going to put my time into is how we can coach them better and how we can play better.” – Doug Marrone
“We’re not going to talk about what we’re going to accomplish, we’re going to talk about how we’re going to do it.”
“We’re what our record says we are, but we’re going to be able to look at ourselves and figure out what can we do to consistently have good, clean performances.” – Sean McVay
“We’re always trying to do a better job on that and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
“When people are watching you, it makes you think twice about what you do, and the things you say, and the people you hang around with.”
“When Jim Irsay called me five years ago, he told me, ‘I want you to be our coach and help us win the Super Bowl.’ He told me, ‘We are going to win it the right way. We are going to win it with great guys; win it with class and dignity. We are going to win it in a way that will make Indianapolis proud.’”
“In order to succeed, this group will need a singleness of purpose, they will need a dedication, and they will have to convince all of their prospects of the willingness to sacrifice.”
“When I was a young coach, there were people like Chuck Noll, Chuck Knox and Tom Landry who were there for me.”
“When a big play occurs for our team, I’m concentrating on how the defense is reacting to it. Most of the time, I don’t see the great catch or the long run. What I’m looking at is how the other team defended it.”
“What you do should speak so loudly that no one will hear what you say.”
“What you do in the off season determines what you do in the regular season.”
“Stay focused. Your start does not determine how you’re going to finish.” – Herm Edwards
“Someone will declare, “I am the leader!” and expect everyone to get in line and follow him or her to the gates of heaven or hell. My experience is that it doesn’t happen that way. Unless you’re a guard on a chain gang, others follow you based on the quality of your actions rather than the magnitude of your declarations.”
“To me, life is so exciting. To me, life is always trying to beat someone in something competitive. It’s kinda been my whole life.”
“Some clubs want to win so much they’ll do anything to get it. Our approach has been just the opposite. We’ve tried to do things the right way. And the right way is [abiding by] the rules and regulations … I may not like all of them, but once they are [official], we play by them.”
“Showing weakness will encourage your opponents. It inspires them. It encourages them to hit harder. To come faster. But when you don’t show any fear, or when you don’t show any hurt, you have the opportunity to discourage your opponent. You discourage your enemies.”
“If you are going to be a champion, you must be willing to pay a greater price.” – Bud Wilkinson
“In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.” – Lou Holtz
“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”
“Life is about choices. You ask the questions and you listen to the answers. Then you listen to your heart.”
“Leave as little to chance as possible. Preparation is the key to success.”
“Learn from everyone, copy no one.”
“Leadership rests not only upon ability, not only upon capacity; having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it. His leadership is then based on truth and character. There must be truth in the purpose and will power in the character.”
“If you can accept defeat and open your pay envelope without feeling guilty, you’re stealing.”
“If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride – and never quit – you’ll be a winner. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards.”
“If you ask me how I want to be remembered, it is as a winner. You know what a winner is? A winner is somebody who has given his best effort, who has tried the hardest they possibly can, who has utilized every ounce of energy and strength within them to accomplish something. It doesn’t mean that they accomplished it or failed, it means that they’ve given it their best. That’s a winner.”
“If you aren’t fired up with enthusiasm, you’ll be fired with enthusiasm.”
“If you are prepared, you will be confident, and will do the job.”
“In the long run, the cream always rises and the crap always sinks.” – John Elway
“In the end, I’ve found, people like the direct approach. It’s much more valuable to them to have a leader who’s absolutely clear and open than to have one who soft-soaps or talks in circles.”
“In my opinion, character is the most important determinant of a person’s success, achievement and ability to handle adversity.”
“I’m sure that had I not been a coach, I would have been some form of a teacher.”
“I’m not concerned about avoiding anything that happened three years ago or worried about letdowns or things of that nature. When you use the term ‘letdown’ you proceed with the assumption that this is a continuation of something that happened in the past.”
Short Football Quotes
“You’re either competing or you’re not.” – Pete Carroll
“You defeat defeatism with confidence.”
“Work hard or don’t work at all.”
“You can’t win together if you don’t work together.”
“You can’t play hard, you can’t play here.” – Bruce Arians
“You cannot make progress with excuses.” – Cam Newton
“You can have an impact anywhere you are.”
“You are what your record says you are.”
“When you’re there, it’s not good enough to be there.”
“When you win, nothing hurts.” – Joe Namath
“When it’s too hard for them, it’s just right for us.”
“What makes a good coach? Complete dedication.”
“What it takes to win is simple, it’s not easy.”
“We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“We need somebody to give us a chance.”
“Today, you have 100% of your life left.”
“Tough times go away, tough people do not.”
“The tougher the job, the greater the reward.”
“The thrill isn’t in the winning, it’s in the doing.”
“The test of a quarterback is where his team finishes.”
“The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer.”
“The past doesn’t buy you much.”
“The one man team is a complete and total myth.”
“The start is what stops most people.”
“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”
“The four most powerful words are: I believe in you.”
“The definition of success is total preparation.”
“Teams do not go physically flat, they go mentally stale.”
“Success demands singleness of purpose.”
“Strong leaders don’t plead with individuals to perform.”
“Strive for perfection, but settle for excellence.”
“Potential means you haven’t done anything yet.”
“Plan your work and work your plan.”
“People who enjoy what they do, invariably do it well.”
“No one has ever drowned in sweat.” – Lou Holtz
“No one ever drowned in sweat.” – Lou Holtz
“Live with a purpose, play with a purpose.” – Russell Wilson
“Live as if you were living already for the second time.”
“Like I said, repetition in practice and hard work.”
“I’ll tolerate you until I can replace you.”
“If you live long enough, lots of nice things happen.”
“If you have fun, fine. It’s not all life and death.”
“If you hate your job, don’t worry, you won’t have it for long.”
“If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.”
“I’m really not a celebrity; I’m just a teacher.”
“I’m not really worried about the other 31 teams.”
“I’m not really in the excuse business.”
“I think comparisons are odious.”
“Good things happen to those who hustle.”
“Good talent with bad attitude equals bad talent.”
“Give something that wasn’t expected.”
“Football is easy if you’re crazy as hell.” – Bo Jackson
“Excuses are tools of the incompetent.”
“Failures are expected by losers, ignored by winners.”
“Everybody needs a coach.”
“Everyone’s job is important, but no one is indispensable.”
“Don’t ever let good enough be good enough.”
“Do your job.”
“Conventional wisdom often produces conventional results.”
“Confidence is a very fragile thing.”
“Commit yourself to something you have a passion for.”
“Cold is a state of mind.”
“Adversity is an opportunity for heroism.”
“Achievement builds character.”
“1st step to winning… Believe you will win.” – Russell Wilson
“You got to be a champion on the inside.” – Dabo Swinney
“You get the job done or you don’t.”
“We are stronger together than we are alone.”
“There is no substitute for work.” – Vince Lombardi
“The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.”
“Run from being good. Chase being great.” – Chip Kelly
“You don’t win with X’s and O’s. What you win with is people.”
“Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
“When you don’t give up, you cannot fail.” – Adrian Peterson
“When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.”
“To live in the past is to die in the present.”
“Separation comes from preparation.” – Russell Wilson
“Security comes from earning it – not seeking it.”
“No one’s ever got better by practicing less.” – Ron Jaworski
“Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” – George S. Halas
“Money talks. Treating people right talks louder.”
“Losing has nothing to do with geography.”
“I’m just here so I won’t get fined.” – Marshawn Lynch
“Inches make champions.”
“I’m just a guy who rolls up his sleeves and goes to work!”
“If you’re not gonna go all the way, why go at all?” – Joe Namath
“A winner never stops trying.” – Tom Landry
“Every day you waste is one you can never make up.”
“Focus on the process of what it takes to be successful.”
“Heart can’t be measured!” – Boston Scott
“Football is unconditional love.” – Tom Brady
“A team that thinks it’s going to lose is going to lose.”
“I’m no miracle man. I guarantee nothing but hard work.”
“If your why is strong enough you will figure out how!”
“If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.”
“Never make a major decision based solely on money.”
“Effort will never be questioned.” – Jalen Hurts
Football Quotes For Kids
“If you have everything prepared, the rest will take care of itself.”
“To do things you’ve never done before, you have to do things you’ve never done before.” – Sean Payton
“To be successful, all you have to do is work half-days; you can work the first twelve hours or the second twelve hours.”
“Some of the most innovative things in football I see at high school games. It’s not the play – it’s when you run it. The right time.”
“Some guys are football smart and they’re not smart in other ways. Other guys get 1,500 on their SATs and can’t get a double-team block right. No, in my experience, sometimes it correlates, sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t think you just take it for granted.”
“Some coaches pray for wisdom. I pray for 260-pound tackles. They’ll give me plenty of wisdom.”
“No matter the circumstances you may be going through, just push through it.” – Ray Lewis
“No leader, however great, can long continue unless he wins battles. The battle decides all.”
“People aren’t very good listeners, by nature. Part of being a good communicator is recognizing and understanding that and trying to make the complex simple. I try to capture a concept, an idea or a moment in a few words. If they remember it, job done.”
“Part of playing the game of life is you’re going to have some losses.”
“It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you’ve got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not yet a winner.”
“It’s better to decide wrongly than weakly. If you’re weak, you’re likely to be wrong anyway.”
“Individuals play the game, but teams win championships.”
“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
“Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.” – Vince Lombardi
“It’s not about what you’re capable of, it’s about what you’re willing to do.”
“It’s about being the very best you can be. Nothing else matters as long as you’re working and striving to be your best. ” – Pete Carroll
“It’s a very competitive thing, pro sports. The hardest thing in pro sports is staying up there.”
“Every day is an opportunity disguised as a challenge.” – Tiki Barber
“Even when you’re successful, even when you win the game, about an hour after the game, you have a litany of things that you now deal with that are problematic… So the times that you are happy are minute compared to the time that you’re dealing with problems.”
“Don’t worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon.”
“Don’t walk through life just playing football. Don’t walk through life just being an athlete. Athletics will fade. Character and integrity and really making an impact on someone’s life, that’s the ultimate vision, that’s the ultimate goal – bottom line.” – Ray Lewis
“Football is one-third offense, one-third defense, and one-third special teams.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s just a bunch of guys with an odd-shaped ball.” – Bill Parcells
“Don’t succumb to excuses. Go back to the job of making the corrections and forming the habits that will make your goal possible.”
“Don’t give up at halftime. Concentrate on winning the second half.”
“Football is a game of errors. The team that makes the fewest errors in a game usually wins.” – Paul Brown
“Everything’s not going to go perfect. You’re going to have some losses that you’re going to have to bounce back from and some things that are a little unforeseen that you’re going to have to deal with.”
“Discipline must be a habit so ingrained that it is stronger than the excitement of battle or the fear of death.”
“Creating gold from dross is alchemy; making lemonade when you’re given lemons is leadership; making lemonade when you don’t have any lemons is great leadership.”
“Most important of all, to be successful in life demands that a man make a personal commitment to excellence and to victory, even though the ultimate victory can never be completely won. Yet that victory might be pursued and wooed with every fiber of our body, with every bit of our might and all our effort. And each week, there is a new encounter; each day, there is a new challenge.”
“One thing about championship teams is that they’re resilient. No matter what is thrown at them, no matter how deep the hole, they find a way to bounce back and overcome adversity.”
“Football is an incredible game. Sometimes it’s so incredible, it’s unbelievable.” – Tom Landry
“Football is an honest game. It’s true to life. It’s a game about sharing. Football is a team game. So is life.” – Joe Namath
“Football is a great deal like life in that it teaches that work, sacrifice, perseverance, competitive drive, selflessness and respect for authority is the price that each and every one of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”
“Everything that I have done has always been predicated on doing the best that I can with the ability that God has given me, trying to reach as far as I possibly can. And if I fall a little bit short, then I’m still farther ahead than if I hadn’t reached at all.”
“Everything about the game is hard and tests your will. It compels every man who puts on a uniform to not only do their best but to be their best.” – John Lynch
“One of the things you learn in football is that you’re only as good as your last outing. I don’t like to reflect on what we’ve done in the past. I’m not a very good storyteller, for one thing. I’d disappoint you. When it’s time, I’ll talk about the good old days. But it’s a sign of old age, reveling in the past.”
“One of the common traits of outstanding performers-coaches, athletes, managers, sales representatives, executives, and others who face a daily up/down, win/lose accounting system-is that a rejection, that is, defeat, is quickly forgotten, replaced eagerly by pursuit of a new order, client, or opponent.”
“One of the best things others can say about you is you’re a hard worker. One of the worst things they can say about you is you’re not.” – Derek Jones
“Respecting people is an important part of life, whether it’s the person doing janitorial work or the person above you. It doesn’t matter who you are: I’m going to respect you.” – Andy Reid
“There are winners, and there are people who would like to be winners but just don’t know how to do it. Intelligent and talented people who are motivated can learn how to become winners if they have someone who will teach them.”
“There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you’ll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.”
“There are coaches to whom winning or losing means something close to life or death. If they lose, then their life has somehow been diminished. I’m not that way, and it keeps me steady.”
“This won’t be good enough. It wasn’t good enough today. It won’t be good enough against anybody else, either.”
“They call it coaching but it is teaching. You do not just tell them…you show them the reasons.”
“There’s nothing wrong with setting goals, but it doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t pay attention to the day-to-day details.”
“There’s no weakness in forgiveness.” – Tami Taylor, Friday Night Lights
“It’s time for the New England Patriots to move on and that’s what our job is. And as I said, our goal is the same: To have a winning football team, to be a pillar in the community. That’s what our direction is; that’s what we’re going to do.”
“It’s the name on the front of the jersey that matters most, not the one on the back.” – Joe Paterno
“It’s ridiculous for a country to get all worked up about a game—except the Super Bowl, of course. Now that’s important.” – Andy Rooney
“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.” – Vince Lombardi
“It’s not wanting to win that makes you a winner; it’s refusing to fail.”
“Leaders are paid to make a decision. The difference between offering an opinion and making a decision is the difference between working for the leader and being the leader.”
“Leaders are made; they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”
“Our goal is to develop our team, to earn what we get, to learn, to develop unselfish attitudes. If we achieve that, the results is that we’ll win.”
“One thing that could be a problem is breaking old habits. It’s not that you don’t understand what the new responsibilities or plays are, but just the fact that you’ve been doing something a long time and you’re kind of used to doing it, it’s a habit, and that’s not what’s required in the other system and that means kind of undoing something before you can even start to do something new.”
“Never worry about missing a field goal. Just blame the holder and think about making the next one.” – Lou Groza
“Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don’t quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don’t quit until you reach it. Never quit.”
“Never get too high, never get too low. Take it day by day, and just continue to learn.” – Jalen Hurts
“More grounded, more humble, more selfless makes us more opportunistic.”
“Morally, the life of the organization must be of exemplary nature. This is one phase where the organization must not have criticism.”
“It’s not the will to win that matters. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” – Paul “Bear” Bryant
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size in the fight of the dog.” – Archie Griffin
“I’ve never eaten just a few bites of things I liked in my life.”
“Mediocre people hate high achievers, and high achievers hate mediocre people.”
“Losers never know why they are losing. They will mention injuries, the officiating, the weather and bad breaks.”
“Losers assemble in small groups and complain. Winners assemble as a team and find ways to win.”
“Leadership is not just one quality, but rather a blend of many qualities; and while no one individual possesses all of the needed talents that go into leadership, each man can develop a combination to make him a leader.”
“Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.”
“Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence. If you’re in control, they’re in control.” – Tom Landry
“Leaders sometimes wonder why they or their organization fail to achieve success, never seem to reach their potential. It’s often because they don’t understand or can’t instill the concept of what a team is all about at its best: connection and extension.”
“It’s a very easy thing to say, ‘Go get a backup quarterback.’ Now tell me where to get them. You just can’t dial them up.”
“It is and has always been an American zeal to be first in everything we do, and to win…”
“It doesn’t matter what people say about me. I weather the storm.” – Terrell Owens
“Invest in great relationships, they will pay a lifetime of dividends.”
“Innovation involves anticipation. It is having a broad base of knowledge on your subject and an ability to see where the end game is headed. Use all your knowledge to get their first. Set the trend and make the competition counter you.”
“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. Sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.”
“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” – Lou Holtz
“Lots of leaders want to be popular. I never cared about that. I want to be respected.”
“Losing the Super Bowl is worse than death. You have to get up the next morning.”
“It’s a lot easier to lose than it is to win. It’s easier, but it’s not more comfortable.”
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.”
“It isn’t about the words you say. It’s about the energetic message you send.” – Pete Carroll
“It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever — the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.”
“It is so easy to be average. It takes a little something to be special. Why be around average?” – Urban Meyer
“My dad used to wake me up at 5:30 in the morning and hit me ground balls and tell me, ‘Don’t be afraid to excel. Don’t be afraid to be great.’” – Russell Wilson
“One football can take you so far. All you’ve got to do is catch it.” – DeAndre Hopkins
“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.”
“It’s not the load that breaks you down. It’s the way you carry it.” – Lou Holtz
“It’s not my job to hold your hand. It’s my job to take motivated people and show them how to become better.”
“I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.”
“To me, discipline in football occurs on the field, not off it.”
“There is only one way to succeed in anything…and that is to give it everything.” – Vince Lombardi
“There is only one kind of discipline, and that is the perfect discipline. As a leader, you must enforce and maintain that discipline; otherwise, you will fail at your job.”
“There is only a half step difference between the champions & those who finish on the bottom. And much of that half step is mental.”
“There is no defense against a perfect pass. I can throw the perfect pass.” – Dan Marino
“You can’t win together if you don’t work together.” – Nick Saban
“There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success.”
“Each game is different. History means nothing in pro football.” – Bill Parcells
“Dreaming means ‘rehearsing’ what you see, playing it over and over in your mind until it becomes as real to you as your life right now.” – Emmitt Smith
“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
“The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else.”
“There is something good in men that really yearn for discipline.”
“Mental toughness is Spartanism, with all its qualities of self-denial, sacrifice, dedication, fearlessness, and love.”
“Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind – you could call it character in action.”
“Mental toughness is doing the right thing for the team when it’s not the best thing for you.”
“Don’t do anything in practice that you wouldn’t do in the game.”
“Don’t be a spectator. Don’t let life pass you by.” – Lou Holtz
“Mastery requires endless remastery. In fact, I don’t believe there is ever true mastery. It is a process, not a destination. That’s what few winners realize and explains to some degree why repeating is so difficult. Having triumphed, winners come to believe that the process of mastery is concluded and that they are its proud new owners.”
“Many people flounder about in life because they do not have a purpose, an objective toward which to work.”
“Many people erroneously think they have only one chance to succeed, and if they miss that chance, they are doomed to failure. In fact, most people have several opportunities to succeed.”
“Make sure when anyone tackles you, he remembers how much it hurts.” – Jim Brown
Football Quotes For Players
“You should never be defined by what you do, by the things you have; you’ve got to define yourself by who you are and who you impact and how you impact people. And that’s the thing I try to get across to my players.”
“You definitely go through a stage, most coaches do, where you see a good player and you get enamored, you really like what the player does, but then when you put him into your system, it’s not quite the same player that he was in another system. He has some strengths, but you can’t utilize all those strengths. If you try to utilize all his strengths, you end up weakening a lot of other players who are already in your system.”
“You as an individual coach have a responsibility to try to give those players who put themselves at risk and in harm’s way a chance to achieve success, and that goes for universities and professional teams, as well.”
“The only players I hurt with my words are the ones who have an inflated opinion of their ability.”
“The number one thing on any team that will keep your players from being selfish is respect for the other players.”
“The NFL is a unique workplace. There are no secrets anymore. Technology has taken over, and secrets are exposed. People are going to know what you’re all about. You have to make sure you have real honesty in the workplace, or you’re going to be exposed.” – Andy Reid
“The most valuable player is the one who makes the most players valuable.” – Peyton Manning
“The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break.” – John Madden
“The best thing you can say about any coach is his players play hard for him.” – Terry Bradshaw
“Systems don’t win, players do.”
“Really, coaching is simplicity. It’s getting players to play better than they think that they can.”
“Perhaps the toughest call for a coach is weighing what is best for an individual against what is best for the team. Keeping a player on the roster just because I liked him personally, or even because of his great contributions to the team in the past, when I felt some one else could do more for the team would be a disservice to the team’s goals.”
“On a team, it’s not the strength of the individual players, but it is the strength of the unit and how they all function together.” – Bill Belichick
“My coaching philosophy? Determine your players talents and give them every weapon to get the most from those talents.”
“Look, coaching is about human interaction and trying to know your players. Any coach would tell you that. I’m no different.”
“Look for players with character and ability. But remember, character comes first.” – Joe Gibbs
“I’ve always talked to players about perception and reality. I don’t worry about perception. There may be some of that, that people want to attach to a good name, but the reality is that some good things can happen.”
“In short, we accumulate all the information that we can accumulate, wherever that information comes from, and try to analyze it and make the best decision we can make for our football team on a case-by-case basis. It’s the same for every single player; the process is the same.”
“If you see players who hate practice, their coach isn’t doing a very good job.”
“If you have something critical to say to a player, preface it by saying something positive. That way when you get to the criticism, at least you know he’ll be listening.”
“If the players don’t trust the coach, it is a problem, and vice versa.”
“If I have any talent, it’s in the artistic end of football. The variation of movement of 11 players and the orchestration of that facet of football is beautiful to me.” – Bill Walsh
“If a man is a quitter, I’d rather find out in practice than in a game. I ask for all a player has so I’ll know later what I can expect.”
“I’ve been around enough to know what it takes to get a team to reach its potential, and I want players who want to reach their potential.”
“I’ll never give up on a player regardless of his ability as long as he never gives up on himself. In time he will develop.”
“I used to tell the players that professional football is a part-time profession. I used to tell them it gets you ready for your life’s work.”
“I learned early in sports that to be effective – for a player to play the best he can play – is a matter of concentration and being unaware of distractions, positive or negative.”
“I had great football players. To be quite truthful, my great football players, the ones who wanted the ball at the end of the games, they weren’t focused on money. They want to do something great. They want to go to Pro Bowls. They want to win Super Bowls. Those are the people that succeed in sports – or in business.”
“I got two high-strung players, you know? That’s it.”
“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle, victorious.”
“I feel I am a players’ coach. The only thing that means is I care about my players more than anything.” – Rex Ryan
“I don’t have to make examples out of players to establish my own place. I don’t feel like I have to.”
“I could tell you that in my entire coaching career I have never talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure. That is not a subject that I have ever brought up.”
“I can’t stand it when a player whines to me or his teammates or his wife or the writers or anyone else. A whiner is almost always wrong. A winner never whines.”
“How do you win? By getting average players to play good and good players to play great. That’s how you win.” – Bum Phillips
“Football isn’t necessarily won by the best players. It’s won by the team with the best attitude.” – George Allen
“Coaching is not how much you know. It’s how much you can get players to do.” – Bum Phillips
“Coaches who can outline plays on a blackboard are a dime a dozen. The coaches who win are the ones who can motivate their players.”
“As a coach, your high standards of performance, attention to detail and – above all – how hard you work set the stage for how your players perform.”
“All coaching is taking a player where he can’t take himself.” – Bill McCartney
“All you have to do is play better than the other guy and things go well. If you don’t play better than the other players then somebody takes your place. Now a lot of guys, in this day and time with the transient nature of the sport, as soon as the competition gets too good, they want out.”
“Great football coaches have the vision to see, the faith to believe, the courage to do—and 25 great players.” – Marv Levy
“I told the players that one yard could bring us together or tear us apart.” – Anthony Lynn
“I think the thing about that was I was always willing to work; I was not the fastest or biggest player but I was determined to be the best football player I could be on the football field and I think I was able to accomplish that through hard work.”
“I think the most important thing of all for any team is a winning attitude. The coaches must have it. The players must have it. The student body must have it. If you have dedicated players who believe in themselves, you don’t need a lot of talent.”
“If you think about it, I’ve never held a job in my life. I went from being an NFL player to a coach to a broadcaster. I haven’t worked a day in my life.”
“My personal coaching philosophy, my mentality? Has always been to make things as difficult as possible for the players in practice. However bad we can make them, I make them.”
“In 1969, we decided we had to do certain things technically to win, and we decided to do them then, even though we knew some of the personnel couldn’t do it. In other words, instead of adapting the system to the players, we just installed our system. Then we set out to fill our team through the draft.”
“There’s only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything. I do, and I demand that my players do.”
“There is an old saying about the strength of the wolf is the pack, and I think there is a lot of truth to that. On a football team, it’s not the strength of the individual players, but it is the strength of the unit and how they all function together.”
“We have a lot of players in their first year. Some of them are also in their last year.”
“Whatever success I’ve had, it is because I’ve tried to understand the situation of the player. I think the coach’s duty is to avoid complicating matters.”
“There will be many failures sprinkled among the successes you enjoy.”
“The ultimate goal is victory. And if you refuse to work as hard as you possibly can toward that aim, or if you do anything that keeps you from achieving that goal, then you are just cheating yourself.”
“The tragedy in sports is seeing a team beaten not by a better team, but by themselves.”
“Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.” – Bo Jackson
“Set goals – high goals for you and your organization. When your organization has a goal to shoot for, you create teamwork, people working for a common good.”
“Once you have established the goals you want and the price you’re willing to pay, you can ignore the minor hurts, the opponent’s pressure and the temporary failures.”
“Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to ignore the minor hurts, the opponent’s pressure, and the temporary failures.”
“Once a man has made a commitment to a way of life, he puts the greatest strength in the world behind him. It’s something we call heart power. Once a man has made this commitment, nothing will stop him short of success.”
“Not all teams use the same tests and certainly those tests are far from being 100 percent as well. It’s part of the process.”
“Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.” – Joe Theismann
“Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.” – John Madden
“Never die easy. Why run out of bounds and die easy? Make that linebacker pay. It carries into all facets of your life.” – Walter Payton
“My responsibility is leadership, and the minute I get negative, that is going to have an influence on my team.”
“My job is to call attention to the things that I think are the difference between winning and losing. If I can’t do that then I have failed as a coach.”
“Second place is meaningless. You can’t always be first, but you have to believe that you should have been – that you were never beaten – that time just ran out on you.”
“Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don’t forget them when they leave.”
“Even when you have an organization brimming with talent, victory is not always under your control. There is no guarantee, no ultimate formula for success. It all comes down to intelligently and relentlessly seeking solutions that will increase your chance of prevailing. When you do that, the score will take care of itself.”
“Embrace the new, no matter how uncomfortable, and make it work for you.” – Alex Smith
“Effort without talent is a depressing situation. But talent without effort is a tragedy.” – Mike Ditka
“There’s a misconception about teamwork. Teamwork is the ability to have different thoughts about things; it’s the ability to argue and stand up and say loud and strong what you feel. But in the end, it’s also the ability to adjust to what is the best for the team.”
“There’s nothing negative about having a lot of experience. With me, I will do things that other quarterbacks just can’t do or haven’t done.” – Aaron Rodgers
“God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight.” – Reggie White
“Knowledge is confidence. And confidence lets you play fast.”
“It’s the name on the front of the jersey that matters most, not the one on the back.” – Joe Paterno
“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.” – Vince Lombardi
