The greatest coaches and players in the NFL are no strangers to adversity, perseverance, and hard work.
It takes a lot of mental prowess - and for the players, physical as well - to do what they do.
So, it’d only make sense for them to have great, solid advice for us.
If you’re like me, reading inspirational and motivational football quotes from successful people in the field can be a real game changer when preparing for practice or a game.
These people just don’t know when to quit; that’s why they’re winners and have the ability to move us to work harder.
Most of these 640 football quotes can be applied to any profession, so it’s not just for coaches and players either.
Well, enough talk. Just sit back, relax, and prepare to be bombarded with waves of motivation.
Here goes:
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Football Quotes:
Vince Lombardi Football Quotes
“The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
"The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”
“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”
“Winning is not everything - but making the effort to win is.”
“Success demands singleness of purpose.”
“There is no substitute for work.”
“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”
“Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”
“Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”
“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.”
“Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything.”
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
“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.”
“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it.”
“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 like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and respect for authority.”
“Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
“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.”
“Live as if you were living already for the second time.”
"Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect."
“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 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.”
“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.”
“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Inches make champions.”
“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.”
“The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.”
“If you aren’t fired up with enthusiasm, you’ll be fired with enthusiasm.”
“Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
“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.”
“Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result.”
“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”
“People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.”
“Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.”
“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.”
“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.”
"Fatigue makes cowards of us 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?”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“If you’ll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.”
“They call it coaching but it is teaching. You do not just tell them…you show them the reasons.”
“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.”
“Morally, the life of the organization must be of exemplary nature. This is one phase where the organization must not have criticism.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Mental toughness is Spartanism, with all its qualities of self-denial, sacrifice, dedication, fearlessness, and love.”
“Teams do not go physically flat, they go mentally stale.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Success is based upon a spiritual quality, a power to inspire others.”
"Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence."
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“No leader, however great, can long continue unless he wins battles. The battle decides all.”
“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.”
“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.”
“You defeat defeatism with confidence.”
“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.”
“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.”
“There is something good in men that really yearn for discipline.”
“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.”
“Before I can embrace freedom, I should be aware of what duties I have.”
“If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?”
“It is and has always been an American zeal to be first in everything we do, and to win…”
“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.”
“The objective is to win: Fairly, squarely, decently, win by the rules, but still win.”
“Don’t succumb to excuses. Go back to the job of making the corrections and forming the habits that will make your goal possible.”
“Getting to the final is everything, and winning is icing on the cake.”
“A team that thinks it’s going to lose is going to lose.”
"Let me tell you what winning means... You're willing to go longer, work harder, give more than anyone else."
“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.”
“Some people try to find things in this game that don’t exist but football is only two things – blocking and tackling.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another and of strength to be derived by unity.”
“I’m not afraid to die – it’s just that I had so much left to do in this world.”
“A disciplined person is one who follows the will of the one who gives the orders.”
“I’ve been accused of lacking compassion. But that just shows I’m not without compassion.”
Bill Belichick Football Quotes
"We have a lot of mistakes in every practice. That's where we're at – correcting them and trying to improve the next day."
"You're going to make mistakes, you're going to learn things and see things that you could have done better, coached better, played better."
“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.”
“Mental toughness is doing the right thing for the team when it's not the best thing for you.”
"For a team to accomplish their goal, everybody’s got to give up a little bit of their individuality.”
“The less versatile you are, the better you have to be at what you do well.”
“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.”
"And I understood that in an age where there was so much ego, because of the camera, that it was very important to look for that kind of player ... I began to look for the kind of player that doesn't need his ego fed by stardom, but will do what he's supposed to do because he knows the game and loves the game, and will do the job the right way even if someone else gets the glory."
"But your whole advantage offensively, is to know when the ball is being snapped. Defensively, that's your one disadvantage."
“This won’t be good enough. It wasn’t good enough today. It won’t be good enough against anybody else, either.”
“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.”
“We prepare hard. We come to the game with 45 guys, and everyone needs to be ready to go.”
“The only sign we have in the locker room is from The Art of War: ‘Every battle is won before it is fought.'”
“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.”
“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.”
“Game management, game decisions, adjustments, seeing things during games – it’s all important.”
"Talent sets the floor, character sets the ceiling."
“To live in the past is to die in the present.”
“You get the job done or you don’t.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Do your job.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I’m not really worried about the other 31 teams.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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’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.”
"There are no shortcuts to building a team each season. You build the foundation brick by brick."
“We’re always trying to do a better job on that and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
Paul Brown Football Quotes
“When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.”
“Leave as little to chance as possible. Preparation is the key to success.”
“Coaches who scrimmage all the time don’t know what to practice.”
“The test of a quarterback is where his team finishes.”
“You can learn a line from a win and a book from a defeat.”
"The key to winning is poise under stress."
“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.”
“The only thing that counts is your dedication to the game. You run on your own fuel; it comes from within you.”
“Football is a game of errors. The team that makes the fewest errors in a game usually wins.”
"What we have currently available is what we have available."
“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.”
Bill Walsh Football Quotes
“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.”
“MY FIVE DON’TS:
1. Don’t ask, “Why me?”
2. Don’t expect sympathy.
3. Don’t bellyache.
4. Don’t keep accepting condolences.
5. Don’t blame others.”
“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 force yourself to stop looking backward and dwelling on the professional “train wreck” you have just been in. It’s mental quicksand.”
“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.”
“Do tell yourself, “I am going to stand and fight again,” with the knowledge that often when things are at their worst you’re closer than you can imagine to success.
“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.”
“A good leader is always learning. The great leaders start learning young and continue until their last breath.”
“For me the starting point for everything - before strategy, tactics, theories, managing, organizing, philosophy, methodology, talent, or experience - is work ethic.”
“Here’s a good question to write on a post-it note and put on your desk: “What assets do we have right now that we’re not taking advantage of?” Virgil”
“When things are going best is when you have the opportunity to be the strongest, most demanding, and most effective in your leadership.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Conventional wisdom often produces conventional results.”
“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.”
"As the leader, part of the job is to be visible and willing to communicate with everyone."
“Before you can win the fight, you’ve got to be in the fight.”
“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.”
“Communication creates collaboration. Big ears are better than big egos. When you’re not listening, ask good questions.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Success doesn’t care which road you take to get to its doorstep.”
“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.”
“Be clear in your own mind as to what you stand for. And then stand up for it.”
“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.”
“Discipline must be a habit so ingrained that it is stronger than the excitement of battle or the fear of death.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Money talks. Treating people right talks louder.”
“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.”
“The four most powerful words are: I believe in you.”
“Good talent with bad attitude equals bad talent.”
“Your path and purpose will become crystal clear when you begin to trust your vision.”
“If you see players who hate practice, their coach isn't doing a very good job.”
“If your why is strong enough you will figure out how!”
“Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results, the process rather than the prize.”
“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.”
“Strong leaders don't plead with individuals to perform.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Victory is produced by and belongs to all.”
“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.”
“Invest in great relationships, they will pay a lifetime of dividends.”
“To a winner, complacency and overconfidence can be destructive. To losers, desperation and despondency are just as harmful.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“We have a lot of players in their first year. Some of them are also in their last year.”
“Commit yourself to something you have a passion for.”
Don Shula Football Quotes
"One thing I never want to be accused of is not working."
"If you're going to take gambles, you must have one thing: Self-confidence."
"I don't know any other way to lead but by example."
"Success is not forever and failure isn't fatal."
"The one thing that I know is that you win with good people."
"Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck."
"The thing we found out was, when you get to a Super Bowl, both teams are treated the same, talked about in glowing terms. But when the game is over, only the team that won matters."
"Losing a Super Bowl destroys all the good things that happened to get you there."
"I never felt I knew it all. I always felt there's something new to learn, something new to do."
"I'm not going to worry about the critics until some of my peers start saying I'm soft."
“Work isn't work unless you would rather be doing something else.”
“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 superior man blames himself. The inferior man blames others."
"The problem with most leaders today is they don't stand for anything. Leadership implies movement toward something, and convictions provide that direction. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."
"I think what coaching is all about is taking players and analyzing their ability, put them in a position where they can excel within the framework of the team winning. And I hope that I've done that in my 33 years as a head coach."
"You know it's only 50 miles from Grand River to Canton, but it took me 67 years to travel that distance."
“Strive for perfection, but settle for excellence.”
“The start is what stops most people.”
“My responsibility is leadership, and the minute I get negative, that is going to have an influence on my team.”
“To be successful, all you have to do is work half-days; you can work the first twelve hours or the second twelve hours.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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 have no magic formula. The only way I know to win is through hard work.:
“The one man team is a complete and total myth.”
“Learn from everyone, copy no one.”
“I'm just a guy who rolls up his sleeves and goes to work!”
“My coaching philosophy? Determine your players talents and give them every weapon to get the most from those talents.”
“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.”
“Lots of leaders want to be popular. I never cared about that. I want to be respected.”
“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.”
“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.”
“When you're there, it's not good enough to be 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.”
Tom Landry Football Quotes
“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”
"A champion is simply someone who did not give up when they wanted to."
“There is only a half step difference between the champions & those who finish on the bottom. And much of that half step is mental.”
“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.”
“Football is an incredible game. Sometimes it's so incredible, it's unbelievable.”
“The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence.”
“I've learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.”
“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.”
“When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn.”
“Today, you have 100% of your life left.”
“A winner never stops trying.”
“If you are prepared, you will be confident, and will do the job.”
“The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.”
"Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve."
"Right after the game, say as little as possible."
"A team that has character doesn't need stimulation."
“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.”
"Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence... If you're in control, they're in control."
“In my opinion, character is the most important determinant of a person's success, achievement and ability to handle adversity.”
“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.”
“The more successful you become, the longer the yardstick people use to measure you by.”
“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.”
“First become a winner in life. Then it's easier to become a winner on the field.”
“I'd rather have a second-best decision diligently pursued than a first-best decision lackadaisically pursued.”
“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.”
“Really, coaching is simplicity. It’s getting players to play better than they think that they can.”
“Achievement builds character.”
“Being the best at whatever talent you have, that’s what stimulates life.”
“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.”
“If I had to pick my greatest strength as a football coach, I say it would be innovation.”
“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.”
“Character is the ability of a person to see a positive end of things. This is the hope that a man of character has.”
“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.”
Bill Parcells Football Quotes
“You can easily separate ‘team guys’ from ‘me guys’ by how they accept coaching. The guys that accept it are about winning.”
"Blame no one. Expect nothing. Do something."
“You can't dream up confidence. Confidence is born of demonstrated ability.”
“You are what your record says you are.”
"Don't worry about it. It's just a bunch of guys with an odd-shaped ball."
"I like linebackers. I collect 'em. You can't have too many good ones."
"No matter how much you've won, no matter how many games, no matter how many championships, no matter how many Super Bowls, you're not winning now, so you stink."
"Something goes wrong, I yell at them -"Fix it"- whether it's their fault or not. You can only really yell at the players you trust."
"Success is never final, but failure can be."
"There is winning and there is misery."
"When you don't know that you don't know, it's a lot different than when you do know that you don't know."
"It doesn't mean anything. Each game is different. History means nothing in pro football."
"Everyone needs to have a reliable kicker in the NFL. The games are too close. You just have to have one."
“I think confrontation is healthy, because it clears the air very quickly.”
“If you’ve ever won a championship, then that’s all you’re interested in doing.”
“Losers assemble in small groups and complain. Winners assemble as a team and find ways to win.”
“Winning coaches look for opportunities to praise. Anything that reflects a commitment to the team is praiseworthy.”
“Knowledge is confidence. And confidence lets you play fast.”
“Accept false steps as opportunities to learn. It’s one thing to hate failure, it’s another to fear it.”
“Don’t ever let good enough be good enough.”
“A coach wouldn’t throw you to the wolves if he didn’t think you had some wolf in you.”
“The more you prepare beforehand, the more relaxed and creative and effective you’ll be when it counts.”
“What sets disciplined people apart? The capacity to get past distractions. Focus on the task at hand.”
“A team divided against itself can break down at any moment. The least bit of pressure or adversity will crack it apart.”
“I got two high-strung players, you know? That’s it.”
“We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Individuals play the game, but teams win championships.”
“Look, coaching is about human interaction and trying to know your players. Any coach would tell you that. I’m no different.”
“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.”
“If you’re sensitive, you will have a hard time with me.”
"You don't get any medal for trying something, you get medals for results."
“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.”
“If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a quarterback who thinks playing quarterback is just about passing.”
“I’m not really in the excuse business.”
“It’s a lot easier to lose than it is to win. It’s easier, but it’s not more comfortable.”
“Any penalty – I’ve told you a hundred times – can be eliminated by concentration or good judgment.”
“I don’t have to make examples out of players to establish my own place. I don’t feel like I have to.”
“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.”
“Potential means you haven’t done anything yet.”
“A good teacher creates an environment which allows the student to succeed.”
“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.”
“The only players I hurt with my words are the ones who have an inflated opinion of their ability.”
“If I have affected someone in a positive way, that means a lot to me.”
“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!”
“It’s better to decide wrongly than weakly. If you’re weak, you’re likely to be wrong anyway.”
“If you have fun, fine. It’s not all life and death.”
“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.”
“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.”
“If the players don’t trust the coach, it is a problem, and vice versa.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“When I was a young coach, there were people like Chuck Noll, Chuck Knox and Tom Landry who were there for me.”
“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 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.”
Chuck Noll Football Quotes
“If you want to win, do the ordinary things better than anyone else does them, day in and day out."
“The thrill isn’t in the winning, it’s in the doing.”
“A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning.”
“Never make a major decision based solely on money.”
“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.”
“I’m really not a celebrity; I’m just a teacher.”
“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.”
“Everyone’s job is important, but no one is indispensable.”
“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.”
“The critics are always right. The only way you shut them up is by winning.”
“Some coaches pray for wisdom. I pray for 260-pound tackles. They’ll give me plenty of wisdom.”
"In order to win the game, you must first not lose it."
“Losing has nothing to do with geography.”
“The single most important thing we had in the Steelers of the ’70s was the ability to work together.”
“Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“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.”
“Good things happen to those who hustle.”
“I tried to look around to see what I wanted to do. Football was something I knew the most about.”
“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.”
“It's not my job to hold your hand. It's my job to take motivated people and show them how to become better.”
Joe Gibbs Football Quotes
“It's a very competitive thing, pro sports. The hardest thing in pro sports is staying up there.”
“You don't win with X's and O's. What you win with is people.”
“Failures are expected by losers, ignored by winners.”
“To reach your own goals and dreams, you must learn how to assist others in reaching theirs.”
“Part of playing the game of life is you're going to have some losses.”
“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.”
“People who enjoy what they do, invariably do it well.”
“The past doesn't buy you much.”
“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.”
"A winning effort begins with preparation."
“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.”
“Look for players with character and ability. But remember, character comes first.”
"My commitment to the players was to try to keep this whole group together and hopefully improve and step up again next year."
“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.”
“Everybody needs a coach.”
George Halas Football Quotes
“Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else.”
“Don't do anything in practice that you wouldn't do in the game.”
“You can achieve only that which you will do.”
“Many people flounder about in life because they do not have a purpose, an objective toward which to work.”
“Find out what the other team wants to do. Then take it away from them.”
“If you live long enough, lots of nice things happen.”
"Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it."
“At least 80 percent of the success of the football team is determined by the fight and spirit that they put into their play.”
“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.”
“What makes a good coach? Complete dedication.”
John Madden Football Quotes
“The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break.”
“The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else.”
“The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer.”
“I think comparisons are odious.”
“Don't worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon.”
“If you see a defense team with dirt and mud on their backs they've had a bad day.”
“When your arm gets hit, the ball is not going to go where you want it to.”
“I'm sure that had I not been a coach, I would have been some form of a teacher.”
“That's the biggest gap in sports, the difference between the winner and the loser of the Super Bowl.”
“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.”
“To me, discipline in football occurs on the field, not off it.”
“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.”
“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.”
"Coaches have to watch for what they don't want to see and listen to what they don't want to hear."
“Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.”
“You got one guy going boom, one guy going whack, and one guy not getting in the endzone.”
“If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.”
“If a guy doesn't work hard and doesn't play well, he can't lead anything. All he is, is a talker.”
“You know, there's a rule in sports, ‘Don't do anything great if you can't handle the congratulations.’”
“Give something that wasn't expected.”
“I've never eaten just a few bites of things I liked in my life.”
“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.”
Bud Grant Football Quotes
“The tragedy in sports is seeing a team beaten not by a better team, but by themselves.”
“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.”
“We have no leadership. They rule by herd. Nobody is in charge. It reminds me of a bunch of cows.”
“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.”
“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.”
“If winning or losing is going to define your life, you're on a rough road.”
“If you talk, you only repeat something that you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something that you don't know.”
“A good football coach needs a patient wife, a loyal dog and a great quarterback - but not necessarily in that order.”
“Cold is a state of mind.”
Tony Dungy Football Quotes
“A good leader gets people to follow him because they want to, not because he makes them.”
“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?”
“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.”
“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.'”
“You can have an impact anywhere you are.”
“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.”
“The secret to success is good leadership, and good leadership is all about making the lives of your team members or workers better.”
“We need somebody to give us a chance.”
“If someone needs help, I can offer advice. I'm not always right and people don't always listen.”
"Integrity doesn't come in degrees: low, medium, or high. You either have integrity or you don't."
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
Mike Tomlin Football Quotes
“It's not about what you're capable of, it's about what you're willing to do.”
“Excuses are tools of the incompetent.”
“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.”
"We don't live in our fears. We live in our hopes."
“If our team doesn't face enough adversity early on in a season, I create it. Nothing builds a team like adversity.”
“I'll tolerate you until I can replace you.”
“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.”
“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.”
“You continue to dream the wild dreams that you dream when you were young.”
“I tend to attack the challenges that are right in front of me, the ones that I have today.”
“More grounded, more humble, more selfless makes us more opportunistic.”
“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.”
Marv Levy Football Quotes
“Football doesn't build character, it reveals character.”
“Adversity is an opportunity for heroism.”
“Systems don't win, players do.”
“What you do should speak so loudly that no one will hear what you say.”
“Plan your work and work your plan.”
“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.”
"The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender."
“Security comes from earning it - not seeking it.”
“A failure becomes just one time at bat if you refuse to let it defeat you.”
“There will be many failures sprinkled among the successes you enjoy.”
“Expect rejection, but expect even more strongly to overcome it.”
“All the buildup and hype, everything else, is foam. The game is the beer.”
“What it takes to win is simple, it's not easy.”
“Great football coaches have the vision to see, the faith to believe, the courage to do - and 25 great players.”
“When it's too hard for them, it's just right for us.”
“If you have everything prepared, the rest will take care of itself.”
George Allen Football Quotes
“Work hard, stay positive, and get up early. It's the best part of the day.”
“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit.”
“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.”
“For a good life: Work like a dog. Eat like a horse. Think like a fox. And play like a rabbit.”
“The tougher the job, the greater the reward.”
“Football isn't necessarily won by the best players. It's won by the team with the best attitude.”
“Every day you waste is one you can never make up.”
“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.”
“If you hate your job, don't worry, you won't have it for long.”
“The definition of success is total preparation.”
“What you do in the off season determines what you do in the regular season.”
“If you can accept defeat and open your pay envelope without feeling guilty, you're stealing.”
“Losers never know why they are losing. They will mention injuries, the officiating, the weather and bad breaks.”
“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.”
“Forget the past - the future will give you plenty to worry about.”
“Success is what you do with your ability. It's how you use your talent.”
“Losing the Super Bowl is worse than death. You have to get up the next morning.”
“Football is one-third offense, one-third defense, and one-third special teams.”
“We should favor innovation and freedom over regulation.”
Bear Bryant Football Quotes
“I’m no miracle man. I guarantee nothing but hard work.”
“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.”
“It’s not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
“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.”
“There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success.”
"Losing doesn't make me want to quit, it makes me want to fight that much harder."
“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.”
“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 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.”
“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.”
“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 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.”
“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.”
“Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don’t forget them when they leave.”
“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.”
“Don’t give up at halftime. Concentrate on winning the second half.”
Jerry Rice Football Quotes
"We have seen some of the greatest athletes fall because they have tried to take shortcuts.”
“To me it was never about what I accomplished on the football field, it was about the way I played the game.”
“Like I said, repetition in practice and hard work.”
“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.”
"Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't."
“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 want to do a good job. I'm just learning and I just want to have fun with it.”
“The enemy of the best is the good. If you're always settling with what's good, you'll never be the best.”
Tom Brady Football Quotes
“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.”
“I have a memory, and I can just eliminate mistakes when they come up because I've already made them.”
“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.”
"When you lose, talk little. When you win, talk less."
“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.”
“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.”
“If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.”
“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.”
“Football is unconditional love.”
Jim Brown Football Quotes
“Success is not only for the elite. Success is there for those who want it, plan for it, and take action to achieve it.”
“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.”
“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.”
"Make sure when anyone tackles you, he remembers how much it hurts."
“Teammates are there for each other even after the noise of the crowd is gone.”
“I don't deal in frustration. I'm a fighter. And everything I've ever gotten, I've had to fight for.”
“I set my standards so high, no one could be harsher on me than I was.”
Walter Payton Football Quotes
“When you're good at something, you'll tell everyone. When you're great at something, they'll tell you.”
“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.”
“We are stronger together than we are alone.”
“Tough times go away, tough people do not.”
“I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field.”
“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.”
“If you forget your roots, you've lost sight of everything.”
“Work hard or don't work at all.”
"Remember, tomorrow is promised to no one."
“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.”
“All people, regardless of whether they're athletes or not, should treat people the way they want to be treated.”
“If you could go back and change things, you might not be the person you are right now.”
Joe Montana Football Quotes
“If you don't want to be the best, then there's no reason going out and trying to accomplish anything.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
"Don't complain about not getting a chance and then be unprepared when you finally do."
“Always be prepared to start.”
“Confidence is a very fragile thing.”
“I don't live in the past. I just live in the enjoyment of the 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.”
Peyton Manning Football Quotes
“The attitude with which we approach the situation can determine our success or failure.”
“I never left the field saying I could have done more to get ready and that gives me peace of mind.”
“If you work hard and you play well, all those critics quiet themselves pretty quickly.”
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.”
"If you wait for others to initiate change, you automatically become a follower."
“I want to be out there every single snap, every single play.”
“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.”
“It’s not wanting to win that makes you a winner; it’s refusing to fail.”
“Life is about choices. You ask the questions and you listen to the answers. Then you listen to your heart.”
“Remind your critics when they say you don’t have the expertise or experience to do something that an amateur built the ark and the experts built the titanic.”
“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.”
Nick Saban Football Quotes
“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.”
“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.”
“Mediocre people hate high achievers, and high achievers hate mediocre people.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Focus on the process of what it takes to be successful.”
“You can't win together if you don't work together.”
"Your character is your accumulation of your thoughts, habits, and priorities on a day-to-day basis."
“We have got to use every opportunity to improve individually so we can improve collectively.”
“The number one thing on any team that will keep your players from being selfish is respect for the other players.”
“The more one emphasizes winning, the less he or she is able to concentrate on what actually causes success.”
"It’s great to have high expectations, but if you don’t do things to the standard all the time, 'you watch somebody else celebrate.'"
"Run hard when it’s hard to run."
“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.”
“I wouldn’t want to coach at some place where they didn’t have high expectations for what they thought you could accomplish.”
Miscellaneous Football Quotes
“You try to stay within the rules for the sake of the game, but you can always turn up the intensity.” - Lawrence Taylor
“If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today.” - Lou Holtz
"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
“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
“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
“It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.” – Archie Griffin
“It's the name on the front of the jersey that matters most, not the one on the back.” - Joe Paterno
“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” – Lou Holtz
“You fail all of the time. But you aren't a failure until you start blaming someone else.” - Bum Phillips
“The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.” - Bum Phillips
“How do you win? By getting average players to play good and good players to play great. That's how you win.” - Bum Phillips
“The greatest mistake is to continue to practice a mistake.” - Bobby Bowden
“Coaching is not how much you know. It’s how much you can get players to do.” - Bum Phillips
“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
“We’ll fight ‘em until hell freezes over, then we’ll fight ‘em on the ice.” - Dutch Meyer
“For every pass I caught in a game, I caught a thousand in practice.” - Don Hutson
“Winning isn't getting ahead of others. It's getting ahead of yourself.” - Roger Staubach
“If you're not gonna go all the way, why go at all?” - Joe Namath
“Stay focused. Your start does not determine how you’re going to finish.” - Herm Edwards
“It is so easy to be average. It takes a little something to be special. Why be around average?” - Urban Meyer
“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
“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
“Winning as a team is better than anything. It's great to share success.” - Jim Harbaugh
“If you don't believe it yourself your team darn sure won’t.” - Rex Ryan
“I feel I am a players' coach. The only thing that means is I care about my players more than anything.” - Rex Ryan
“If you want to be great, do it. There’s nothing holding you back. It’s all in your control.” - Pete Carroll
“The only competition that matters is the one that takes place within yourself.” - Pete Carroll
“It isn't about the words you say. It's about the energetic message you send.” - Pete Carroll
“You're either competing or you're not.” - Pete Carroll
“Always persevere, always have a great perspective, and always have great purpose in your life.” - Russell Wilson
“Separation comes from preparation.” - Russell Wilson
“Live with a purpose, play with a purpose.” - Russell Wilson
“You cannot make progress with excuses.” - Cam Newton
“You don't go into the game to compete. You go into each game to win.” - Cam Newton
“In the long run, the cream always rises and the crap always sinks.” - John Elway
“God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight.” – Reggie White
“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
“To succeed...You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” - Tony Dorsett
“The hardest thing to do is work hard when no one is watching.” - Ray Lewis
“A good back makes his own holes. Anybody can run where the holes are.” - Joe Don Looney
“Never worry about missing a field goal. Just blame the holder and think about making the next one.” - Lou Groza
“If you’re a pro coach, NFL stands for ‘Not for long.’” - Jerry Glanville
“I keep all my letters saying I wasn't good enough in my living room as motivation to prove them wrong.” - Aaron Rodgers
“There is no defense against a perfect pass. I can throw the perfect pass.” - Dan Marino
“You have to play this game like somebody just hit your mother with a two-by-four.” - Dan Birdwell
“When you win, nothing hurts.” - Joe Namath
“Whether it’s checkers or jump rope or football, to stop me you’ve got to bring everything you’ve got.” - Chris Peterson
“The definition of discipline is to do what you’re supposed to do when you’re supposed to do it.” - Jim Larrañaga
“In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.” - Lou Holtz
“No one’s ever got better by practicing less.” - Ron Jaworski
“Do you want to know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.” - Mike Singletary
“Talent determines what you can do. Motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz
“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
“All coaching is taking a player where he can’t take himself.” - Bill McCartney
“If you can raise the level of effort and performance in those around you, you are officially a leader.” - Urban Meyer
“Without self-discipline, success is impossible. Period.” - Lou Holtz
“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
“Don't be a spectator. Don't let life pass you by.” - Lou Holtz
“If you are going to be a champion, you must be willing to pay a greater price.” - Bud Wilkinson
“The coaches can only take you so far. You have to want to learn and work.” - Aaron Rodgers
“Run from being good. Chase being great.” – Chip Kelly
“No one has ever drowned in sweat.” – Lou Holtz
“It's not the load that breaks you down. It's the way you carry it.” - Lou Holtz
“Effort without talent is a depressing situation. But talent without effort is a tragedy.” - Mike Ditka
“I’d rather have preparation than motivation. Everyone likes to play, but no one likes to practice.” - Bum Phillips
“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
"I’m trying to go out there and play good football." - Joe Flacco
"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
"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
"1st step to winning… Believe you will win." - Russell Wilson
"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
"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
"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
"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
"You have to make the tough decisions and avoid the outside noise." - Steve Keim
"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
“Always compete. It's truly that simple. Find the way to do your best. Compete in everything you do." - Pete Carroll
"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
"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
"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
"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
"One football can take you so far. All you’ve got to do is catch it." - DeAndre Hopkins
"I told the players that one yard could bring us together or tear us apart." - Anthony Lynn
"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
"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
"You can't play hard, you can't play here." - Bruce Arians
"A lot about coaching is building relationships and having fun out there, so those moments mean a lot more." - Brian Flores
"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
"What I am going to put my time into is how we can coach them better and how we can play better." - Doug Marrone
“Stay hungry, remain humble, and get better today.” - Pete Carroll
