Selected quote 1
Portal:American football/Selected quote/1
| “ | Football is a game played with arms, legs, and shoulders but mostly from the neck up. | ” |
| — Knute Rockne University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach, on the import of intellect and passion to a player's or team's succeeding |
Selected quote 2
Portal:American football/Selected quote/2
| “ | College football: I do not see the relationship of those highly industrialized affairs on Saturday afternoons to higher learning in America. | ” |
| — Robert Maynard Hutchins University of Chicago president, on the putative extra-academic character and corporate, professional nature of the collegiate game in the United States |
Selected quote 3
Portal:American football/Selected quote/3
| “ | If my mother put on a helmet and shoulder pads and a uniform that wasn't the same as the one I [were] wearing, I'd run over her if she [were] in my way. And I love my mother. | ” |
| — Barry Sanders Detroit Lions running back, subsequently an inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, on his devotion and the intensity of his play |
Selected quote 4
Portal:American football/Selected quote/4
| “ | My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life: The honor of my race, family, and self is at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I will. My whole body and soul are to be thrown recklessly about the field tomorrow. Every time the ball is snapped, I will be trying to do more than my part. | ” |
| — Jack Trice Iowa State College Cyclones offensive tackle, in a letter to his family one day prior to his sustaining fatal injuries in a game betwixt his team and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers in Minneapolis, Minnesota |
Selected quote 5
Portal:American football/Selected quote/5
| “ | Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. | ” |
| — Vince Lombardi Green Bay Packers head coach, on the meticulous and taxing nature of his training camps and team practices |
Selected quote 6
Portal:American football/Selected quote/6
| “ | He couldn't spell 'cat' if you spotted him the 'c' and the 't'. | ” |
| — Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson Comment made on former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw. |
Selected quote 7
Portal:American football/Selected quote/7
| “ | You can call it a miracle or a legend or whatever you want to. I just know that on that day, Brett Favre was larger than life. | ” |
| — Gene Stallings former University of Alabama coach on Favre after he led the University of Southern Mississippi to a victory over Stalling's Alabama team. Less than six weeks earlier Favre underwent surgery to remove 30 inches of his small intestine. |
Selected quote 8
Portal:American football/Selected quote/8
| “ | I think he was the greatest football player that I ever stepped on the field against. Nobody dictated what you could do offensively like L.T.. | ” |
| — Steve Bartkowski Retired Atlanta Falcons and Los Angeles Rams quarterback, on New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor |
Selected quote 9
Portal:American football/Selected quote/9
| “ | Vince Young is the greatest quarterback to ever play college football. | ” |
| — Ronnie Lott College and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back, in consideration of Young's play in the 2006 Rose Bowl Game |
Selected quote 10
Portal:American football/Selected quote/10
| “ | Every time a football player goes to play his trade he's got to play from the ground up—from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play...If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second. | ” |
| — Vince Lombardi Green Bay Packers head coach, on the import of a player's having intellect and passion |
Selected quote 11
Portal:American football/Selected quote/11
| “ | Playing football is obviously very strenuous. It's exhausting. You have to try very hard in football. But there's no heroic risk involved. | ” |
| — Gregg Easterbrook American writer, on the consideration of professional football players as heroes |
Selected quote 12
Portal:American football/Selected quote/12
| “ | I don't understand American football at all. It looks like all-in wrestling with crash helmets. | ” |
| — Sting (musician) English musician on the brutal and physical quality of American football, especially as against that of association football |
Selected quote 13
Portal:American football/Selected quote/13
| “ | You don't have to win it, just don't lose it. | ” |
| — Ray Lewis The american middle linebacker, to Elvis Grbac, upon the latter's assuming, in 2001, the starting quarterback position for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League, in view of the Ravens' emphasis on defence and after the team had conceded just 165 points across its sixteen 2001 regular season games, fewer than had any other team in single season, en route to the Super Bowl XXXV title |
Selected quote 14
Portal:American football/Selected quote/14
| “ | I left Texas A&M because my school called me. Mama called, and when Mama calls, then you just have to come running. | ” |
| — Bear Bryant On his deciding, after the 1957 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A football season, to resign as head coach of the Texas A&M University Aggies to assume the same position for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, for whom he had been a wide receiver between 1931 and 1935 and whence he graduated in 1936 |
Selected quote 15
Portal:American football/Selected quote/15
| “ | The quarterback just ran all over the place. He's a fantastic player. He was the difference. And how classic was it that he ran it in on the last play? | ” |
| — Pete Carroll University of Southern California Trojans head coach, on the play of University of Texas-Austin Longhorns quarterback Vince Young, pictured rushing in the 2005 Big 12 Championship Game, in the 2006 Rose Bowl Game, in which Young rushed for 200 yards and three touchdowns and passed for 267 yards to help the Longhorns to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A national championship |