Playing football and presenting TV are totally different things, but there are similarities: it's exciting, it can go well, it can go badly... the difference is when presenting goes badly, it doesn't really affect anyone's life, whereas when you have a bad day on the pitch, it affects people's moods for a whole week.
Interpretation
Football and TV presenting are different but share excitement; however, the stakes are higher in football.
In this quote, Gary Lineker highlights the distinct yet exciting nature of playing football compared to presenting on television. He emphasizes that while both roles can lead to thrilling moments and challenges, the impact of failure on the football pitch is significantly greater, affecting fans' emotions and experiences, in contrast to a poorly delivered TV segment which tends to have a lesser emotional toll.
In practice
During a sports presentation, you might reference this quote to discuss the emotional weight of sports.
Fundamentally, footballers don't look around a dressing room and think, 'He's a black player... he's Japanese.' They don't think like that. They think, 'He's a good player; he can help. He's not very good.' I'm not trying to defend anyone's actions, but there are going to be isolated incidents because it's an emotive, passionate sport.
The big thing is, everybody says it's being in the right place at the right time. But it's more than that, it's being in the right place all the time. Because if I make 20 runs to the near post and each time I lose my defender, and 19 times the ball goes over my head or behind me - then one time I'm three yards out, the ball comes to the right place and I tap it in - then people say, right place, right time. And I was there *all* the time.
Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.
I watched Leicester City lose in the 1969 FA Cup final with my dad and granddad when I was eight and cried all the way home. I have seen them get promoted and relegated. I played for them for eight years. I even got a group of like-minded fans and friends to stump up a few quid to salvage the club when they went into liquidation.
I used to tease Joe Louis by reminding him that I was the greatest of all time. But Joe Louis was the greatest heavyweight fighter ever.
Tennis is mostly mental. You win or lose the match before you even go out there.
Basketball, unlike football with its prescribed routes, is an improvisational game, similar to jazz. If someone drops a note, someone else must step into the vacuum and drive the beat that sustains the team.
I was a more aggressive rider than Armstrong. I would attack more often. He waits for the other guys, then counter-attacks.
Football is mesmerizing, because it's a figurative war. You go in one direction till you get there, but you get there as a team, not as an individual. Players bond whether they're black or white, much as soldiers do.
You always want to win. That is why you play tennis, because you love the sport and try to be the best you can at it.
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