Quotes on Football

In football as in watchmaking, talent and elegance mean nothing without rigour and precision.

Assuming that women don't like football and that men aren't intersted in home decorating and cooking.

It was our worst-ever day, the worst result in my history, ever. Even as a player I don't think I ever lost 6-1.

Arsene Wenger asked me to have a trial with Arsenal when I was 17. I turned it down. Zlatan doesn't do auditions

Football is the last sacred ritual of our time.

Football, a game in which everyone gets hurt and every nation has its own style of play which seems unfair to foreigners.

Every trainer talks about movement, about running a lot. I say don't run so much. Football is a game you play with your brain. You have to be in the right place at the right moment, not too early, not too late.

Play for the name on the front of the shirt, and they will remember the name on the back

Being there every week for my teammates is really important to me. It's about accountability. I hear stuff about the 'toughest quarterback in the league' and all that; what's that mean?

The Steelers drafted guys who were bigger, stronger and faster than me, but they never found one who could take my job away from me.

I want to be recognized as the best-no doubt about it. When they say all-pro middle linebacker, I want them to mean Butkus!

I don't teach kids to be number 1. Organizations and people that tell you you have to be number 1; that's not it. You don't have to be number 1. What I teach is to be as good as you can be. Use what you have and be as good as you can be. That's all you can do, anyway.

Systems don't win, players do.

What you do should speak so loudly that no one will hear what you say.

With football, you can have up to 28 guys you consider starters, and if they can pick up the slack when some aren't playing so well, you don't have to turn those two-game losing streaks into six-game losing streaks.

A good leader gets people to follow him because they want to, not because he makes them.

We believed it was not our formations that made us good, but rather how we played.

There's a difference between making incremental improvements and making sweeping changes that take you away from your core values.

Going out and playing football or baseball with the boys, when I was a tomboy, was a great way to learn about winning and losing, and most girls didn't have that experience.

There's nothing in this world that comes easy. There are a lot of people who aren't going to bother to win. We learn in football to get up and go once more.

The spirit is the true self. The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure.