Marv Levy Quotes & Sayings

All the buildup and hype, everything else, is foam. The game is the beer. — Marv Levy

Teaching is very important. The nature of your personality isn't that important. Lombardi was very extraverted, very bombastic. Landry very quiet, reserved. Both were great teachers and great coaches. — Marv Levy

Sure education is valuable in any respect regardless of what field you are in. — Marv Levy

I took all the courses you would need to be able to go to law school. But my experience in college with football made me want to go into coaching. — Marv Levy

As a collegiate, I think you spend 50 percent of your time recruiting. It is a distasteful process. — Marv Levy

I don't remember Bill Walsh being old. I remember young Bill Walsh. He wasn't gray-haired, and neither was I when we first met. His legacy will live on. Bill Walsh's name and his accomplishments will be remembered and revered so long as the great game of football is played. — Marv Levy

If there's age discrimination - and there may be - I've always felt that the person who discriminates is hurt more than the person being discriminated against, if the second person shucks it off and moves forward. — Marv Levy

I never have suspected or sensed a whiff of cheating in any of our Super Bowls. — Marv Levy

When it's too hard for them, it's just right for us. — Marv Levy

Every profession has changed. Journalism has changed. Medicine has changed. Technology has changed and it evolves. The same is true of football. Free agency has now allowed teams to be a dynasty as they have been before. It is not a great thing for the fans, but it is a good thing for the players. — Marv Levy

The age factor means nothing to me. I'm old enough to know my limitations and I'm young enough to exceed them. — Marv Levy

I don't know exactly what are you supposed to do when you retire. Lie on the couch and do nothing? I didn't want to do that. — Marv Levy

Age is inevitable. Aging isn't. — Marv Levy

As coaches, we learn to accept criticism for our decisions. If a writer says you shouldn't have gone for it on fourth-and-one, we understand that's part of the job. We expect it. — Marv Levy

There's three parts to football: offense, defense, and special teams. You'd no more ignore special teams than you would offense or defense. — Marv Levy

If I had coached in high school for 60 years, I would have loved it. Getting to the top was not a goal. I welcomed the opportunities, but I just believed do the best doggone job you can, and good things will happen. — Marv Levy

Absolutely everything undergoes evolvement - whether it's technology, journalism, the NFL, medicine. — Marv Levy

A good education prepares you well for anything. — Marv Levy

I got some very good advice once. That was: You're not talking to a reporter, you're talking to the public. We didn't hide things. They are a little more guarded now. — Marv Levy

Whenever I think of baseball, the first name that comes to mind is Babe Ruth. What the Babe was to baseball, Shula is to football coaching. There are certain figures in sports who are larger than the games they play or coach, and Don Shula is one of those. — Marv Levy

When I was twelve, I went hunting with my father and we shot a bird. He was laying there and something struck me. Why do we call this fun to kill this creature who was as happy as I was when I woke up this morning. — Marv Levy

Great football coaches have the vision to see, the faith to believe, the courage to do - and 25 great players. — Marv Levy

I'm hoping to get started on a new novel. — Marv Levy

Where else would you rather be than right here, right now? — Marv Levy

I am going to miss Don Shula. I like him, and I admire him. I'm going to miss looking those 53 yards across the field and thinking, 'There is a coaching legend.' — Marv Levy

Actually, I'm working on a book of poetry. — Marv Levy

My father was an athlete, a great athlete, fought in the Marines in World War I. He was all sports and activity. My mother was all academics. I still have the complete works of Shakespeare that she had. — Marv Levy

I just want people to finish the book and say, 'I was entertained.' When I set out to do it, I had no deal in place. I knew it would be tough. I read somewhere that John Steinbeck was turned down 22 times on his first novel. But I was just going to do it. — Marv Levy

Three, maybe four times a week, I run for 30 minutes. If I don't run, I'm out for a brisk walk at least an hour every day. — Marv Levy

If you have everything prepared, the rest will take care of itself. — Marv Levy

You adhere to a philosophy, but part of the philosophy I have is that I don't want to be too doggone inflexible that I miss a good player. — Marv Levy

There will be many failures sprinkled among the successes you enjoy. — Marv Levy

Plan your work and work your plan. — Marv Levy

I did a lot of studying of great writers. I read that Hemingway rewrote 'The Sun Also Rises' 39 times. — Marv Levy

If you start thinking of the Super Bowl championship as your motivation, you are going to miss the trees for the forest or the forest for the trees. I never could understand that one. — Marv Levy

When I first started reading poetry, all the poets I read - Edgar Allan Poe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier - were rhyme poets. That's what captured me. — Marv Levy

This is not a must-win; World War II was a must-win (Referring to the Super Bowl) — Marv Levy

A failure becomes just one time at bat if you refuse to let it defeat you. — Marv Levy

Adversity is an opportunity for heroism. — Marv Levy

People sometimes ask me to name the greatest coach in NFL history. George Halas may have set the standard, but Don Shula has won more games than anyone, and he has done it in the most competitive era. He had an incomparable ability to evaluate players, to motivate them, and to teach them the game of football. — Marv Levy

I went off to Harvard Law School for six weeks, and then I said, 'Doggone this, it's not what I want to do.' I remember when I told my dad I was leaving law school, and I wanted to go into football. He said, 'Be a good coach.' — Marv Levy

I don't know if there ever has been anyone in the NFL who plays his position as well as Steve Tasker. — Marv Levy

My father Sam, by his lifelong example, displayed for me the virtues of an honest day's work and of great personal courage. — Marv Levy

Systems don't win, players do. — Marv Levy

I'm about 75 pages into a book on poetry. I don't know if anybody wants to read it. It's on any broad variety of subjects. I walk down the street and think of a topic and jot it down and say, 'Okay, that's another one.' They go from the humorous to the serious to every topic imaginable. — Marv Levy

If you believe you are doing a good job in which you enjoy and like, then don't resign regardless of the pressures. — Marv Levy

I was enamored with Charles Dickens as a kid, and his names blew me away. — Marv Levy

I've always been entranced by writing. — Marv Levy

What it takes to win is simple, it's not easy. — Marv Levy

I consider myself a Chicagoan, and if anybody else does, that gratifies me. — Marv Levy

Did I ever think at the time, when I was with the Alouettes and the Chicago Blitz, that I would be head-coaching a team in the Super Bowl? It would be hard to believe. Is it a dream come true? Yes. — Marv Levy

If you don't change with the times, the times are going to change you. — Marv Levy

Bill Polian and I agreed when we first came together with the Buffalo Bills that we'd bring players only of high character to the team. — Marv Levy

I have stayed active. I do keep moving. But I should start swimming more. Great exercise. — Marv Levy

If you say you plan to retire in two or three years, you've already retired. — Marv Levy

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

In Buffalo, you can't imagine how much people revere Fred Jackson because of his high character, his community involvement, coming from a Division III school. — Marv Levy

Chronological age is only an approximation of your functional age. — Marv Levy

Security comes from earning it-not seeking it. — Marv Levy

Experience should be a plus as long as it doesn't become complacency. If you say, 'We're not going to change; we didn't do it that way before,' then you've become too old. — Marv Levy

For a long time, I was an assistant in the NFL to George Allen, and George was paranoid that other teams were cheating on him ... that they were offering bounties, that they were wiring our locker room, that they were putting food poisoning into the pregame meal of the other team's stars, stuff like that. — Marv Levy

World War II was a must win. — Marv Levy

Expect rejection, but expect even more strongly to overcome it. — Marv Levy

The caliber of play in professional football compared to college is better and everybody knows it. They don't realize how much better. What a giant leap forward in the ability of talent level, the speed, and even the grasp of what you are trying to do. There is no other distractions before the players. — Marv Levy

I exercise, walk a lot, and break into the occasional trot. I also lift weights three days a week, and I like to read about what makes a good diet. Overall, I do follow a healthy lifestyle. — Marv Levy

I'm sure there were concussions galore back when we played, but the doctors would just say, 'Shake it off,' or something like that ... or 'Come on, you got to be tough ... get back in there.' I see so many guys who played pro football in their 50s now who are so debilitated from having played it. — Marv Levy

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. — Marv Levy