Quotes & Sayings About Championship Games

Anyone who doesn't win their conference has no business playing in the national championship game. — Nick Saban

That's one of the great oddities of baseball: Success is relative. A hitter who fails 70 percent of the time at the plate is a potential member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and many World Championship teams lose more than 70 games during their title-winning seasons. — Don Yaeger

The thing I wanted to focus on first was that I wanted to graduate, and (with me) coming back, I knew that I wanted another national championship. Another national championship is everyone's main goal, but we have to take it one game at a time. We can't get ahead of ourselves. We've got Washington first, then we'll see what happens. — Will Smith

When I played at Minnesota, Green Bay, those northern cities, Buffalo, they wanted to have those championship games at home. It was going to be an advantage to be there with their fans and the cold weather and all that. But when you've got a Super Bowl, and it's the two best teams, you want ideal conditions. You want to play a great game. — Tony Dungy

If you go 72-11 and don't win (the championship), it doesn't mean anything. Actually it does. It means you've cheated and played an extra regular-season game. — Shaquille O'Neal

I loved going to the Knicks because we won the Atlantic Division championship. We went from winning 21 games or 19 games to winning 52 games in a short period of time. I loved coaching Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley and all those guys. — Rick Pitino

In those years, it was easier to win the Soviet Championship than a game against 'Iron Tigran'. — Lev Polugaevsky

Everybody was ready to put Denver and Indianapolis in the championship game. We're the same team that went 15-1 last year and made it to the championship game. We're coming from a different perspective now, being on the road playing two tough road games. We all believed in one another, even if no one else did. — Hines Ward

We're not going to do anything different for this game since we're not treating this game any different than another game. Every game is a championship game for us, so we'll treat this one, the last one and the next one exactly the same. And that goes for our practices leading up to it as well. — Pete Carroll

It looks like our defense is quite a bit better than it has been in the last two years, ... If we can keep it up and stay at least in the middle of the league, that would be significant. We haven't ordered any championship rings yet; two games doesn't make a season. I love the Colorado air. I love the game, the competition, the show. — Lamar Hunt

Every game's a championship game. When we focus that way, get prepared that way-that this is it, you know, this is the last one, the biggest one-you get ready, you get amped up, you get that laser focus and you're ready to play. — Russell Wilson

I once heard that Paul Seymour said as much as winning an NBA Championship, he'd like to see the Celtics lose a game after Auerbach brought out the cigar so he could go up to Arnold and stuff the cigar in his face. — Bob Cousy

So, yeah, I'm going to try to win the national championship next year. But I'm not going to kill myself doing it. I'm not going to kill my players either. You really start to realize there's a lot more to what we're trying to do then winning games — Geno Auriemma

If short hair and good manners won football games, Army and Navy would play for the national championship every year. — Bobby Bowden

If it weren't for a new rule that came into being, we'd have played three years in a row in the championship game. — Al Davis

I spent the nights before the Jets' two biggest games last year-for the AFL championship and the Super Bowl-with girls. But I don't consider that bad or foolish of me ... The night before a game, I prepare myself both mentally and physically for the next day. I think a ballplayer has to be relaxed to play well; and if that involves being with a girl that night, he should do it. — Joe Namath

I always get up for every game, but this game is especially big. It's a do-or-die thing. This could be (decide) whoever wins the regular-season championship. — Rajon Rondo

When Paul Brown talked contract, the championship game was part of it. We took the championship game for granted. — Otto Graham

Stats don't matter. I care about winning, not stats. If I score 0 points and we win I'm happy. If I score 50, 60 points, break the records, and we lose, I'm pissed off. 'Cause I knew I did something wrong. I'll have a hell of a season if I win the championship and average 20 points a game. — Shaquille O'Neal

I'd been ready too, because before Olympic Games, I wasn't compete in big competition like, World Championship, like European Championship. I just competed in national competition. — Olga Korbut

Any team that does not win it's conference championship game should not play in the BCS title game — Nick Saban

Those opportunities to play in championship games are few and far between. — Jack Youngblood

I have high expectations for myself. I'm not out there playing the game just to be playing it. I want to win a championship. — Albert Belle

The greatest single moment Ive ever known in Detroit was Jim Northrups triple in the seventh game of the World Series in St. Louis. It was a stunning moment because not only were the Tigers winning a world championship that meant so much to an entire city, they were beating the best pitcher I ever saw-Bob Gibson. — Ernie Harwell

I guess it's good in a sense that it stops any of it from happening, but now you're telling me if it's Game 7 of the NBA Finals and a guy has a chance to make a play he's going to be like, 'Well, do I want this $10,000 or do I want a championship?' — Blake Griffin

In this millennium that we live in, the 'Hack-a-Shaq'has proven not to work. It might work a couple games every now and then, but when it comes to the playoffs or a championship series, it doesn't work - not at all. — Shaquille O'Neal

I am pleased that in a match for the World Championship I was able to conduct a game in the style of Akiba Rubinstein, where the entire strategic course was maintained from the first to the last move. — Boris Gelfand

Milestones you'd like to reach before retiring? Not really. Because when I began it was never to reach 100 games or reach 200 or to get high on the all-time list or whatever else. Those things are by-products. I want to win another championship, beginning with the conference championship. The thing that was disappointing to me last year was the fact that we did not win the conference championship. I felt like we just let that game (against Air Force in Las Vegas) get away from us. — LaVell Edwards