Football Best Quotes & Sayings

The Arena League is the best thing that could have happened to me because I get to run the whole process. I'm seeing not only the football side but the business side. — John Elway

Arizona was the best place. I like the competition in baseball, and the football program has been great for the past five years. I think I'll be playing as a freshman in both sports, and I think I can play with them. — Terry Vaughn

My dream was to play football for the Oakland Raiders. But my mother thought I would get hurt playing football, so she chose baseball for me. I guess moms do know best. — Rickey Henderson

Coming from bad results, you have more tension and you get more into the game, maybe. You never know which is best. I prefer to come from good results. You have more confidence and you believe you are doing things well. But in football everything can change very quickly. — Tito Vilanova

Not much of what he said was original. What made him unique was the fact
that he had no sense of detachment at all. He was like the fanatical football fan who
runs onto the field and tackles a player. He saw life as the Big Game, and the whole
of mankind was divided into two teams
Sala's Boys, and The Others. The stakes
were fantastic and every play was vital
and although he watched with a nearly
obsessive interest, he was very much the fan, shouting unheard advice in a crowd of
unheard advisors and knowing all the while that nobody was paying any attention to
him because he was not running the team and never would be. And like all fans he
was frustrated by the knowledge that the best he could do, even in a pinch, would be
to run onto the field and cause some kind of illegal trouble, then be hauled off by
guards while the crowd laughed. — Hunter S. Thompson

I prefer to win titles with the team ahead of individual awards or scoring more goals than anyone else. I'm more worried about being a good person than being the best football player in the world. When all this is over, what are you left with? When I retire, I hope I am remembered for being a decent guy. — Lionel Messi

Chess is a very positive way to exercise your mind. It makes you look at the whole picture ... what are your options and what is the best thing to do? In football, you are mostly reacting from a defensive point of view ... but you always want to be counterattacking ... a similarity with chess strategy. Chess and offensive football are quite similar; you sacrifice something now to get something back later. — Barney Chavous

Absolutely. There are a 1000 better coaches in the cities, but I'm the best in the country. — Lou Holtz

A message to the best football supporters in the world. We need a 12th man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let's be having you. Come on! — Delia Smith

England is a very strong league, with three or four of the best teams in Europe, but, if I had played there, I would have destroyed it, like I have everywhere else. — Zlatan Ibrahimovic

You hear all this stuff about inner peace. Hey, there's nothing wrong with it, but I say, hit that line hard. Crack that book - Do your very best all the time and inner peace will take care of itself. The Deacon guarantees it. — Deacon Jones

The best thing for them to do (Ireland) is to stay at 0-0 until they score the goal. — Martin O'Neill

They're the second best team in the world, and there's no higher praise than that. — Kevin Keegan

Football is a great love because I was born into a family of players and therefore born into football. I'm fortunate to have a style of play that a lot of people like. It's a privilege to be able to do what I like best and in my own way, but I'm fortunate that people like it, and that motivates me even more. — Ronaldinho

I don't want people to say I'm a solid quarterback. I want to be the best, and I'll continually work until I get there. — Robert Griffin III

Funnily enough we have never had one enquiry for Paul Scholes. You know why? Because they all know he will never leave. in my time he would be in the top six or seven (best United players ever) without a doubt. His contribution and quality have been great, even without the fantastic goals he has scored. [ ... ] He has that wonderful velvet touch on the ball. When he gets it, it goes stone dead. It is wonderful to see that amidst all the mayhem that can happen in a football match. — Alex Ferguson

Linked together as a team with one goal, we soon realized we were only as strong as our weakest link. But did we condemn the weaker
member? That wouldn't serve any purpose. Instead, the stronger guys responded by carrying more weight than the weaker teammate. Encouragement was key in reaching the top of the stadium, standing as one.
Sometimes one person on your team may not be as strong as another. Strengths usually differ. Likewise, in an encounter with another, someone may have a different set of beliefs or ideas.To accomplish any goal, embracing the strengths and weaknesses of each member and compensating where necessary are the best ways to make it to the top. — Jake Byrne

Ride it when you retire. — Terry Bradshaw

The best thing I can say is professional football is a business. When they are recruiting football players, they are not recruiting model citizens. Everybody has to be aware of this. What's being selected for the NFL is the ability to play and perform on Sunday afternoons. Everything else is secondary. — Jackson Katz

Let me tell you girls a story, short and sweet. In high school, I was a junior varsity cheerleader dating a senior who was up for football scholarships. I'd slept with him several times willingly. One night I wasn't in the mood, but he was. So he held me down and forced me. The few people I told about it - including my best friend - pointed out what would happen to him if I told. They stressed the fact that I hadn't been a virgin, that we were dating, that we'd had sex before. So I kept quiet. I never even told my mother. That boy put bruises on my body. I was crying and begging him to stop and he didn't. That's called rape, ladies. — Tammara Webber

Scholes was playing tiki-taka football when nobody in England knew what it was. He was another of those players, like Denis Law or Bobby Moore, who at 15 probably looked as if he wouldn't make it. Too small, you would think - can't run, dumpy little ginger nut - but then the ball would come to him and he would dazzle you. He was the best footballer in that Manchester United midfield, better than Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane. — Harry Redknapp

Hmm, the best thing about being in the NFL? In America it's the No.1 sport; it's exciting, fun, so to me the best thing is the buzz that surrounds football on and off the field. — Reggie Bush

It was the gravity of the place. In football the facility was designed to be difficult to leave. Everything was there for you. A barber came in regularly. So did a dry cleaner and a car washer. Three meals a day were served. And best of all, there was the built-in coterie of brothers and fathers and uncles and a mutual sense of binding purpose. — Nicholas Dawidoff

Football is not a job, but my best therapy — Tito Vilanova

I prefer that Argentina wins the World Cup. Messi deserves it for all he has done in football. He's my friend, I wish him the best — Neymar

De La Salle hung on for the 28-21 victory. Afterward, Ladouceur stood before his exhausted team. It was by far the biggest victory in school history at the time, but the coach noticed that several of his players wore masks of disappointment.

"It's OK to feel disappointed if you didn't play your absolute best," he told them. "That's what we're all about. — Neil Hayes

I would not say he (David Ginola) is the best left-winger in the Premiership, but there are none better. — Ron Atkinson

That's often the best place to beat a goalkeeper, isn't it, between the legs? — Clive Tyldesley

Pressure is what you feel when you don't know what's going on. — Chuck Noll

If he continues like this then I think Messi will be the best player in the history of football. — Xavi

We had probably our best ever Player of the Year Dance last week. You elected Dennis Wise as Player of the Year. Dennis accepted his award mimicking Vialli, whereupon Zola shouted 'Speak English', Dennis switched to his normal Cockney voice only for Zola to shout 'You're still not speaking English'. — Ken Bates

Thierry is the best striker in the world. By far he's the best in the world. Thierry doesn't just score goals. Even when he's not having a good day he can make an important pass. He is a strong character. If things go wrong, he bounces straight back. His effect on the club is very big. — Patrick Vieira

I love to see Favre playing his best football, and if his mind his right, he'll probably have a fine season. — Ron Jaworski

A lot of football success is in the mind. you must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are. — Bill Shankly

Holland I think is the best school to learn football. I think its a great league for that because it's not the strongest league in Europe. — Rafael Van Der Vaart

When you lay down a proposition which is forthwith controverted, it is of course optional with you to take up the cudgels in its defence. If you are deeply convinced of its truth, you will perhaps be content to leave it to take care of itself; or, at all events, you will not go out of your way to push its fortunes; for you will reflect that in the long run an opinion often borrows credit from the forbearance of its patrons. In the long run, we say; it will meanwhile cost you an occasional pang to see your cherished theory turned into a football by the critics. A football is not, as such, a very respectable object, and the more numerous the players, the more ridiculous it becomes. Unless, therefore, you are very confident of your ability to rescue it from the chaos of kicks, you will best consult its interests by not mingling in the game. — Henry James

You have to feel you're the best at what you do. You don't have to come out and say it. But you have to know it within yourself. — Dan Marino

Right now, I am a football player and I will sacrifice whatever is necessary to be the best. — J. J. Watt

Victories are a byproduct of a larger vision. It begins with a question:

How much do we owe one another?

Each coach's and player's individual answer is one of the building blocks of The Streak. De La Salle separates itself from the competition because everyone from the head coach to the least accomplished player on the roster is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to be their absolute best. — Neil Hayes

When I was a child I had a dream to become a football player. I always played as I played when I was a child. I tried to improve. I never dreamt of becoming a professional football player, I dreamed just to play with the best players in the best team. I never dreamed to be paid to play. I would have paid to play an FA Cup Final in front of 80,000 people in Wembley. I just tried to play the wonderful game that football is. So, I hope young players will still have this dream. — Eric Cantona

I've played under some of the biggest and best managers and achieved almost everything in football. Of course it hurts when people question it, but I've come to the end of my career and can look back and say I've achieved everything with every club that I've played for. — David Beckham

Best football player I played against? I think Messi. He killed us. — Rafael Van Der Vaart

Football is the best, is the biggest sport in the world. — Pele

The match against Brazil was football at its best. Both sides had opportunities to win the game. — Michel Patini

The best art on a football field usually happens during kickoff returns. — Kevin Sampsell

I think the best part of being gay is when you're done [with sex], you could turn over and talk about football. — Andrew Dice Clay

In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside - Liverpool and Liverpool reserves. — Bill Shankly

I didn't play in the NFL, and I didn't play defensive line. But football, at the fundamental level, is football. It's about motivating people and getting the best out of them. — Brendan Daly

I like football. I like baseball. When the pitcher and the batter start fighting, that's the best. — Pablo Francisco

Last night we were the best team on the day. — Roy Aitken

Dracula and LSU Football are at their best after the sun goes down. — Beano Cook

Football in itself is a grand game for developing a lad physically and also morally, for he learns to play with good temper and unselfishness, to play in his place and 'play the game,' and these are the best of training for any game of life. — Robert Baden-Powell

The best part of it for me is the idea that this group of young men, who came together and believed in themselves, bought the team concept completely, took the names off the back of the jerseys, checked the egos at the door. — Tom Coughlin

Though the legs of a football coach are never so active on the field of play during playing time, his mind is the best or worse player on the pitch! — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

I love football. The games are a pure rush. By the time I'm done playing, I want to be among the best tight ends ever to play the game. — Tony Gonzalez

The best solution for falling just short of the goal is to focus on the fundamentals but perform them better. — Tony Dungy

Rooney's good but not the best in Manchester. — Mario Balotelli

Know the difference between famous and great. — Deacon Jones

I'm really looking forward to the Hall of Fame ceremonies. It's going to be unbelievable - just crazy. I'm looking forward to thanking all the fans for inspiring me to go out there and play my best football each and every game. — Jerry Rice

Ah, the rheumy-eyed grandpa on the terraces inducting the lad into the mysteries of soccer: how to loathe people wearing different coloured shirts, how to feign injury, how to blow your snot onto the pitch - See, son, you press hard on one nostril to close it, and explode the green stuff out of the other. How to be vain and overpaid and have your best years behind you before you've even understood what life's about. Oh yes, I look forward to taking Lucas to the football. But — Julian Barnes

It's the best thing to happen to a sport, that you have a superstar. In football there is always something to write about the Beckhams, same as people want to write about Rooney or Hooney or whatever his bloody name is. — Bernie Ecclestone

The best football players in the world still earn very little money compared to people who really earn money. — Arsene Wenger

Imagine a pantomime directed by Quentin Tarantino, where villains are booed, heroes are blood-stained, the body-count is high, the entertainment pulsating, the language filthy and the audience screamed behind you' as tackles hurtled in like boulders crashing down a mountain-side. Such was the epic drama that gripped the Emirates yesterday. A derby crammed with sound, fury and significance ended with everyone grasping for breath, with Arsenal regaining the high ground of the Premier League ... This was the Premier League at its raw, mistake-filled, mesmerising best. Utterly compelling. — Henry Winter

The coaching profession has lost one of its true legends. Though he was best known for winning more football games than any other coach when he retired, Eddie Robinson's impact on coaching and the game of football went far beyond wins and losses. He brought a small school in northern Louisiana from obscurity to nationwide, if not worldwide, acclaim and touched the lives of hundreds and hundreds of young men in his 57 years at Grambling. That will be his greatest legacy. — Grant Teaff

At some point we all have to grow up. Sure, high school might be the best years of our lives the way people say, but when that's over what are we gonna have? An old football career if we don't play college ball and a whole lot of broken people on our conscience. I don't want that.
Maybe there's hope for me after all. — Melyssa Winchester

The best thing about football for me is the reacting. It's a lot of instincts. But training, for me, it's more for the meditating. And I spend more time training than actually playing football. So I get into that zone during training more than anything. — Troy Polamalu

I sent my Christmas wishes to him, but he didn't answer. He's the world's best coach, but as a man he still has to learn manners and respect. — Mario Balotelli

Choose the best player for every position, and you'll end up not with a strong XI, but with 11 strong 1's. — Johan Cruijff

Their high school football is some of the best in the country. — Sylvester Croom

Cristiano Ronaldo's was the most exciting debut I've ever seen. There have been a few players described as 'The New George Best' over the years, but this is the first time it's been a compliment to me. — George Best

Best scene in college football is at LSU on a Saturday night. — Beano Cook

I think the thing about that was I was always willing to work; I was not the fastest or biggest player but I was determined to be the best football player I could be on the football field and I think I was able to accomplish that through hard work. — Jerry Rice

I have no hesitation in putting a name to the embodiment of all that I think is best about football. It's Paul Scholes. In so many ways Scholes is my favourite. — Bobby Charlton

As a professional athlete, I believe that I need to explore my opportunities to the maximum, in order to excel and continue to play the best football I can. — Hidetoshi Nakata

The best way to win is to play football — Josep Guardiola

When a person pauses in mid-sentence to choose a word, that's the best time to jump in and change the subject! It's like an interception in football! You grab the others guy's idea and run the opposite way with it! The more sentences you complete, the higher your score! The idea is to block the other guy's thoughts and express your own! That's how you win!

Conversations aren't contests!

Ok, a point for you, but I'm still ahead. — Bill Watterson

I'm not satisfied. I'm still enjoying this. I still feel like I'm in the best part of my career and I can play at a high level. This is what I love to do: playing football and winning games. — Eli Manning

We have a culture in Freeport, especially in our football department. We feel that we're the best team on Long Island, in New York, hands down. — D'Brickashaw Ferguson

My idea of a good hit is when the victim wakes up on the sidelines with train whistles blowing in his head ... I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault. — Jack Tatum

I have a limited amount of time to build a career out of football and be the best that I can be at this job. When this job is over, I have the rest of my life to do what I want with my time. — J. J. Watt

The Greatest" is a bite-your-tongue-book. Ultimately a tragic tale it is also immensely uplifting and easily the best footballer biography I have ever read. — Mike Parry

Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler and I used to argue for hours about who the best athletes are. I thought football players were better overall. — Warren Moon

I think the best place to work in football is England. — Jose Mourinho

You know what's sad about this? Not the gambling, but the best way to reach college athletes is the Cartoon Network. — Jay Leno

He hadn't developed into the accomplished running quarterback many had predicted he would become over the course of the season.

But he had come to personify this team. He was raw and untested when the season began, but he played his two best games in the two biggest games on the schedule. He wasn't the player anybody expected him to be, but he got the job done-at times spectacularly. — Neil Hayes

Our junior national teams feature increasing numbers of kids from immigrant backgrounds, but who have grown up in Germany. Their roots are elsewhere, but they feel German. They draw on two cultures, and I believe that's been a real and visible factor in the football we've been playing. One of the best and abiding images was Cacau, a Christian with Brazilian roots, celebrating a goal with Mesut Ozil, a Muslim from a Turkish background. Ozil jumped on to Cacau's shoulders, and they gazed up into the stands, both wearing Germany shirts. It was wonderfully symbolic. — Oliver Bierhoff

The reason of football is not to be the best but to be the best team — Barry Sanders

To be the best you have to forget partying and concentrate all your energies on the football. — Michael Owen

I get asked about the best games I've called, and as far as college football goes, the Florida-LSU environment was as good as I've ever been around. I had always heard about night games at Tiger Stadium and had never gotten the chance to call one. It was really special to be a part of that and then the game, my gosh, how can anybody ever forget that. The fourth quarter and LSU's final drive, that's something I'll always remember. — Verne Lundquist

The best thing about football is that the rules are so simple. Anyone can play anywhere. — Jermain Defoe

The reason I went to an all-boys Catholic school was because they had the best football team. We won the state championship my junior year. It was super-competitive. We lost in the semifinals my senior year, and it still haunts me. — Theo Rossi

Excluding nobody, I'm the best player in the National Football League. — Randy Moss

Football isn't necessarily won by the best players. It's won by the team with the best attitude. — George Allen

If I had to put a percentage on it - I'd say not likely. — Forrest Gregg

I remember asking my friend. . .for tips and her best one was: When watching football with your man, just look up once in awhile and ask, Now who did he used to play for?' He'll talk for at least fifteen minutes, you'll seem like you care, and then you can go back to your In Style or whatever. — Melissa Joan Hart

Absurdly, I haven't yet got around to saying that football is a wonderful sport, but of course it is. Goals have a rarity value that points and runs and sets do not, and so there will always be that thrill, the thrill of seeing someone do something that can only be done three or four times in a whole game if you are lucky, not at all if you are not. And I love the pace of it, its lack of formula; and I love the way that small men can destroy big men ... in a way that they can't in other contact sports, and the way that t he best team does not necessarily win. And there's the athleticism ... , and the way that strength and intelligence have to combine. It allows players to look beautiful and balletic in a way that some sports do not: a perfectly-timed diving header, or a perfectly-struck volley, allow the body to achieve a poise and grace that some sportsmen can never exhibit. — Nick Hornby

When I played football, I liked being a goalkeeper or a midfielder. I was probably better at cricket. I would be a very good cricketer if I was a professional now. I think I would probably have been the best, in fact. — Usain Bolt

Anybody who watched football last year knows they're good. But that represents a very good opportunity for us. It really does. I think somehow, if we're able to pull that off, I think it will go a long way for our confidence. I look at it as a great opportunity, and hopefully we'll be at our best when we get there. — Bill Parcells

I hated school ... I freaking hated it. The fact is that it revolved around something you didn't have access to. If you weren't on the football team, if you were in the band, you were a leper. When people say those were the best years of our lives, I want to scream. — Trent Reznor

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! — Dick Butkus