Professional Athlete Quotes & Sayings

I'm a Mormon. I don't do a lot of the off-the-field activities that athletes are known to do. And I guess I've created a world that is unlike the typical world of a professional athlete. — Jeff Kent

There is no correlation between a childhood success and a professional athlete. — Carl Lewis

There aren't too many principles of proper business conduct with which just about everybody will agree. Two come to mind: 1. Unless you're a professional athlete, don't offer co-workers encouragement by patting them on the butt, and 2. Don't burn bridges. — Dale Dauten

To me, breakfast is my most important meal. It's often the meal you play a game on. I make sure I have oatmeal, milk, and fruit. It's the fuel you use to hopefully do your best, so eating right is a big part of being a professional athlete. I wish I paid more attention to it earlier in my life. — Andrew Luck

There's far more that goes into being a professional athlete than being a college athlete. So many differences that people don't realize. It's not just about playing football and getting paid to do it. There's a lot of things that you have to deal with. — Robert Griffin III

At the end of the day, if you're a professional athlete in track and field you are the CEO of your company. — Carl Lewis

I don't mind being a professional. As an athlete you are a role model, people are watching what you wear, listening to everything you say, — Jalen Rose

Anybody who is a professional athlete who has a social media account on any of the networks, when they sign up for that account, they subject themselves to all of the criticisms and all of the praises that may or may not be out there. So you can't get on social media and complain about the people because that's what you know you're dealing with. You have to hear it. You don't have to respond. Me personally, I don't respond to the negativity. It's gonna be there. I read it. It keeps me grounded. — George Wilson

I can look back at it now as definitely like an initiation into adulthood. Almost overnight in the NFL, I was put on a pedestal and I was supposed to be this icon or this image of what a professional athlete was supposed to be. I felt like I just got stuck trying to be someone else and I forgot who I actually was. — Ricky Williams

Being a runner, professional or recreational, means that you are part of a community that stretches across the globe. — Lanni Marchant

If you're a professional athlete, and after the game, you're eating at the same place that somebody in the audience is eating at? You're making a mistake. — John Salley

A good professional athlete must have the love of a little boy. And the good players feel the kind of love for the game that they did when they were Little Leaguers. — Tom Seaver

I would advise all professional athletes to get involved and to try to help make a difference.We can make a huge impact. We can be that difference maker just because of our status and because of what we do. If we don't, who else will? — Davone Bess

When you're a professional athlete, you get paid millions of dollars for doing something that's not only fun, but also physical and badass. You have fans: pathetic people without their own lives or hopes or dreams that measure their happiness on your weekly performance (this still boggles my mind, but in the best way possible - however, my role as a fan now is quite detached). You get to travel around to different cities and fuck their most beautiful women. You are given license to do pretty much whatever you want all the time, and are forgiven easily and often instantly when caught doing anything illegal. Professional athletes can literally get away with murder. — A.D. Aliwat

There was no way we were going to let this band hobble around on three legs. We chose the route that every professional actor, athlete and musician should do - leave the legend intact and bow out at the top. — Tommy Lee

Distance running to a professional athlete in my day was five laps around the field. And you stopped each lap to take your pulse. — Lynn Swann

As a professional athlete, I have an incredible platform to inspire, impact, and deeply affect another human being. It sets my soul on fire. — Joanna Lohman

Once you become a professional athlete or once you do anything well, then you're automatically a role model ... I have no problem being a role model. I love it. I have kids looking up to me and hopefully I inspire these kids to do good things. — LeBron James

Unlike boxers-or any professional athlete for that matter-rowers have little motivation to do it longer than necessary. With a modest amount of self-realization, you'll know when you have acquired the nebulous gifts that rowing has to offer, whether it's courage or a strengthened soul or a powerful body. Once you have it, drop back ten yards and punt. Someone new will pick up the ball and run with it. — Brad Alan Lewis

Every professional athlete owes a debt of gratitude to the fans and management, and pays an installment every time he plays. He should never miss a payment. — Bobby Hull

I am a National Football League player of American Samoan heritage. Because of my status as a professional athlete, I have been blessed to play a role in educating players and fans about the culture and history of America's southernmost territory. — Troy Polamalu

You see a hockey player, you'd never know he's a professional athlete. But you put the skates on him, and he becomes a beast. — Junior Seau

First of all, I really never imagined myself being a professional athlete. — Bo Jackson

[T]here seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously-after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important ... so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though he proves himself to be ignorant and subliterate every time he opens his mouth. — Robert A. Heinlein

Bill Russell is one of the great names in basketball, an all-American ... and the only athlete to ever win an NCAA Championship, an Olympic Gold Medal, and a professional championship all in the same year-1956 ... But Bill Russell had this one problem: He threw up before every game. — John Eliot

I'm a working mom, not a professional athlete, but I am a runner and that's a special club. — Alison Sweeney

I think sports for kids is the greatest thing in the world because it teaches you how to share, about winning and losing and pressure. But I don't think you should force your kid to become a professional athlete. — Wayne Gretzky

Madonna is an athlete; she has to be treated like a professional athlete. She doesn't work out for six hours a day, though, like some of the press says. She never works out for more than two hours a day, and then only when she has the time. — Tracy Anderson

Do you need to train two hours a day? Probably not. The reason why my celebrity clients have to train two hours a day is because their endurance level is so strong. For Madonna to get results and keep results, it's like a professional athlete training - she has to push harder. — Tracy Anderson

As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you - but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals. — LeBron James

A heroic moral victory for the New York Mets,. It may be the only kind of victory we're achieving this season, but he set a good example for professional athletes and the rest of us. — David Brooks

As a professional athlete, there aren't too many things as gratifying as being on the front of a box. Whether it be a cereal box or a game box. It's very gratifying. — Jeremy Roenick

Professional football's a tough game. It's a lot of contact. It's a lot of wear and tear on your body. You've got elite athletes running into each other, play after play, at high speeds. And this is something that I love and I enjoy. — John Urschel

My life as a professional athlete has allowed me the opportunity to visit and live in many different places and meet many interesting and diverse people. — Scott Pruett

The left's obsession with the high incomes of corporate executives never seems to extend to equally high - or higher - incomes of professional athletes, entertainers, or best-selling authors like Danielle Steel. — Thomas Sowell

So much of a professional athlete's success depends upon not necessarily the play itself but how he deals with ... always saying how you deal with good, is just as important as how you deal with bad. — Brett Favre

He has the body of a professional athlete, chiseled to perfection in all the right places. — Collette West

I always wanted to be a professional athlete. I love my life. — Billy Horschel

I would love to be a professional athlete. When I was living in Mexico as a teenager, I did seven years of gymnastics and went to the Junior Olympics. I was getting to the level of going to the international competitions, but I was only 14, and my parents were really worried because they did not want that to be my life. — Karla Souza

Society has no qualms about a masseuse who is paid for touching people, or about laborers, or professional athletes or dancers, all of whom make a living with their bodies. Why should we make an exception for sex? — Sydney Biddle Barrows

You can play professional lacrosse, but they make less than a teacher's salary now. I always thought about that. And it's a very difficult career, a short career, as a pro athlete. — Nash Grier

I have been a Cowboys fan since I was a little bitty boy. And my dream has finally become a reality, of not only just playing a professional, becoming a professional athlete, but playing for the team that I always wanted to play for. — Emmitt Smith

I was the very first athlete in East Germany allowed to go professional. — Katarina Witt

I get a lot of parents coming up to me, telling me they are grooming their kids to be professional athletes. I'm really against that. I think it's a great life, and yeah, you can lead them in that direction. I think a lot of parents live their lives through the kids. Because they didn't make it, they want their kids to make it. It puts a lot of undue pressure on the kids. — Wayne Gretzky

My heritage is something that I have always been aware of, however, some would say that there is a disproportionately low number of Asians as professional athletes. I take pride in trying my best to be a role model to show young Asian American boys and girls that they are only limited by the size of their dreams. — Nathan Adrian

As a child, I wanted to be an athlete, a professional tennis player or something like that. — Jonathan Ames

As a professional athlete, I can tell you I feel every single emotion and not one of them ever helped me in a fist-fight before. And not one of them has ever hurt me in a fist-fight, either. The only thing that has helped me is my skills and the only thing that hurt me is my opponent's skills. — Chael Sonnen

I would never advocate the use of dope because, you know, I'm not a professional athlete and I don't have access to the good stuff. — Greg Proops

When I broke into professional hockey at 17 I was told that I was too small and too slow and I wouldn't make the NHL. Now it's kind of flip-flopped and the sense is I can't be a good coach because I was a great athlete. — Wayne Gretzky

If you want to make it as a sportsperson - Become knowledgeable in the sport you want to participate in. Think about the sport and what it can offer in its entirety. You shouldn't want to become a professional sportsperson because of the money. There's a lot more to gain from being involved in sport. Work hard to get what you want. If it's your ambition, go for it. You don't have to be the best in the world to make it as an elite athlete. You need to be a grafter and be prepared to sacrifice. — Hope Powell

With the responsibility of being a professional athlete, I believe that it is on us to go out there and help people. — Torrey Smith

I personally believe that professional athletes should give back to their communities in any way possible. We are in a position to make a difference. — Carson Palmer

When I was playing I never wished I was doing anything else. I think being a professional athlete is the finest thing a man can do. — Bob Gibson

I had a client who was a professional baseball player once, and he would go to clubs and dance for seven, eight, nine hours at a time. He wouldn't drink, he wouldn't take drugs - he just danced because he had so much physical energy; he was this amazing athlete. — Martha Beck

The irony of that is, what makes it kind of ironic, is when you do become successful as a professional athlete in particular, a lot of the young children who are emulating these stars do have a different perspective. — Frank Shorter

Willpower is that thing CEOs and professional athletes tell us they used to make it to the top. — Joyce Meyer

I try and tell all the kids that I meet that hope to be amazing one day and be a professional athlete or a doctor or a lawyer or whatever they want to be. I tell them they can do all that because Tourette's won't stop them. — Tim Howard

The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance. — Robert A. Heinlein

He hasn't shown me anything but how he carries himself as a professional man, husband, father and athlete. Tom Brady is a pro's pro. I love the man and everything he's accomplished. — Randy Moss

He was a professional athlete and coach, a Ferrari who lived his life in the fast lane. She was a girl-next-door kind of girl, closer to a golf cart than a sports car. — Emily March

I was a total athlete. I loved sports, but when I realized I wasn't going to be a professional athlete, I realized I wanted to be in movies. — Seann William Scott

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

I've always wanted to be a journalist, but what am I going to do? Write articles about which movie star had the fat sucked from her ass and injected into her face? Which professional athlete just confessed to shooting steroids? The last celebrity baby names?" Cara lowered both brows in frustration. "Who cares? — Melissa Landers

I learned a lot from my father. I'm very lucky to have a father who was a professional athlete. — Joakim Noah

We professional athletes are very lucky. Unlike most mortals, we are given the privilege of dying twice - once when we retire and again when death takes us. — John McNally

You know raising a family in the lifestyle of a professional athlete can be very difficult. — Robin Yount

There are things about some professional athletes that I cannot stand-the pretense, the egos, the pomposity, the greed. — Ted Simmons

In my 20s, it was easy. In your 40s, it's a lot more challenging. You have to look at it like you're an actor, but you're also a professional athlete. You have to train. — Daniel Wu

I was a professional athlete, the best baseball player in the world at one point. — Jose Canseco

As a professional athlete and someone who has spent almost his entire life in boxing, not a day goes by when I don't think about coming back, but I am retired, and after speaking to my family and following a great deal of introspection, I have decided to stay retired. — Oscar De La Hoya

I came out of my professional athlete career with a 450 credit score, no money in the bank to show for it, but I had an Ivy League degree. So I put that Dartmouth degree to good use and got a job on Wall Street. I hated it but used the time to make connections and become financially literate. — Brian J. White

I've been a professional athlete, I've directed films, I've run a company with 150 employees, and nothing compares to writing a screenplay. Just the second I think I know what I'm doing, the rug gets pulled out and I have no idea what I'm doing. Because there are so many problems to solve. — Stacy Peralta

I was a judo athlete, while taking modeling as my side job, before I eventually quit my professional sports career over a knee injury. — Joe Taslim

I just want you guys to see it also. To see what type of words that are said toward me, and towards us as professional athletes. Everybody thinks it is a bed of roses and it's not. — LeBron James

If you're looking to be a professional athlete on the top tier of any sport, my best advice is to put everything you have into it. If you're not, somebody else is. It's got to be all or nothing. — Dominick Cruz

Looking good is important. We're our own premium brand as professional athletes, so you want to be thoughtful about presentation and represent yourself and your city and sport as best you can. — C. J. Wilson

I'm not an athlete. I'm a professional baseball player. — John Kruk

If I was going to play this game and love it, it had to love me back. — Amy Lane

I have been blessed with a long and healthy career as a professional athlete and as I move forward into the next stage of my life, chiropractic care will continue to be an important part of my game. — Jerry Rice

I think the greatest all-around athlete ever was Jim Brown. He played lacrosse, basketball and ran track at Syracuse. He played professional football for the Browns. — Will McDonough

I don't know if I have a brand. I just see myself as an athlete and a competitor, someone who just works really hard at trying to get better at golf. I guess I'm kind of the feel-good story who's seen every level of professional golf. — Zach Johnson

And as I sit and reflect, I m left with one question - What's next for me? What challenges does life pose for me tomorrow ? How long will I continue to bounce this ball ? And when this ball stops , where will I find myself? Will I be simply remembered as some guy who had success overseas?Will i rely solely on my past and be one who just talks about my glory days as professional basketball player? NOT LIKELY!!J.R.HOLDEN REPRESENTS SO MUCH MORE THAN AN ATHLETE . — Jon-Robert Holden

As a child I wanted to be a professional athlete or lawyer. — Walter Dean Myers

You're a person a lot longer before and after you're a professional athlete. People always say to me, 'Your image is this, your image is that.' Your image isn't your character. Character is what you are as a person. That's what I worry about. — Derek Jeter

Nike told me, 'We can't give you royalties because you're not a professional athlete.' I told them 'I'll go to the Garden and play one-on-no-one.' I'm a performance athlete! — Kanye West

There's just so much negative media surrounding professional athletes or sports in general, whether it's kids that are pressured too much or professional athletes making mistakes that influence their family. — Kristopher Belman

Losing is the bane and bugbear of every professional athlete's existence, but in baseball the monster seems to hang closer than in other sports, its chilly claws and foul breath palpable around the neck hairs of the infielder bending for his crosshand scoop or the reliever slipping his first two fingers off-center on the ball seams before delivering his two-and-two cut fastball. — Roger Angell

Obviously, you're known for what you do. But you still want to be known as a good person. You're a person a lot longer before and after you're a professional athlete. — Derek Jeter

There's three things that as a professional athlete you want. You want to get to the big leagues, and I accomplished that. Winning a World Series ring, I got that. And then getting to the Hall of Fame. That's everybody's dream. Every athlete, they want to be up there in the Hall of Fame, mentioned with the greatest players to ever play this game. — Albert Pujols

The doors fly open when you're a professional athlete. — Dennis Rodman

No mother in my community has a more widely recognized hobby than bitching about her child's school. I've come to realize that for many, school is a real drag. It gets in the way of raising a professional athlete. — Jen Mann

America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week. — Evan Esar