I know that I'm going out there, and I know that I am going to get hit in the head. I know that's part of football. That's like a firefighter knowing he is going to go into a fire at some point. You know you are going to be put in danger's way, and you accept that risk, and you do it.
The social issues outside of football are not as defined as they were earlier, when integration took place and certain rights were legislated. The Civil Rights movement is over. Individuals can buy homes wherever they want, travel first class wherever they want, eat wherever they want.
We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others.
It really doesn't matter to me whether it's defensive end or linebacker. I just want to play the game of football. I've been working on linebacker drills since I got out to Fischer Sports in Phoenix.
For me, I skate as masculine as I can. I'm not a big strong guy. I'm not interested in fighting or throwing punches or balling my hands in fists all day. I'm not interested in guns, I'm not interested in football or stereotypically masculine things, so I'm going to skate in a fashion that is manly for Johnny Weir.
English football is very different, and I had to adapt to it much more than I would have had if I had stayed in the Russian league. But after a season, I felt a lot better, a lot fitter.
As a longtime former resident of 15 years in Washington, I wish that everybody would stay off the Mall with their political cause so that we can get out there, you know, and play flag football or Frisbee, or walk the dog or something - you know, which is, you know, what the National Mall should be for, in my personal opinion.
I got a lot of flak; in Texas, football is not only the social thing you must do, but you do it also to prove your manhood. They all couldn't conceive of why I'd want to stop to do 'The Importance of Being Earnest.'
I love the flow of the game. There's a certain fluidity to basketball. I don't enjoy watching baseball or football in the same way.
On a foggy, steel gray Saturday in September 2002, Bennet Omalu arrived at the Allegheny County coroner's office and got his assignment for the day: Perform an autopsy on the body of Mike Webster, a professional football player.
I was immersed in popular songs of the time, of the '30s and '40s. I was writing songs, making fun of the attitudes of those songs, in the musical style of the songs themselves; love songs, folk songs, marches, football.
The entire existence of the NFL - and of football at any level, for all of that - rests on whether or not the game can keep fooling itself, and its paying fan base, that it is somehow superior to boxing and to the rest of our modern blood sports.
I've learned that football sometimes was an outlet. It was a way for me to release anger, release frustration.
Football is all about having fun.
To see my country lose a football match is very hard for someone who has worn the shirt.
They'd better be physically tough when they start pulling on their football pants.
If I had to pick my greatest strength as a football coach, I say it would be innovation.
I was hired to be the head football coach, not the general manager.
Every day I pull into that parking spot that says 'Head Football Coach,' I get out of my car and pinch myself sometimes, just to make sure it's real, sort of like, 'Is this really happening?'
As a football coach, everything in your life comes after your football schedule. I just could not make that commitment.
