It was okay for Wayne Gretzky's dad, for instance, to give him a hockey stick, or Joe Montana's dad to give him a football, or Larry Bird's dad to give him a basketball, but it wasn't okay for Gloria Connors to give her son a tennis racquet.
I'm gonna be called Shaquem Griffin the football player, not Shaquem Griffin the one-hand wonder.
Even without football, football doesn't define Shaquem Griffin. It's who he can help that defines him.
My neighborhood, Coconut Grove, we always played in the streets. It was corner against corner. We all had football teams. Different neighborhoods.
In football, you're dealing with grown men. In gymnastics, you're dealing with prepubescent teenage girls. There's a huge difference. At that age, you're not confident enough to have a voice.
Football, at the end of the day, is a little kids' game that grown men get to play. I'm just privileged to get to do that every day.
I always knew I would sing. I just didn't know if I would be successful or not. But I sang at school, I sang at parties, I sang at church. Everyone always asked me to sing. I'd be playing football with my friends, and my parents would ask me to sing for their guests. I was never very happy about that because I wanted to play football.
As a child, I was very active. I was a gymnast, I played touch football, netball and basketball. When I was 16 years old, I started yoga. I started working out at an early age.
Football, or soccer as it is known, is a game of two halves. It's a game with rules and a referee. FIFA, the governing body for football, follows neither the rule of law or has the oversight of a referee.
I actually don't mind a bit of football banter from opposing fans. In fact, I quite like getting hammered by supporters of other clubs. But it's when you get it from your own fans that it's not nice.
I was used to football supporters hammering me and I thought my name was Graham Potter-Boo at one point.
You've got to be able to hang in there in some uncomfortable pockets and uncomfortable situations, where you're going to take a hit and deliver the football.
I definitely think that females have a harder time. It's a lot harder to be a girl because you're always in your head. I've heard my brother go and take it out on the football as he says. Whereas girls would rather sit down and over think things.
Nobody, not even the head coach, would do anything to the football unilaterally, such as adjust the amount of pressure in a ball, without the quarterback not knowing. It would have to be the quarterback's idea.
Nobody, not even the head coach, would do anything to a football unilaterally, such as adjust the amount of pressure in a ball, without the quarterback not knowing. It would have to be the quarterback's idea.
When I first started playing football, a headache was called a 'headache.' And now it's called 'a concussion.'
When I got heartbroken at 20, it just felt like someone had spiraled a football right into my skull. At 40, it feels like someone had driven a 757 right through me.
Our home in Dubai is a beach house, so it's more casual and not formal in its tone. It's a holiday home. We are mostly in the pool or on the beach or in the sun. It's an outdoor place for the family. So there are mudbikes, a boat, football posts, and the pool is heated.
When Klopp speaks about his football being heavy metal, I understand completely. It is so aggressive. For the fans, it is really good.
Football and me have never got on. My instinct and love for the harder end of contact had always meant I was perhaps a little too heavy-handed for football. Somehow it left me feeling unfulfilled.
