These NFL quotes will make you feel like you’re inside the minds of some of the best players to ever suit up.
The thought processes of players are sometimes as crucial to outcomes as physical abilities. Let’s take a deep dive into the mindsets of famous stars of the past and rising superstars.
Use these inspirational NFL quotes to inspire, motivate, and educate football players, coaches, and fans.
NFL Quarterbacks Quotes
The hardest position to play in football is the quarterback slot. Let’s take a look at what some famous QBs have said about football.
Tom Brady Quotations
- I was the kid that was the 199th pick that never had the body for it.
- I just love working hard. I love being part of a team; I love working toward a common goal.
- Things don’t correct themselves; you’ve got to go out there and work hard to correct them.
- When I’m out on the football field, I have so much confidence in what I’m doing.
- I’ve always been privileged to play for Coach Belichick, who I’ve always said is the best coach in the history of the league.
- We all have experiences in our lives that change us, and we all learn from people, like my dad, but at the end of the day, it’s only us. And we’re only responsible to make ourselves happy.
- I think I have a certain respect for people, you know. And I guess a lot of times; I expect that respect to go both ways.
- I can’t do anything with what’s happened in the past. I have to just go forward with the most awareness I can going forward and trying to be the best I can be for our team.
- Who’s my hero? That’s a great question… Well, I think my dad is my hero because he’s someone I look up to every day.
- Certainly, I accept my role and responsibility as a public figure, and in a lot of it, you take the good with the bad, dealing with different adversities in life, you just try to do the best you can do.
See All About the American Football.
Patrick Mahomes Quotes
- You have to be secure with the ball. You can’t lose it.
- Every experience, good or bad, you have to learn from.
- I just try to learn from every mistake that I make so that I never make them again.
- I love being able to come in every single day and work out and watch films and practice with guys who are all striving for the same goal.
- I think the message for the whole team is we’re not satisfied with where we’re at. We wanted to put ourselves in this position, but at the same time, we know we still have a long way to go. We’re going to keep in that mentality the rest of this season and into the playoffs, not being satisfied with just being here. We want to make sure we can go and win the big games whenever we need to.
- Just how to be a professional. [Alex is] a great pro, someone who gameplans week in and week out. He really loves this, and I’ll forever cherish the person that he is, and he’ll be a great friend no matter what happens.
On Alex Smith - I came from Texas Tech and had a ton of stats and didn’t win enough games. For me, it’s all about winning. I want to win the Super Bowl. I want to win the championship, and that’s it.
On goals for his first season
Joe Namath Quotes
- We’re going to win Sunday. I guarantee it.
- When you win, nothing hurts.
- What I do is prepare myself until I know I can do what I have to do.
- If you’re not gonna go all the way, why go at all?
- You learn how to be a gracious winner and an outstanding loser.
- I can’t wait until tomorrow ‘cause I get better looking every day.
- You learn you can do your best even when it’s hard, even when you’re tired and maybe hurting a little bit. It feels good to show some courage.
- To be a leader, you have to make people want to follow you, and nobody wants to follow someone who doesn’t know where he is going.
Bart Starr NFL Quotes
- Desire and dedication are everything!
- My dad never pushed me but the big thing is that he helped me by going out in the backyard and playing with me.
- It takes me about a week and a half to really analyze gameplay by play.
- Coach Lombardi showed me that by working hard and using my mind, I could overcome my weakness to the point where I could be one of the best.
- If you work harder than somebody else, chances are you’ll beat him though he has more talent than you.
- Anyone can support a team that is winning – it takes no courage. But to stand behind a team to defend a team when it is down and really needs you, that takes a lot of courage.
See Football Positions Explained.
Roger Staubach NFL Quotes
- In any team sport, the best teams have consistency and chemistry.
- There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.
- Winning isn’t getting ahead of others. It’s getting ahead of yourself.
- Nothing good comes in life or athletics unless a lot of hard work has preceded the effort. Only temporary success is achieved by taking shortcuts.
- Confidence comes from hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication.
- Even though they are paid differently, everyone has to feel appreciated.
Fran Tarkenton NFL Quotes
- If football taught me anything about business, it is that you win the game one play at a time.
- Ignoring facts does not make them go away.
- In sports, teams win and individuals don’t.
Johnny Unitas NFL Quotes
- Nothing’s dangerous if you know what you’re doing.
- Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done.
- I always thought I could play pro ball. I had confidence in my ability. You have to. If you don’t who will?
- Anything I do, I always have a reason for it.
Kurt Warner Insights
- I’ve done it for a long time and I didn’t expect it to be any different here.
- I’ve always had confidence.
- They’re willing to let Matt sit and wait until they believe he’s ready and I can’t do the best I’m capable of doing. I’m completely comfortable with that.
- I just always felt I’d be playing football in the NFL – or at least playing for a living.
- I expected to play well, I expected to lead my team, and I expected to win.
- My friends said, ‘You’re crazy, enjoy the single life.’ But that’s not for me.
- On the football field, I keep my emotions tied up inside. But when I’m with family, I let them out.
- Nobody knew who I was.
- As I get older, I might need to keep the stubble off. As the years come, it helps to look younger I guess.
- No matter what happens on the football field it doesn’t change the kind of person I am.
- I’ve always known that if I got the right opportunity and the right system, I could be successful.
- I want to win. That’s the most important thing.
- I’ve done it for a long time and I didn’t expect it to be any different here.
Steve Young Quotes
- When you’re an elite athlete, it’s a very special moment in time and you don’t want it to end.
- The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.
Running Backs Quotes
Here are some great NFL quotes from notable running backs.
Christian McCaffrey Quotes
- For me, any time I’m on the football field, that’s my comfort zone.
- I just show up every day.
- To me, speed kills.
- It’s a constant progression, and as long as you’re constantly striving to be better, you’re headed in the right direction.
Bronco Nagurski Quotes
- That last guy hit me awfully hard. (after bouncing off tacklers, goal posts, and cracking the brick wall at Wrigley Field)
- I would probably be a linebacker today. I wouldn’t be carrying the ball 20 or 25 times a game.
- This is my fault. Give me the ball. (after a penalty resulted in the other team scoring. Nagurski went on the score.)
See Differences Between Canadian and American Football.
Walter Payton Quotes
- Remember, tomorrow is promised to no one.
- Never die easy. Why run out of bounds and die easy? Make that linebacker pay. It carries into all facets of your life. It’s okay to lose, to die, but don’t die without trying, without giving your best.
- If you ask me how I want to be remembered, it is as a winner.
- All people, regardless of whether they’re athletes or not, should treat people the way they want to be treated.
- God’s been very good to me. I’m truly blessed.
- We are stronger together than we are alone.
- Running alone is the toughest. You get to the point where you have to keep pushing yourself.
- Most important though, if you love someone, tell him or her, for you never know what tomorrow may have in store.
- When you’re good at something, you’ll tell everyone. When you’re great at something, they’ll tell you.
Barry Sanders
- I really love peace and quiet.
- The reason for football is not to be the best but to be the best team.
- I don’t dream of football. I dream of the American Dream – two cars in a garage, be a happy father.
- As a kid, I played my share of football in the street or in a vacant lot.
- A lot of times I did lose yards on a run, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
- Let’s just win it and go home.
- I like retirement.
- Running back was always my favorite position.
Gayle Sayers Quotes
- I learned that if you want to make it bad enough – no matter how bad it is – you can make it.
- We must stop the trend of closing schools and building prisons.
- I don’t care to be remembered as the man who scored 6 touchdowns in a game. I want to be remembered as a winner in life.
- There comes a time when you have to stand up and be counted.
- When you step onto that field, you cannot concede a thing.
- Our young people look up to us. Let us not let them down. Our young people need us. Saving them will make heroes of us all.
Emmitt Smith Quotes
- There’s always a chance. Somebody has got to want me, and if they don’t want me, then what? I want to play. I want to do what I want to do.
- Demand excellence.
- Dreaming means rehearsing what you see, playing it over and over in your mind until it becomes as real to you as your life right now.
- Do not compare yourself. Find out what God has placed in your ability.
- I’m an enigma, an unknown. You can’t really figure out what.
- I’m going to do next. I like it like that.
- Vision gets the dreams started.
- For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowd’s roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.
- Always, throughout my whole life, I’ve had a thirst for knowledge.
- I’m very confident I’m one of the best to ever play the game, but once you talk about the greatest, how can you define the greatest?
- What we shared and what we were able to accomplish on the football field was something unbelievable.
Jim Thorpe Quotes
- I have always liked sport and only played or run races for the fun of the thing.
- I give ‘em the hip, then I take it away.
- Track and field, because it was something I could do by myself, one-on-one, me against everybody else.
- The Yankees, you see, they’re a money team, they’re the class of baseball. You don’t ever bet against that.
- Some people say I’m the best back in the NFL. That’s what drives you: You want everyone saying there’s no doubt who’s the best.
- I would love to spend my whole career in San Diego because I accept the challenge of turning this team around.
- I think every year you have something to prove.
- Rex brings out the macho talk and tells everyone this is what we’re going to be and what we’re going to do. And you see what happened. The players did it. It worked.
- I want to win a championship. I can’t come on this team and demand to be a starter.
LD Quotations NFL Quotes
- I have to fit in. Wherever they want to use me, that’s fine.
- I’m going to make the playoffs. You can believe that. To never play in the playoffs, that will not be my legacy.
- I’m an old-school guy.
- I’ve been dealing with being overlooked my whole life.
- In the NFL, everyone’s attacking, so you have to be quicker in your decisions.
- I get stronger as the game goes on.
- Whenever something good happens to me, I try—it may sound kind of bad—to think a little negative. I just always try to keep myself grounded.
- I keep my eyes wide open. Because trouble is out there.
- With my size and speed, my ability to make moves and great vision, I sometimes feel like it’s an unfair advantage over the defense.
- I guess the way I describe it is when basketball players talk about being in the zone, and they feel like they can’t miss. That’s the way a running back feels when the game is in slow motion. It feels like every cut is right. Every run is going to be at least 10 yards. You see what the defense is doing. You know what they’re trying to do to you. It’s awesome.
LD Quotations
- I want to have a family and teach them the way to live their lives, pretty much the way I was raised, with a lot of love and the Lord. I want them to stay off the streets and to have goals and dreams.
- You’ve got to earn respect as life goes on.
- I’m inspired by my family, especially my mother.
- I take being a role model seriously.
- I’m passionate about the game of football.
- God has really blessed me with the ability to put me ahead of the class.
- I run with heart and determination, and that’s what you can’t measure—the heart.
- Faith is a strong word in my life. That’s one thing my mother has always stressed to me.
- I believe in working hard all the time. I have faith that working hard is going to get me where I want to go.
Wide Receiver Quotations
Here’s what some NFL wide receivers had to say.
Jerry Rice Takes
- Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.
- The enemy of the best is the good. If you’re always settling with what’s good, you’ll never be the best.
- Not wanting to disappoint is what pushed me to be successful.
- They never clocked me on my way to the end zone. They never caught me because I ran scared.
- I was always in search of a perfect game and I never got it.
- When you begin to lose the fire a little bit, and if you’re not giving 100 percent out there, then it’s time for you to leave because you’ll end up getting hurt – I want to be able to walk away on top.
Randy Moss Quotes
- Straight cash, homey.
- I don’t care about my image. I’m already paid. I’ve already got my money, so why worry about my image.
- When you’re rich, you don’t write checks.
- I love the game so much. I’ve been penalized. I’ve been fined. I have some regrets in my career. But for those four hours on Sunday, you can be free and just let it all go. Retiring had nothing to do with football; it had to do with my family.
Justin Jefferson Quotes
- I always gotta have that mindset that nobody can guard me.
- You have to make every play if you want to be the best, and you can’t ever let up.
- I hate losing, I’m a competitive person and I’ll be satisfied once we win the big goal.
- Everything’s not going to go the way you want it. But the great ones find a way to bounce back.
- I’ve always been a confident player. I’ve always played with a certain amount of swagger. I’ve always trusted in my abilities. I knew that I would go out there and take what I could get.
- I just gotta keep going. I just gotta find way to better myself and keep going.
- I like to have fun and play football. Being there with my teammates, my brothers, that’s all I need. As long as I’m getting my little share of the ball, then I don’t see no problems.
Defensive Stars’ Quotes
The defense never rests. Check out these football insights from some of the best defenders of the NFL.
Chris Jones Quotations
- The hard work that I actually put in to get here, where I’m at today.
- For me, it’s nothing changes. It’s all about being the best I can be. It’s all about being the sack leader, and winning Defensive Player of the Year. I’m always pushing myself to new heights. It’s one of the check marks on my journey.
- I think me and the Chiefs came to an agreement at a certain number, we both agreed to, and we made it happen.
Ray Nitschke NFL Quotes
- I just love to play football.
- I think it was the preparation and everything Lombardi represented, you know, about hard work and that every game was important. So when you get to the real important games, you were ready to go.
- I think Lombardi teams enjoyed and wanted to get into big games.
- It was another day to go to work and try to play and play well.
- Packer fans are nuts, man.
- I’m not a madman.
- It was the character of the Packers, man. We played for sixty minutes. We let it all hang out. There was no tomorrow for us. We got the adrenaline flowing, and we just let it go, man.
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Merlin Olsen Quotes
- One of life’s most painful moments comes when we must admit that we didn’t do our homework, that we are not prepared.
- The winning team has a dedication. It will have a core of veteran players who set the standards. They will not accept defeat.
- I probably played hurt a lot more times than I should have.
- I was always the last one chosen for football games in Central Park.
- When a man lies, he murders some part of the world.
- I just wanted to be an athlete.
- You are the land, the land is you.
See Super Bowl Quotes.
Deion Sanders NFL Quotes
- Whenever you make a promise, you have a responsibility to that promise.
- What separates us is that we expect to be great.
- If your dream ain’t bigger than you, there’s a problem with your dream.
- When we have public success we also have private struggles.
Mike Singletary Quotations
- Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.
- Before we can talk about a championship, we have to practice like a championship team.
- Nobody intimidates me.
- You never really know about a quarterback until he plays in a real game.
- Players respond to coaches who really have their best interests at heart.
Michael Strahan NFL Quotes
- As the game gets bigger, it gets bigger for the players.
- Camp is always all business.
- We’re sympathetic, but once you step on the field, football’s football.
Reggie White NFL Quotes
- God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight.
- People consider me a success because I’m a good football player and make lots of money. But if my heart’s not right, if I’m not living a life pleasing to God, I’m a failure.
- One thing that I don’t think my critics realize about me is that I’ve been trained to look adversity in the face.
- I have a lot of respect for tough coaches.
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The best football quotations from NFL stars, coaches, players, columnists, humorists, and more. If you have suggestions for the best football quotes, please let us know. Thanks.
By Mike O’Halloran
Founder and Editor, Sports Feel Good Stories
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