Written Down
These football players tried to spice up their interviews by quoting their colleagues, but it didn’t come out quite right.
- A strip-sack by the linebacker is not dexterity. Dexterity is the strip-sack delivered by the linebacker, when the quarterback is just as hungry as the linebacker. (Rick Mirer)
- I’ll risk forty two dollars that he can outjump any back on the Packers. (Dick Bielski)
- The ball dropped with a bounce to some defender, to some tackler, the Cardinals receiver cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath - ‘The Fumble! The Fumble!’ (John David Crow)
- When you are a Running Back of Very Few Carries, and you Rush the Ball, you find sometimes that a rushing Lane that seemed very Lanish at the snap is quite different when you get into it with the ball and have linebackers looking at you. (Simeon Rice)
- Gunners diverged round the line, and I—
I took the snap and booted high. (Dewayne Robertson) - Be a passer, and let your passes be strong (pass boldly), but let your trust in the offensive line be stronger, and rejoice in the tight end who is the lynchpin in the splitback, the I, and the wildcat. (Billy Sims)
- Referees of the sidelines, first down! You have nothing to move but the chains. (Bert Jones)
- Blitzing and blitzing in the muddy mire,
The Falcons cannot hear the snap count;
The pocket proves impenetrable; the linebackers cannot cover;
The Oilers tight end is loosed upon the secondary. (Jim Houston) - To be included in Coach Green’s team for a while was a remarkable experience: the receivers believed he made routes for them, recognizing the proud uniqueness of their abilities, buried under the running formations of so many other playbooks. (Michael Clayton)
- Next o’er ‘hawk hands the ball begins to roll;
The Oakland corner with the ball he stole.
How here they fumbl’d, how there he gripp’d it snug,
The drive now o’er; the ball inside his hug. (Bob Whitfield) - As many more teams in the NFL begin the season than can possibly go to the playoffs; and as, consequently, there is a long schedule in which teams play each other in a series of competitions for these playoff berths, it follows that the Eagles, if their playbook varies slightly in a manner profitable to the offense, under the complex and sometimes varying rules of the league, will have a better chance of reaching the Super Bowl, and thus be nationally selected. (Jim Everett)
- But the hands of one of the cornerbacks were laid on the backup QB’s neck while the other pushed him down toward the turf and twisted him there, twice. As his balance failed, the QB saw the two cornerbacks shoulder to shoulder, through the grille of his facemask, watching the result. Collared. “Like a horse!” he said. (Russell Okung)
- To hell with the wind! As the history of the game proves, the wind has no bearing on a punt. It’s unavoidable and immaterial, as the coaches say. The skill of the kick returner is what gives life to the whole misbegotten, mad special teams unit, fast or slow. (Marshall Faulk)
- Tampa Stadium’s the stage.
And all the players merely stand-ins;
They have their positions and their gameplans;
And one receiver in his prime runs many routes,
His game lasting four quarters. (Kelly Stouffer)