During the height of the Roman Empire’s powers, the most famous version of sport, was gladiatorial combat (immortalized in Ridley Scott‘s classic movie, Gladiator). Slaves and soldiers went against each other and usually fought to the death. The primogenitor of all of the world’s stadiums, the Roman Colosseum was built to host the bravest and the most glorious gladiators of the Roman Empire. Hoardes of fans sat in the stands, cheered and jeered as the symphony of blood, sweat, muscle and metal pierced the air and Rome went crazy.
As time has passed, human society has become increasingly civilized. A large variety of new sports have been invented and while they don’t end with someone’s death, a small chunk of modern sports are still very violent. One of the most prominent violent sports in the world, is American Football. Governed and run by the National Football League (NFL), it features bone crushing tackles and concussion inducing collisions. As far as modern sports go, American Football comes closest to the violent and visceral nature of Roman gladiatorial combat.
In its long and illustrious history, the NFL has been blessed with some of the greatest athletes and some of the greatest coaching minds in human history. The motivational stuff that came out of the mouths of these coaches and players, is pure gold. Here are few of best ones. Use them to motivate yourself in any aspect of life because if these words can’t motivate you, probably nothing else will.
- “It’s not the SIZE of the dog in the fight, but the size of the FIGHT in the dog”. – Archie Griffin, Cincinnati Bengals
- “When you’re GOOD at something, you’ll tell everyone. When you’re GREAT at something, they’ll tell you.”- Walter Payton, Chicago Bears
- “WINNING is not everything–but making the EFFORT to win is”- Vince Lombardi, Green Bay Packers
- “If what you did YESTERDAY seems big, you haven’t done anything TODAY.”- Lou Holtz, New York Jets
- “A CHAMPION is simply someone who did NOT give up when they wanted to.”- Tom Landry, Dallas Cowboys
- “The man who complains about the way the ball BOUNCES is likely the one who DROPPED it.” – Lou Holtz
- “If it doesn’t matter who WINS or loses, then why do they keep SCORE.” – Vince Lombardi
- “Your TALENT determines what you can do. Your MOTIVATION determines how much you are willing to do. Your ATTITUDE determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz
- “The harder you WORK, the harder it is to SURRENDER”- Marv Levy, Buffalo Bills
- “If you want to WIN, do the ordinary things BETTER than anyone else does them day in and day out.”- Chuck Noll, Pittsburgh Steelers
- “Life is TEN percent what happens to you, and NINETY percent how you respond to it.” – Lou Holtz
- “You FAIL all of the time. But you aren’t a FAILURE until you start blaming someone else”- Bum Phillips, Houston Texans
- “If you’re not IN the parade, you WATCH the parade. That’s life.”- Mike Ditka, Chicago Bears
- “The ONLY discipline that lasts, is SELF discipline”- Bum Phillips
- “Today I will do what other WON’T, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others CAN’T” – Jerry Rice, San Francisco 49ers
- “How do you WIN? By getting average players to play good and good players to play great. That’s how you WIN.”- Bum Phillips
- “Work isn’t WORK unless you would rather be DOING something else,”- Don Shula, Miami Dolphins
- “Coaching is not how much you KNOW. It’s how much you can get players to DO.” – Bum Phillips
- “For EVERY pass I caught in a game, I caught a THOUSAND in practice.”- Don Hutson, Green Bay Packers
- “Remember, TOMORROW is promised to no ONE.”- Walter Payton
- “We would ACCOMPLISH many more things if we did not think of them as IMPOSSIBLE.”- Vince Lombardi
- “It takes 20 YEARS to build a reputation and 5 MINUTES to ruin it.”- Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos
- “There is NO substitute for WORK.”- Vince Lombardi
- “Winning isn’t getting ahead of OTHERS. It’s getting ahead of YOURSELF.”- Roger Staubach, Dallas Cowboys
- “Once you LEARN to quit, it becomes a HABIT.”- Vince Lombardi
- “In order to WIN the game, you must first not LOSE it.”- Chuck Noll
- “If you’re not gonna go ALL the way, why go at ALL?”- Joe Namath, New York Jets
- “It’s not whether you get knocked DOWN, it’s whether you get UP.”- Vince Lombardi