Football is more than just a game; it’s a way of life for so many people. Whether you play, coach, or simply love the game, football can teach us some really important life lessons.
These quotes inspired by football will give you the motivation to keep pushing forward, both on and off the field.
Motivation on the Field
- “Success isn’t owned. It’s leased, and rent is due every day.”
– J.J. Watt - “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”
– Vince Lombardi - “Winners never quit, and quitters never win.”
– Vince Lombardi - “Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and respect for authority.”
– Vince Lombardi - “The harder you work for something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it.”
– Unknown - “Champions keep playing until they get it right.”
– Billie Jean King - “You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional.”
– Joe Paterno - “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
– Wayne Gretzky - “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
– John Wooden - “The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.”
– Ernie Banks - “Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.”
– Unknown - “Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.”
– Kobe Bryant - “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
– Mark Twain - “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing.”
– Pelé - “You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.”
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.”
– Lance Armstrong
Teamwork and Unity
- “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
– Phil Jackson - “In football, as in life, you must learn to play within the rules of the game.”
– Hayden Fry - “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.”
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
– Helen Keller - “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”
– Babe Ruth - “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
– Henry Ford - “None of us is as smart as all of us.”
– Ken Blanchard - “It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit.”
– Harry Truman - “A successful team beats with one heart.”
– Unknown - “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
– Michael Jordan - “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
– Henry Ford - “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
– Ryunosuke Satoro - “The nicest thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side.”
– Margaret Carty - “Teamwork makes the dream work.”
– John C. Maxwell - “Unity is strength. When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.”
– Mattie Stepanek - “We rise by lifting others.”
– Robert Ingersoll - “There is no ‘I’ in team, but there is in win.”
– Michael Jordan - “It takes two flints to make a fire.”
– Louisa May Alcott - “Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.”
– Kenyan Proverb - “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.”
– H.E. Luccock - “Together we can face any challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky.”
– Sonia Gandhi - “Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.”
– Stephen Covey - “No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson - “A boat doesn’t go forward if each one is rowing their own way.”
– Swahili Proverb
Leadership and Discipline
- “Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge.”
– Coach Mike Krzyzewski - “Football doesn’t build character. It reveals character.”
– Marv Levy - “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.”
– Jimmy Johnson - “Leaders are not born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work.”
– Vince Lombardi - “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
– Jim Rohn - “A leader’s job is to look into the future and see the organization not as it is, but as it can become.”
– Jack Welch - “The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”
– Pelé - “Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence by seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.”
– Tom Landry - “You earn your leadership every day.”
– Michael Jordan - “The best teams have chemistry. They communicate with each other and they sacrifice personal glory for the common goal.”
– Dave DeBusschere - “Leaders don’t force people to follow—they invite them on a journey.”
– Charles S. Lauer - “The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.”
– Bum Phillips - “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.”
– Norman Schwarzkopf - “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
– John C. Maxwell - “Discipline yourself, and others won’t need to.”
– John Wooden - “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.”
– Vince Lombardi - “Good players inspire themselves. Great players inspire others.”
– Unknown - “A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people or improve the system they live under.”
– Sam Houston - “The strength of the group is the strength of the leaders.”
– Vince Lombardi - “Leadership means being willing to take the hits for your team.”
– Tony Dungy - “True leadership lies in guiding others to success—in ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do, and doing it well.”
– Bill Owens - “To be successful in coaching, you have to treat your team like a family. The leader needs to be completely honest with everyone, and at the same time, be compassionate.”
– Mike Krzyzewski - “Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.”
– Abraham Lincoln - “Great leaders don’t set out to be leaders… They set out to make a difference.”
– Unknown
In Summary:
These quotes show how determination, teamwork, and leadership can make all the difference, whether you’re playing or just navigating life. Remember them the next time you’re up against a challenge, and you’ll be ready to take it on!
