The Pro Football Hall of Fame is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. To commemorate the occasion they put together a terrific book. Several excellent football writers and historians such as Bob Carroll, Joe Horrigan, Steve Sabol, Rick Gosselin, Peter King have contributed their thoughts on selected decades. Scattered throughout the book are quotes from players that played the game of football oh so well. Here are some of their words.
"Gosh, kicking a football to Red Grange would be like grooving a baseball to Babe Ruth. It's something to be avoided whenever possible."
-Paddy Driscoll
"I liked the way I played it. You went the full sixty minutes. When I turned pro and joined the Duluth Eskimos in 1926, we barnstormed after the regular season. We went from September to January and from Maine to the Pacific Coast. In all we played twenty-nine games and we had only sixteen men on the squad. If the coach took a man out of the game for s substitution, he got mad. That's how much we loved it."
-Ernie Nevers
"I love the game. That's why I play it. I might make more money in some other line of endeavor, so it is not the 'sugar' that keeps me at it."
-Guy Chamberlain
"Running is like driving a car. When you drive, you're looking quite a ways down the street. The things that are close you take care of automatically with reflex action."
-Earl "Dutch" Clark
"I always used my strength in football. I liked to meet guys head-on when I was carrying the ball. Then I'd drop my shoulder, and catch him with that, and then brush him off with my arm. It worked most of the time."
-Bronko Nagurski
"Not too dang many funny things happened to me in football, on or off the field. I can't think of anything funny that ever happened on the field. When I walked on the field, I was serious. You've got to be. I wasn't a loner, I conversed with my teammates, but I was serious about my job. We had a good group of boys. We had fun during practice. I think at that time we had more fun than today. We enjoyed it more."
-Sammy Baugh
"In those days the more things a player did, the more pay he could demand. I could run, kick, pass, and catch, and that made me a valuable property."
-Charley Trippi
"I could make tackles until I'm fifty. Your body may go, but your heart doesn't."
-Emlen Tunnell
"I was as big as the linemen I ran against, so I didn't worry about them. And once I ran over a back twice, I didn't have to run over him a third time. He had reservations by then."
-Marion Motley
"I never said a word to a receiver who dropped the ball. I'll admit that I sure raised hell with the guy who blew an assignment, though. There's no excuse for that."
-Bobby Layne
"There's no thrill in football like popping the ball to a receiver who has a step on his man in the open."
-Bob Waterfield
"Coach Lombardi is very fair. He treats us all the same way...like dogs."
-Henry Jordan
"I'm the best defensive end around. I'd hate to have to play against me!"
-Deacon Jones
"This is like being a kid, having fun and being animated. If I didn't do any of this, I would be too mechanical, too uptight. I want to be loose. I am at my best when I am rolling and throwing. I am different, but I am consistent."
-John Randle
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