Talking Football

Here are some football quotes that have passed my way in recent weeks.

"The world lost the greatest undertaker when Clark Shaugnessy decided on football coaching instead."

     -Robert Zuppke

"Why don't you guys tell me which play he's going to get hurt on and I'll make sure he's not in there."

     -Bill Belichick in response to being questioned about putting players in harms way by playing them in a football game.

"(Jim) Langer and I had a standing bet which side of Zonk's face his nose would be on at the end of the game."
     -Bob Kuechenberg

"I just play my game. You got to reckon with me I don't have to reckon with you."
     -Mean Joe Greene

I think it's because I kept my sense of humor. I just got along. I took it-and bounced back for more. And scoring touchdowns won a lot of the Southern players over to my side."
     -Fritz Pollard

"A lot of people today think Green Bay was never a great football town until Vince Lombardi built all those winners in the 1960s. This kind of annoys me. They talk like we were a bunch of guys that got together on weekends. Listen, Lambeau...won six championships, and in his early days he was just as tough and mean as anyone else. You think Lombardi was tough? Lambeau was tougher."
     -Clarke Hinkle

"In 1933 I paid $2,500 for a National Football League franchise, which I named the Pirates because the Pittsburgh baseball team was called the Pirates. It wasn't until 1940, when we had contest for a new name, that we became the Steelers. Joe Carr's girlfriend won the contest. There were some people who said, 'That contest doesn't look like it was on the level.'"
     -Art Rooney

"I sleep fast."
     -Bobby Layne

"No linebacker in this league could stop (Jim) Brown man-to-man."
     -Sam Huff

"Middle linebackers develop a fondness for train wrecks."
     -Curly Lambeau

"Running is so natural to me. When I was running track, people used to ask me, 'When are you gonna start running hard?' The wind hits me in the face, and I feel so smoooooth. Man, I love to run!"
     -Eric Dickerson

"Based on the NFL quarterback rating system, Montana's '89 season was simply the best anyone has ever had-the highest rating (112.4) and third-highest competition percentage (70.2) in history. But those are just numbers. The 49ers swept through the playoffs and Super Bowl like a broom, trouncing Denver to repeat as NFL champions. Their efficiency was frightening, and Montana was the master."
     -Paul Zimmerman, from Sports Illustrated, August 12, 1990

"Nevermore...Quoth the Ravens Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed to quarterbacks foolish enough to throw in his area."
     -NFL 100: A Century of Pro Football