John Madden quotes: awesome stuff from the NFL legend.
“The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else.”
“Commit to what you do.”
“Love what you do. If you love what you do as a leader then you will have a fruitful time helping others achieve their goals.”
“Work life is hard and if you do not enjoy what you do, avoid it.”
“Don’t do anything great if you can’t handle the congratulations.”
“Give something that wasn’t expected.”
“Be on time. Pay attention.”
“Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.”
“If a guy doesn’t work hard and doesn’t play well, he can’t lead anything. All he is, is a talker.”
“Discipline is knowing what you’re supposed to do and doing it as best you can.”
“If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.”
“Don’t worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon.”
“The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer.”
“When the going gets tough, I’m not always sure what you do. I’m not saying that I know how to fix everything when the going gets tough, but I do know this: when the going goes tough, you don’t quit. And you don’t fold up. And you don’t go in the other direction.”
“Sometimes maybe you have to adjust your system to what you have. That’s easy to say but it’s hard to do if you don’t have much.”
“Somewhere… you have to take it over and say, ‘I’m taking this game over.'”
“As players, we’ve got to accept some of the responsibility of making our own decisions.”
“I’ve always said winning’s the great deodorant, and conversely, when you have a bad record – everything stinks – and everything starts to unravel, and everything falls apart.”
“Real frontier-busting math explores new worlds. If you can communicate that experience – somewhere between math and uncertainty – life experience provides the balance.”
“Being partners with education means bringing business volunteers in to our schools to show that the economics of life and business are relevant to present and future success.”
“Nothing jazzes me up like football. I’ve acquired more passion over the years, not less. Not to love it wouldn’t make sense.”
“I’m a huge sports fan. I was an old tackle riding around talking to people about sports. Like I’ve said to a lot of people over the years: I only go where old tackles go and if an old tackle does not belong there, I’m not going.”
“I was a coach, and I put a lot of education and experience into coaching.”
“Coaches have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen to what they don’t want to hear.”
“If someone remembers me as a coach, they still call me ‘Coach,’ but if they know me for the video game, they just call me ‘Madden.’ And sometimes they’re surprised to learn there actually is a ‘Madden.'”
“It’s been the video game ever since I got out of coaching. Even when I was an announcer, fewer and fewer people remembered me as ‘Coach,’ and as the years went on, people just started knowing me from the game.”
“People say, ‘Is broadcasting the same as coaching?’ I say, ‘Hell, no.’ Coaching, you win and lose. Broadcasting, you don’t win and lose. Coaching was a lot bigger than broadcasting.”
“I like to hear about what people do. That’s more interesting than talking about what the hell I do.”
“As I look back now on my coaching career, I think of my family, I think of the days that we spent together. I say this to coaches everywhere: if you ever have a chance to take your kids with you, take them. Don’t miss that opportunity. Because when it’s all over and done with, when you look back, those are going to be your fondest memories.”
“[On his health issues] There’s always stuff in you that’s going to get you. It just piled up on me and said, ‘Okay we let you off the hook a long time. You were on the road, you were on the bus, you were traveling all the time. You couldn’t get sick then. Now we got you, man. You can get sick.’ So they got me. I’m glad I think we’re all finished; I hope so. I’ve been through all that and am coming out the other end now.”
“I never professed to be perfect. I do something wrong or something stupid, I laugh at myself.”
“The best thing about getting older is knowing history. The longer you live, the longer you have been in a sport, the more you know, and the more you know where things started.”
“I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I never really had a job. I was a football player, then a football coach, then a football broadcaster. It’s been my life. Pro football has been my life since 1967. I’ve enjoyed every part of it. Never once did it ever feel like work. I haven’t worked a day in my life.”
“Stand up, enjoy the moment. This is ours. They can’t take it away from us. They can’t ever take this away from us. Thanks to all of you. The whole bunch of you, I love you.”
“It’s been such a great ride… the NFL has been my life for more than 40 years, it has been my passion – it still is. I appreciate all of the people who are and were such an important part of the most enjoyable, most fun anyone could have… that great life with the teams, the players, the coaches, the owners, the League… and the fans… is still great… it’s still fun. I just want to say in closing that it’s been a great ride. I want to thank everyone who has been along for any part of it.”
“I’m not going to make a lot of sense and I don’t care. It comes from my heart. I am humbled and grateful and thankful. I just got to sit down. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“Boom, boom, foom, poom! He just ran right at ’em!”
