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I have had players who are good, and who know they are good; I have had players who are bad and know they are bad; I have had players who are good, but who don't know they are good; I have had players who are bad, but who don't know they are bad. It is this last group that has won more games for me than the first three groups combined.
Seeing the same coverages, the same personnel, and for us to change the whole scenery, and bring somebody else in that’s necessarily competitive, a professional competitiveness, where guys are respecting each other’s careers, but yet are getting better. For us to come out here and a get a win, I think it helped us with those practices.
If I'm thinking about a particular injury, then I'm already a step behind. If I'm so gun shy in the pocket and not worried about the receivers that are open down field, something's going to happen that's not going to get the job done. So my main focus is having confidence in myself knowing that I'm able to be myself when I'm out there.
Now, I believe that one of the reasons that Jesus was accused of being a homosexual is because he spent time with homosexuals. I've often had people ask me, would you allow a homosexual to be your friend. Yes, I will. And the reason I will is because I know that that person has problems, and if I can minister to those problems, I will.
Sleep is all about recovering. So if you're not sleeping, you're not recovering. And if you're going to break your body down a lot, you better find ways to build it back up. And the only way to do that is get a lot of sleep. So for me, I go to bed at like 8:30, 9:00. As soon as I put my kids to bed. Because I'm up at 5:30 the next day.
When Kennedy could not get the civil rights bill passed - and he was the big liberal - Lyndon Johnson came in and it got passed, and he was the conservative and the southerner. So sometimes in politics, to get something done, it takes a special kind of knowledge and a special kind of person, but it doesn't always follow the party lines.
No Scot ever made a bigger impact on a club than Bill Shankly. Others may claim an equal share of trophies and Matt Busby comes to mind with his wonderful record crowned by the European Cup, but not even Matt would claim the kinship with the fans that Bill enjoyed. He was what football was all about. I can't praise him higher than that.
He’s totally different from the typical jock. He has no ego. That’s unique for someone with such accolades. His strength comes from a higher power. You can’t explain Steve Largent by computer – he doesn’t belong on an NFL field. You put his size and speed in an IBM computer up in Silicon Valley, it would chew up his data card and laugh.
Just after I retired, Michael Vick came in. And just as background, I really thought the position had changed. I thought the dynamic pass-run, triple-threat quarterback was going to take over the league. And guys like Michael Vick and others would follow and that's what we'd do. But I learned the truth with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
I saw greatness in John and he lived up to it. I also saw a tremendous competitor who loved to win. John is a standard bearer, someone that players, coaches, fans and the Raider Nation can all look up to. One of his great virtues, the fire that burned brightest in him, was his love and passion for football, which was seldom ever equaled.
I think for me, or for anyone who plays the quarterback position, it's almost an unspoken word when you think about leadership. Some guys can be a leader and be a running back or a lineman, or wide receiver, strong safety, or linebacker. But when you speak of quarterbacks, it's automatically a default that you're supposed to be a leader.
Sometimes, when things are going really well, I feel like I've already seen things - it's the flashback feeling in a good way. Like I'm watching a rerun, because I've studied this defense and know what comes next. Now, that is a good feeling, when your mind is working fast because you've studied, and you realize, 'I've seen this before.'
With TV, it's the same way as preparing for the game of football. To get better at football, you have to watch the film and watch those who came before you and played the game, and yes, the first year you come in as a rookie and you're not gonna be as good as when you come in as a vet, and I applied that in the same way to 'Ton of Cash.'
Elliott's bigger, stronger, maybe even a step faster than Emmitt Smith, but they're both very similar. I think, you know, Ezekiel Elliott is a more powerful runner. He runs over people. Both of 'em can make people miss, so you don't really get a big shot on 'em. But Elliott will take on tacklers, whereas, you know, Emmitt never did this.
There are a lot of black men doing really well, taking care of their families, taking care of their wives, being successful, doing the right thing, promoting the right thing. There needs to be an evolution in our portrayal. We have to come together, pool our resources and tell our own stories. People won't respect us unless we make them.
I don't think I'm saying anything wrong. And that's just how I judge it. I believe it's not so much about the people, that's just my take. I think making it about people is the wrong way to do it. I think it's the systems. The systems are broken; the systems are what need to be fixed. I think there's bad people in every sector of America.
My dad, who was a teacher, used to tell me that a teacher's goal should be for every one of their students to get an A. If that's your goal every day - to make every student or player learn - then it doesn't matter if you won last year or didn't win. When next year's team shows up, I try to help every player become as good as they can be.
When I played at Minnesota, Green Bay, those northern cities, Buffalo, they wanted to have those championship games at home. It was going to be an advantage to be there with their fans and the cold weather and all that. But when you've got a Super Bowl, and it's the two best teams, you want ideal conditions. You want to play a great game.
The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual. People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society. Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
At first, after my freshman year, it was kind of a joke, going into my sophomore year like, 'Hey, I wanna graduate in three years, two-and-a-half.' And we were just kind of playing with it, added some extra classes in, and then once I finished that following spring going into that next summer, it was just like, 'Hey, I can actually do it.'
Every positive thing in your life represents a single unique blessing. Every negative thing in your life has the opportunity to become a double blessing. For when you turn a negative into a positive, you gain twice. You are no longer burdened with the negative situation, and in addition to that you are strengthened by a new positive force.
James Davison took me out to show me where Karl is living right now and where hes going to build. Karl wasnt at home. He was out there somewhere in the woods riding on some Caterpillar or some kind of tractor. But I figured wed at least knock on the door to see if he was there. His wife answered the door. So we got to meet Kay before Karl.
We're just at a point in regard to race relations, we're at a tipping point in America. It's a crucial time. It's sad, honestly, I think it's a place that deep down no one wants to be in. But it's something that needs to be addressed, it's something that needs to be fixed, and hopefully we can figure it out and take steps toward doing that.
If you're tweeting - and this is what I tell the young athletes who come to me about these situations, because I've been through them and I've seen both sides of it - if you're tweeting just because everyone else is tweeting and you're not uncomfortable, if it doesn't feel like a sacrifice - like when I wore that T-shirt it was a sacrifice.
I'm a big sleep guy. I think my schedule sorta starts with sleep and making sure I get enough of it. I'm an eight-plus hours guy. I would love to sleep more. I definitely try to create a routine and not stray from that routine at all, but I will take advantage of having an off-morning. And I really have become a fan of the 20-minute catnap.
I struck out with two men on base. I was so angry, so frustrated, I turned and without even thinking about it, snapped my bat over my thigh. The bat split right in half. Afterward, reporters asked me if it was the first time I'd ever broken a bat over my thigh. "I broke an aluminum bat over my knee in college," I said. (I was just kidding).
The most important thing regardless of my stats or anybody else's stats is the win-loss record. In the locker room people are always telling me, you're doing this and that. I don't really pay that much attention so long as we have a 'W' in that column; that's the kind of thing that makes me really happy. It blows all stats out of the water.
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.
There is a movement we call Afro-Futurism, where we imagine a black way of life free of white supremacy and bigotry. 'Black Panther,' I think, is the first blockbuster film centered in the ethos of Afro-Futurism, where the writers and directors and makeup and wardrobe team all imagined a beautiful, thriving black Africa without colonialism.
The book is actually called 'A Mentor Leader, a Different Way to Lead.' It really talks about my experience in the way I tried lead our football team, things that I learned from, basically, the coaches that I played for and my parents about leadership. And it is a little bit different, counter to maybe what society says about great leaders.
My prototypical quarterback is a competitive guy that's a winner, somebody that has great athletic instincts, somebody who is very accurate throwing the football, a quick-minded guy who can think fast on his feet and can make decisions quickly, someone who has leadership ability, an understanding of timing and can make really good decisions.
I don't like going out on a date unless I know the broad a little bit beforehand. By the way, 'broad' to me is not a detrimental term for women; it's simply another word for female. Anyway, I don't really go out a whole lot, because there aren't many girls I like to take out and spend a whole evening with - at least not an evening in public.
The harsh fact of the matter is that this nation has not remotely come to grips with how many of its laws are rooted in slavery and bigoted oppression. After the Civil War, the United States never said, 'Let's examine every law and policy and system and structure we have to evaluate whether or not they were created as a tools of oppression.'
What does it mean to be an American today? The question of that is always pointing at now. It allows someone to say what lens that will be through. A lot of my work has been about identity in different ways. Part of that for me falls into the question of gender identity certainly but also about what it means to be an American theater artist.
A lot of things create a distraction, and when you're on a quest as a football team you want to limit distractions. I'm very much on board with that because I am a football player, and things can be distracting. We have 53 people that we have to make sure aren't distracted, because we only have 16 turns to do it, so every one matters so much.
I was introduced to the Turducken in New Orleans. And it wasn't Thanksgiving. Glenn at the Gourmet Butcher Block brought it by, and I had never heard of it or had seen one, and they put it in the booth, and it smelled so good that I had to taste it. And it was good. Then Thanksgiving came, and we got one in addition to the traditional turkey.
If you're married, and you have a wife, and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife 'I love her' the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity? And that's how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ is that it is the most important thing in my life.
I was raised by my great-great aunt. I was adopted within our family. My mother had me when she was, I think, 15, 16. They tried to get her to have an abortion and she refused. So, my 'mama' adopted me, which was really her great aunt, which was really my great-great aunt, who was named Viola Dickerson. I was told that my mother was my sister.
In this league, there's a lot of times when you're going to have guys open, and it's going to be all good and the fact that you're off a tick might not matter. But when it really matters, you're going to need to be right on it. And I think the more reps you get, the more likely chance you have to feel comfortable in those times of high stress.
My mom was a sub teacher her whole life. My aunt was a teacher her whole life. So that wasn't hard to do. Performing in front of people started when I was a child. My mom ran a theatre. So we were around it. Getting up in front of people has never been an issue. So I think once you get over that part of it, I'm happy to teach anybody anything.
We'll work on relaxation strategies and also changing the times you go to bed will actually make them sleep a little bit less for a few nights so their body's natural sleep drive starts to kick in. That is very effective in about 60% to 70% of patients who do it, four to eight sessions, not even every week; it works for 60% to 70% of patients.
I obviously would love to have a girlfriend, but a girlfriend deserves so much of your time and energy. And she deserves to be treated like a princess because that's how you should treat your girls. And if I can't give them that time and that devotion because of my dedication to football, then I don't feel like I should almost waste their time.
The contract stuff just happens to be a coincidence to me. I always play every game as if my back is against the wall. That's always something that has been good to me since high school. A lot of people believe the grass is greener on the other side, but I'm not one of those people. It wouldn't be my choice to leave, but the Seahawks know that.
When you have to worry about some idiot making the decision on a roster move, or hiring coaches, or some of the stuff you have to worry about... when you have that added pressure and stress of not trusting the organization and knowing that they don't know what they're doing, that's just an added amount of stress you don't need as a young player.
I remember after that, when it was announced I was going to the Heisman ceremony, I didn't think I was going to win it because everybody was saying there was a bias against West Coast teams. I really hadn't paid attention to it. Winning the Heisman wasn't really a goal when I was younger. My goal was to go to USC and win a national championship.
A lot of the things I've done for charity and the money I've given will never be talked about in the media. I'd rather it be that way, because I don't do it for the media. Of course, having celebrities and media there at events helps bring attention to the need, but seeing the looks on peoples' faces when they receive help is why I really do it.
People went to bed when the sun went down and they woke up when the sun came up. That's what our bodies are naturally programmed to do. However, with all the new stresses in life with electricity, with technology, we tend to override that system and we'll stay up later and we'll get up earlier or later, and we use alarm clocks, we use the light.
Perhaps the toughest call for a coach is weighing what is best for an individual against what is best for the team. Keeping a player on the roster just because I liked him personally, or even because of his great contributions to the team in the past, when I felt some one else could do more for the team would be a disservice to the team's goals.
It may seem like I came out of the blue. But, my road was long, windy, full of hurdles, and even some dead ends. I lost family. I lost friends. I even lost my way. When I reached what felt like rock bottom, I realized I had a responsibility to everyone who believed in me and to kids, like me, who just needed a chance and something to believe in.
I played with a left hamstring injury since playing college football at Washington University. I went to doctors all over the country to find out what was wrong, and none of them could figure out the problem in my hamstring. I went to Drs. Baker and they found a huge knot in my hamstring. They were able to release it and fix my hamstring problem.