I was the one who took football off the back pages and put it on to page one.

If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.

Louis van Gaal is one of the most successful managers in the world.

I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense.

A coach, especially at a college level – much more at a college or high school level, than at a pro level – you’re more of a teacher than an actual coach.

Men like a ref decision because they just want to get back to the game.

I’m sure everyone knows now that only a few have performed in Madison Square Garden. That list is so small. Now I’m on that list. I’m a part of a very small group, which is unbelievable. You relish in that moment for a second.

In T20, you don’t have time to get distracted – it’s so quick, you have to run around in the field, and while batting, you don’t actually think about anything else.

It’s a very strange thing being recognized or looked upon as someone special.

I’m over being a pop star. I don’t wanna be a hot girl. I wanna be iconic. And I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I feel like I’m highly respected, which is more important than any award or any amount of records. And I feel like there comes a point when being a pop star is not enough.

One reason I don’t want to play in England again is because we don’t have any personalities.

I am a professional sportswriter, among other things, and I take the games seriously. It is only one of my many powerful addictions, and I don’t mind admitting any of them.

I used to play a lot of different sports. Now when I look back, I understand that it really helped with my hand-eye coordination.

I was a naturally aggressive left-back, a cut-throat tackler.

I think that we have opportunities all around us – sometimes we just don’t recognize them.

I’ve always been privileged to play for Coach Belichick, who I’ve always said is the best coach in the history of the league.

The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.

Baseball changes through the years. It gets milder.

In many ways, when you’re a Nobel peace laureate, you have an obligation to humankind, to society.

I didn’t play soccer; I played that other football in grade school through college.

I want to go down in the history books with what I’ve achieved.

In an individual sport, yes, you have to win titles. Baseball’s different. But basketball, hockey? One person can control the tempo of a game, can completely alter the momentum of a series. There’s a lot of great individual talent.

As long as I am playing competitive football I am happy.

The last thing you want is to not be recognized for all of the hard work you put in.

The worst thing is for a player to come to a club and not be able to play.

If I said I would knock out Sonny Liston in 1 minute and 49 seconds of the first round, that would hurt the gate.

Without football, my life is worth nothing.

When did I know I had talent? I think it started when I first started playing sports, organized sports.

The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.

Football is big business – you can’t get away from it. But you have to separate that side from the playing.

Once it gets down to single-digit games, you know the season’s end is approaching, and we’re all pretty physically tired.

Some of the stuff I do on the court is what most people think they can do.

It feels good to have your work respected again.

Sometimes you recognize that there is a category of human experience that has not been identified but everyone knows about it. That is when I find a term to describe it.

I swim like a fish and I have an amazing kick.

You can’t score if you’re turning it over. It’s like a punt. If you go out and you punt 12 times, you’re not scoring points. That’s not good. So, when you turn the ball over and throw interceptions, you’re giving the other team more opportunities and your team less opportunities.

I am fortunate to have played 15 years for my country.

I’m glad a genre writer has got a knighthood, but stunned that it was me.

Getting recognized is insane. It just blows my mind. Like, someone who you don’t know at all can just be like, ‚Oh my God – are you Billie?‘

The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.

Cobb is a prick. But he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit.

Football is a team game and none can survive or excel without the help of the other.

When I was in Portugal I hardly played six-or-seven matches. Although I would train daily to keep my shape. Even then it was really difficult when I came back to get in shape and represent my country.

Most home teams have chapels, so when I’m on the road I’ll probably go to their services.

I’m the most recognized and loved man that ever lived cuz there weren’t no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people far away in the villages didn’t know about them.

What the ISL has done is create the hype and buzz around football that it very badly needs.

Football (soccer) is a matter of life and death, except more important.

All I can do is try to create my own brand and have people appreciate me for that.

Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.

We’re not going to go 82-0 and blow everybody out. We are going to be challenged.

When I was a kid, I never thought much about football. I thought about following in my family’s footsteps and going into professional wrestling.

I know I’m more on television, and I’m more recognisable than maybe even the players because they run and train, but I just stand there, and my face does all these funny things that everyone can see all the time.

I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.

Nothing extraordinary happens to a cricketer if you time his career – which is very short.

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!

I look at athletes in all sports and try to picture what kind of football player they’d be, what position they’d play and so on.

My mother used to tell me man gives the award, God gives the reward. I don’t need another plaque.

Sectional football games have the glory and the despair of war, and when a Texas team takes the field against a foreign state, it is an army with banners.

People have asked me a lot of times, because I didn’t hit a lot, how long a dozen bats would last me. Depending on the weight and model I was using at that time – I would say eight to 10 cookouts.

Look at the Chandra Levy case. It’s become a Star Chamber. The major networks, the cable networks, they’re being prosecutors. They’re judges and jurors and executioners. Well, c’mon, that’s ridiculous. But they’re doing it.

But sports carried me away from being in a gang, or being associated with drugs. Sports was my way out.