When I watch professional football, I love listening to John Madden because I know he knows what he’s talking about. He’s been both down in the trenches and in front of the bench as a coach. He knows the game.

I always have confidence, whether I miss four in a row or make four in a row, that the next one’s going in. To a coach, sometimes that might not make sense.

My first assistant-coaching job in football was at William & Mary in 1961. The pay wasn’t much, so to get $300 more per year, I agreed to coach the golf team. I didn’t even know how to keep score, and really, my main job was not to wreck the van on the way to tournaments.

Coaching wouldn’t be for me. No, certainly not.

In my heart, I am always a Raider.

As a part of the NFL, things change every year.

I don’t think a coach becomes the right coach until he wins a championship.

I’ve been so blessed to play for the greatest coach at a time when our organization has done incredible things. I’ve played with the best teammates. Playing for Mr. Kraft and what his influence on the team has been.

Had I been a great athlete, I’m not sure I would have even gone into coaching. I may have turned out feeling that my life ended when my athletic career ended, as happens so many times with various athletes.

Everyone is different. Everyone has different teams they’ve played on, coaches they’ve played for.

Nothing surprises me anymore in the NFL.

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.

When I work a game as an analyst, all I do is look at the game like a coach.

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

Over the years, all my coaches and my teammates have contributed a lot to shape my career. I can never forget their contribution and help.

I have to admit, I sometimes wonder how much more successful I would have been as a coach had it not been for my spending summers on the golf course. I could have watched more film, that’s for sure. One advantage Joe Paterno had over me was that he didn’t play golf.

I don’t believe you could be a 39-year-old quarterback in the NFL and eat cheeseburgers every day. I want to be able to do what I love to do for a long time.

You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.

It’s hard for a player to plan for the future, especially in a game like football.

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.

Bobby Knight told me this: ‚There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.‘ In other words a good offense wins.

I was saluted by Alex Ferguson when I was subbed and that made me very happy.

A lifetime contract for a coach means if you’re ahead in the third quarter and moving the ball, they can’t fire you.

I’m a mentor to anybody who’s interested.

Coaching is nothing more than eliminating mistakes before you get fired.

I feel that God wants me to coach; otherwise, he wouldn’t have put the desire in me.

I have no desire at all to become the winningest coach at Notre Dame. The record belongs to Knute Rockne or some other coach in the future.

Whoever the coach is, my job is to talk to him, understand him and be a better player under him and give my best.

Coaches will say that it’s not important for their team to run more, and they prefer to make games the right way. I want to make games only the right way and run 10 km more.

When I started analysing games in 2001, I had a DVD recorder. I’d be at home watching the games just on a normal TV, watching what I could and trying to figure out what we would be facing a few weeks later. The problem was, in the team meetings, I’d always have to keep going back and forwards with the footage, trying to get to the right part.

When I signed up for BFC, then-coach Ashley Westwood wanted me to play on the left as an attacking midfielder. I was not sure initially but I believed in his vision. For the first six-seven games, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was like a headless chicken. But he kept backing me.

I don’t really care how the Patriots are perceived, truthfully. I really don’t. I really don’t. Look, if you’re a fan of our team, you root for us, you believe in our team, and you believe in what we’re trying to accomplish. If you’re not a fan of us, you have a different opinion.

As a coach, one thing that used to frustrate me was one player would make a bad decision, and that’s all you would read about in the papers all over the country. We have so many athletes do so many wonderful things for other people, and you never read about it.

When I left the University of Notre Dame, I honestly felt I would never coach again.

I was the kid that was the 199th pick that never had the body for it. People didn’t think I’d play one year in the NFL, and now I’m going on my 17th year.

I don’t want to wake up and be bored. That’s probably my greatest fear is to have nothing to do. What better job is there than to play quarterback for an NFL team, and certainly one that I’ve been on for a long time and had success with? I don’t plan on giving it up any time soon.

Marathon running, like golf, is a game for players, not winners. That is why Callaway sells golf clubs and Nike sells running shoes. But running is unique in that the world’s best racers are on the same course, at the same time, as amateurs, who have as much chance of winning as your average weekend warrior would scoring a touchdown in the NFL.

I do think coaches need to get away from the game more, though. It’s good for them.

As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don’t know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs?