Boomer Esiason Quotes

The league has to be sensitive about what crosses the line and what doesn't. It's tough to determine what is a legal hit and what isn't a legal hit, and if someone was deliberately trying to hurt someone or not. A certain integrity, though, has to be maintained.

There are a couple people who have complained on other teams about some of the things that Pittsburgh players have done. Some of that goes in the category of gamesmanship. Some of that goes to the fact that we need to be vigilant as a league to make sure that players aren't unnecessarily and inappropriately hurt.

You've got a league with a couple thousand players or so depending on the time of year. Then you have 10 or more very high profile stories that are terrible stories and things that have happened.

The amount of players who get into trouble in the NFL is a very small minority, but they are the ones who make the headlines.

You ask me: 'Was he a fair player?' I say: 'No, I'm sorry, for me he was not a fair player.' I just think I respect him highly as a quality player. I did not like some things he did on the football pitch and I have the right to say that. It's not because you are older, suddenly, that you are a saint.

It's been made clear to all of us that a player should never leave the playing field and go into the stands.

I think the NBA players have to be held accountable in a reasonable way, just like any other professionals.

After my 10-match ban in 2013 for biting Branislav Ivanovic, I had questioned the double standards and how the fact that no one actually gets hurt is never taken into consideration.

Deflategate. I mean it's kind of idiotic in one way. On the other hand, look how totally obsessed we are with the fact that the New England Patriots may have taken, I don't know, a half-pound or a pound square inch of air pressure out of the footballs. We love it.

No one seems to want to do anything about diving in the game apart from me. I'm still amazed by it. Kids everywhere are watching, all copying it. No one seems to care about it.

I'm not a dirty player.

I want to make one thing crystal clear. The NFL does have a responsibility to make sure that their players are upstanding, law-abiding citizens.

When he (Roger Clemens) threw the bat (during Game 2 of the 2000 World Series), I basically walked out and kept asking him what his problem was. He really had no response. I was trying to figure out whether it was intentional or not. I was going to ask him. If it was, then obviously he really no had response. I was more shocked and confused than anything.

Maybe Gary (Neville) deserves to be chased up a tunnel every now and then - there would be a queue for him, probably. But you have to draw a line eventually.

The Russians are the dirtiest players I’ve ever seen.

Athletics set the right sentiment for a clean and believable sport.

I'm one of the most tested athletes in the world.

I have been in many battles with great players, and not once have I ever tried to do anything dirty as far as taking a player out of a game.

I believe that when Fifa hands out an award, it should not be a marketing prize that solely honours the protagonists of a media-crazy sport.

You can't be in the locker room reading 'League of Denial.'

People just don't want to pay to see players diving around.

I never wanted anybody to think that I deliberately hurt opponents. The vast majority of players are the same.

Befriending Pro Bowlers and future Hall of Famers is pretty cool, but I'm just enjoying the ride, looking at every day in the NFL as a memorable moment.

I've picked up quite a few yellow cards in the last few years - a few reds, too. That was the case as a youth player as it is now. But I don't see it as a problem. That's how I play. If you take that away, then I wouldn't be where I am now. So I don't think the yellow cards or the red cards are too big of an issue.

It's true: sometimes Balotelli could behave better, but it also happens to me. I have a similar character, Balotelli is also a very strong player, but if you protest against the referee for every decision, it's logical you are going to irritate the fans.