Satchel Paige Quotes

What a blessing it is to throw a baseball for a living!

How can you not have fun going around the country playing baseball for a living? Being a baseball player is the next best thing to being a rock star.

I've always wanted to be a top footballer since I was young.

I wanted to be a professional baseball player.

First of all, I really never imagined myself being a professional athlete.

I had a plan. I played football professionally but I also studied at university.

I don't have any aspirations to play until I'm 50 years old.

You're playing football for a living. There aren't many things better than that.

I'm more than blessed to be able to play a PE sport for money.

Trying to make the NBA is one of the very few areas where a Harvard degree won't necessarily help.

We are getting to the point where, like the men's game, playing football is not only a legitimate career but enables you to live really well and can perhaps even set you up for life. It will allow little girls to tell their mums and dads they want to be professional footballers and not have their dreams dismissed so easily.

I think every young man's goal is to be a professional athlete, whether it's the NBA, MLB, or the NFL.

My first goal was to become a professional footballer.

I've given it all from my combine to my pro day to my meetings with teams.

I played semi-pro at Chalfont St. Peter but it's so hard to become a pro footballer - I think there's even more competition than acting.

People just have no idea how strange and surreal a football life can be.

You can be one inch from the national team and the opportunity to make so much money and a life out of it. That's why people hang on so long.

I came into the league in '94.

Even though arguably I could have done much better at school, I'd decided at a young age that I was going to be a professional sportsman at some sport. And at that stage, there was a bit of luck: I was fortunate to meet the right people at the right time to get me to where I am now.

The odds are stacked against you becoming a footballer, so my family made sure I always had a backup plan.

I feel bad for guys in other sports that never work a job. Think about it, most MMA fighters have had to do something for money whereas a guy who was an athlete in college sport then went straight to the pros, he's never had a skill outside of sport.

I remember I wanted to be an athlete. I wanted to be in the NFL or NBA or something, and I don't think I dreamed of being a benchwarmer. I'm sure I wanted to be the best. But I didn't really ever think I was going to be a famous musician.

I am full time athlete.

My dad was a great athlete growing up, and he could never fulfill his dreams of playing professional baseball.

When you're growing up and thinking about being a footballer, you want to make as many caps and play as many games as you can.