Mats Hummels Quotes

You can be a top, top player for 10, 20 years, then you become a coach, lose two or three games and you're out.

I just felt all along that if I could get a certain amount of years in the league, have great years and still have my health when I walked away, that would be great.

I don't want to rush into retirement and regret it, because people say play as long as possible until the legs can't take any more.

I've always looked at my career as an athlete would look at his. I won't play forever. Some don't know when to walk away, but the smart ones do.

Getting past 30 as a sportsman, the end could be just around the corner.

I told myself coming into the league that if I could play for six or seven years, that would have been a great career.

I've played for 15 years and played in five major tournaments. I know what it gives me in terms of the joy, in terms of the love for the game. But I'm done with it.

Whether I retire tomorrow or in 20 years, I just want to get as much out as I can. But with that, I have an understanding that basketball's not forever.

It takes a lot of discipline to become and stay champion. It also takes a lot of discipline to stop while still feeling that you're in the best physical and mental shape of your life, but I've always planned to leave the sport when I'm at the top and in good health.

A lot of times late in your career, you don't have a chance to win a championship.

People turn professional and they are not running as fast as they did in college because it is a lot different, but I wanted to make sure that I didn't have that kind of transition and always stayed on top.

There was a time where I was on top of the world, an Olympic hopeful.

I really put the medical school thing on hold and really chased after my football dream. And I guess I'm still chasing. I'm eight years in the NFL, and I feel very fortunate to be where I am.

I would love to bring the state of Utah their first championship. I think that's one thing I've always wanted.

As a young player, I never looked this far ahead. I never thought about how long I was going to play.

I got a small window of time to be an NFL quarterback. Some day when I'm done playing I can sit back and look at what we accomplished, or how does it feel, or what's it like.

My dream is to get gold medal both in the world championship and the Olympics.

Winning is everything, especially at this stage of my career - I'm going into Year 7. Because I've been franchise-tagged twice, I've been in a position where it's not about the money so much; it's about winning. I want to win.

You don't want to get to 40, 45 and not have won the world title.

I've experienced it with Chelsea Women: it can be very hard at the top for long periods of time, fighting just to stay in the same position and to preserve an unbeaten run that will always come to an end.

There are only a certain amount of years you can play this game, and it's even a lower amount for a running back.

I retired at 35 in '98 and thought, 'There's only one place to go, and that's downward.' I retired at a good level. I was at peace after 15 years - I was lucky to play that long.

You hear too many guys talk about retiring too soon.

Going to that level, a lot of guys get to the NFL, and they don't make a long career out of it. The NFL is very hard. One percent of college athletes make it to the NFL.

I've been fortunate enough to play at all the age groups but I'm not eligible for them anymore.