David Shields Quotes

The N.F.L.'s rule on underclassmen should be abolished, and the N.B.A. should be discouraged from adding an age limit.

Obviously, college stars deserve substantial compensation, right?

It is time for everyone to sit down - the NCAA, the NBA, the players union and the coaching fraternity - and come up with suitable solutions to these problems.

Major League Baseball has the best idea of all. Three years before they'll take a kid out of college, then they have a minor league system that they put the kids in. I'm sure that if the NBA followed the same thing, there would be a lot of kids in a minor league system that still were not good enough to play in the major NBA.

It's not just the NFL. Every other league has a draft. It has been fundamental to the success of professional sports.

There needs to be a college football commissioner.

I never thought Marquis Teague would leave after a year.

I got some cash from agents. I've talked to the NCAA. I think that should be legal. I want some money, too; everybody else is making money. I want to go on dates. I want to go buy myself some new suits. I want to buy myself some new sneakers, and I paid the agents back.

The difference between the National Football League and college is this: In college, you are a broke college student.

I think I could take a job as an NFL scout.

I call it, 'The Kentucky Effect.' Guys from Kentucky are usually drafted higher, and their shoe contracts are worth more. They're in more demand overall because they played here.

Every college coach I talk to won't say it on record, but everyone's thinking, 'Should I go to the league?' Because you don't have the same requirements. It's different. The hours are different.

When you're paying millions of dollars for somebody to coach your team, you can find somebody good.

I think I bring a good perspective because I did a lot of things in the NFL - player, head coach, assistant and scout.

What would be wrong with letting a kid go pro, and if it doesn't work out he can come back to college? What's the harm in that? The reason is the word "amateurism." The NCAA has to protect colleges' tax exemption.

I don't know how Coach Saban found me all the way in Hawaii from Alabama.

My workout routine changed pretty dramatically in the NFL. Workout programs from college to the NFL are significantly different.

The N.C.A.A. is a multibillion-dollar business built on the talents of players who are often unqualified for or uninterested in being students and who benefit materially from the system only if they are among the few who turn professional.

Playing for Midland, that helped me get to Arkansas. It was really all I ever wanted to do.

Teams want the best players. If the best players come through your academy, you can play.

I learned the major difference between college and pro football. In the pros, you're up against a top receiver almost every minute of time. In college, maybe one comes along every third game.

I love Coach Koetter.

Ohio State University puts out some very fine football players.

I grew up playing football and baseball and moved on to play college baseball, and, you know, as a kid, my dream was to play professional baseball.

The phrase 'NFL combine' always sounds redundant, because the league is a combine harvester, reaping and threshing everything in its path.