Barry Larkin Quotes

I love playing sports. I'm overly eager and aggressive and not very skilled, so it leads to many small injuries.

I played basketball, baseball, and football. I never had much downtime. But I think playing multiple sports helped tremendously in my baseball career. I have the agility of all three combined into one.

It's hard to know when to call it a day as a footballer.

If you play football, there's going to be a 100 percent injury rate. Something is going to be bothering you. So I just try to focus on the things that I can do to help my team.

I've had one very bad ankle injury but otherwise I've been incredibly lucky with my fitness. I've worked hard at it and I've always been fit even compared to other players. That sustains you through various parts of your career, but I am 36.

Sometimes fitness is a good thing to have, but you have to recognise that fitness takes you only so far, and skills are the most important thing. Fitness just helps you execute those cricketing skills for longer and more consistently, maybe.

I wasn't completely comfortable in the footy culture because I wasn't that comfortable in my own skin, which I am now. I'd fit in better now, but I don't miss the training and the injuries you get playing footy.

It's a lot tougher to play soccer and make it look believable. But in boxing, it was easier for me. I got injured a lot more in the soccer world. In soccer, I pulled muscles. I thought boxing was going to be tougher.

For a quarter of a century, I've been playing baseball for pay. It has been pretty good pay, most of the time. The work has been hard, but what of it? It's been risky. I've broken both my legs. I've sprained everything I've got between my ankles and my disposition. I've dislocated my joints and fractured my pride.

Our sport is not made for anybody to be able to play it, especially at the NFL level, so there's obviously some risk that we all take knowingly.

I never had a serious injury that kept me out of a big competition. Now everyone has injuries - to their feet or their knees or their backs.

I understand that when a player reaches his mid-thirties, and has a few injuries, people start to question how long he can last.

Football players have always got a problem, some pain, and in some games, I have had small problems with my knee or some pain, and I played anyway, but people don't know if I have a problem or not. People just know if you score a goal or if you play badly, but they never know if you are well or not.

Guys are bigger, stronger, just like in singles, serving bigger, returning better, and more athletic for sure. I think from my standpoint, just spending more time in the gym has enabled me to hang in there.

I want to play football. I'm not just here to pick up my salary and do nothing. I'm young, I'm still 23 and still have a very long career, and I want to play games.

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

It's just that right now the athlete's on the floor. But we - this is a super athlete.

The reality is that it's just the nature of the game. It's the nature of playing offensive line, defensive line, and linebackers, where your responsibilities as a player involve those little hits that are going to accumulate. You can't take that out of the game.

Young kids do not see tennis as a 'fun' sport.

My father first brought yoga into my life when I was 7. He began yoga, meditation, and diet to help with his back injuries incurred from being really athletic. Once he healed, he began to use yoga to take his body to a new level.

I believe there will be players who, instead of playing eight years, will play six. Who will closely watch how they feel. It will shorten careers.

When I play on grass, my body doesn't ache. It can get sore, but it doesn't pulse, and my legs don't ache. When I play on turf, my legs can pulse and ache for up to 24 hours, and it could take 3-5 days to recover, whereas grass, after 24 hours, I'm ready to play again.

I don't know if I'm ever going to quit playing football. I'm just kidding.

I am a professional footballer and as long as I'm able to make a contribution, I'll be doing all I can to stay at the top.

I love exercise, but I didn't join a single sports club as a student - I have no hand-eye coordination. Things like yoga are amazing, but anything with a ball just isn't for me.