Michael Sam Quotes

The game's just slowed down for me a little bit and I'm able to read the defenses and see how they're playing me.

I would still like to get more athletic and have players that can really cover what's going on in the game.

I think I'm very good at reading coverage and knowing where I want to go with the ball before the ball is snapped.

I feel like I know what defensive backs are going to do before they do it.

You mostly defend with your head, always reacting to the movement of opponents and teammates. I had to become more aware of that, play with much more consideration, the way you drive a car: you always need to look left, right, and the rear mirror to see what's going on around you.

I am someone, as a cricketer, who feels it's very important to be able to adapt quickly to the situation.

You can't say, 'You're a scorer, you score. You rebound, you rebound.' Basketball is more than that. Basketball is knowing the next step, knowing the next play, knowing how to make things happen.

I would always treat my attacking game as the more natural part. With defence, you have to get yourself in positions to understand the game and understand situations and that might not be as natural a thing.

I get a kick out of watching a team defense me. A player moves two steps in one direction and I hit it two steps the other way. It goes right by his glove and I laugh.

We can't continue to always base our strategy on the fact that the other guy is going to mess up all the time.

I'd say that, 99 percent of the time at Nevada, I knew what the coverage was and where I was probably going before the ball was snapped. It makes it very easy when I only had to read one person and know that I was going from here to here, and if not, I'm checking it down.

Wrestling is like improv. You have to feel and sense what the other person is going to do next and respond faster than they do.

Just hearing somebody's voice in center field, it helps our guards out to know where they need to go, when the screen is coming, when the back door is coming, when the flare is coming. When different things like that happen and we're talking, it helps us all out in the long run.

Oftentimes, the post safety will eye me up pre-snap a lot of times and know where I am.

I try to look up as quickly as possible, try to read the situation, but football is so quick, it's just a split-second, and then you decide.

In England, everyone is really physically strong. They can play three games, and then they are ready to play the fourth. If you are a Spanish team, and you give away a corner against an English team, then you have to be ready.

Over the years, you get better at timing because you've been through the situations thousands of times. The ball goes over your head; he passes you on the right, left. Eventually, you just know what you have to do.

If I get my teammates going early, then my shots usually open up. Come off pick and roll and make the pocket pass on the first one. Then it's like OK, does the defender step up now? Then next time I may have the layup. So, just playing the game like that. Reading and reacting and not thinking too much.

The truly great players have this advantage over the rest of the international elite, gifted though those others are: they have the ability to slow down a ball travelling at 90mph, to move before others can, to make the world adjust to their rhythm rather than the other way round.

I had a good football intelligence. I didn't need 10 games to get used to a position. I could go out and do a job.

I try to have a picture when I receive the ball and know where everyone is. That's one of the most important things for a midfielder.

As far as my athletic ability, I can pretty much do it all. You can put me at linebacker and I'll do a good job.

Anybody who has watched me play knows I'm not one of the fastest guys, but I understand what's going on around me and what to look for. I know what the defense is doing.

The more you know about your opponents, the more you learn how to beat them. Where the holes open to run through, blocking schemes, even down to player tendencies and what hand they like to carry the ball with.

When I see Lionel Messi play soccer, he lets the game come to him. He lets the game unveil itself to him, then like a lion he eats the whole thing.