Athletic Burnout Quotes

To continue playing late into your twenties in the same style that you once played as a teenager is not possible.

Every year it happens. When I'm not putting up big numbers, I start hearing it - that I'm too old, that time finally has caught up with me.

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

Had I been a great athlete, I'm not sure I would have even gone into coaching. I may have turned out feeling that my life ended when my athletic career ended, as happens so many times with various athletes.

My favorite was always whichever sport was in season. I think these days it's almost saddening to see kids who are 10 or 11 and are forced to choose one sport and specialize in that sport and play that sport year-round. By playing different sports... you become a better all-around athlete.

For a lot of players, it's not that they don't want to play anymore or that they get tired of it or bored of it. It's that their bodies give out.

Fans and reporters, they don't get that ever since I was five, all I've done is competed against something. I always had a goal. Then, whenever you hit a point, there's a point in an athlete's life where it's like, 'Is it still worth it?'

If you're mentally weak, it can destroy you. Some guys who look talented lose and never come back.

I'm nothing more than a sports slave.

When I was in Europe maybe you are tired for all year - playing, training, training, training.

I happened to be in a position in Superior where I could play three sports, and when I came to Minnesota, I had the understanding they would allow me to play three sports. Kids now don't have the same amount of time. You have coaches that think baseball is 10 months a year. Hockey is 11 or 12 months a year.

Swimming is probably the ultimate of burnout sports. It's ironic because millions of people who swim as their regular exercise love the meditation aspect of it; you don't wind up with any orthopedic injuries. But when you swim at a world class level for hours and hours - the loneness of the long distance runner.

I've said many times in the past that my career's not going to go on much longer; I'm not going to keep going and riding until I'm in my 30s and things like this.

Sometimes guys peak early. They get drafted higher, and they make it to the NFL, and they don't have a lot of growth.

I think there's nothing sadder than a pro athlete who plays past his prime.

A lot of coaches and players get so tunnel-visioned that when they do have some time off, they spend it concentrating on the game.

In my situation, unlike some players who retire because they have no choice - either teams don't want them or injuries have caused them to retire, and they just can't do it - for me, I really had never thought I would give out mentally before I gave out physically, but I think that was the case.

I am not someone who deserves to be dissected and analyzed like some tragic example of everything that can possibly go wrong for a professional athlete.

I feel like I have reached the stage where I can no longer produce for my club, my manager, and my teammates. I had a poor year, but even if I had hit .350, this would have been my last year. I was full of aches an pains and it had become a chore for me to play. When baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game.

You can't do sports for the rest of your life; I don't care how good you are. You can be the best ever, but it's still going to go away.

I didn't start boxing until I was 18 but I believe that is a big advantage now. If you start too young, it's easy to become distracted.

I was drafted by the New Orleans Saints, and quite frankly, I got worn out playing football. I got tired of it. With wrestling, there were so many variables that could go with it, so many directions you could go. Every night, it was different. Every night. It was a different town 7 nights a week and twice on Sunday.

When I lose the fun in football, it's better to quit.

I had attached my life to basketball so closely that it made me physically ill.

Being in the league six years, things have kind of slowed down for me.