Sports Heroes Quotes

My biggest hero was Roman Gabriel, who was the QB of the Rams, and Roger Staubach. Those were the two guys I tired to emulate when I was little.

When I played Little League, I looked up to the big leaguers, too, and collected their baseball cards.

I love Messi. I also derive inspiration from the god of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar.

I like to watch the best in every sport, so definitely like Tom Brady or Tiger Woods, his comeback story, or even Usain Bolt. I look up to those guys just because they're great.

In the fun house of today's metastisizing sports-entertainment megaplex, when every day brings another story revealing how these 'heroes' we create are fashioned from base clay, a pause might be in order to reflect on athletes who actually embodied the qualities we think we admire in the too-easily deified.

Depending on who we're playing, it's just kind of, like, a little starstruck. You know, because these are guys that... I'm playing against Tom Brady or Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, guys like that that I've been watching since high school, that's been doing crazy things.

LaDainian Tomlinson, Hines Ward, Marion Barber, and a host of other black stars help the NFL shine brightly week after week.

When I arrived at Barcelona and saw Messi's face, and later Luis Suarez, I felt like it was a videogame.

I'm a huge fan of Clyde Frazier and Earl Monroe.

Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock were my heroes, so I thought averaging 22 or 23 and taking five-wicket hauls was normal.

I always idolized guys like Deion Sanders, Barry Sanders, Steve Young and the entire 49ers team, really. I was a huge 49ers fan growing up.

Paolo Maldini is someone I loved at AC Milan and looked up to as a player. I think he had so much about him. He had so much quality and he was a player I looked to growing up. Him and Tony Adams - another footballer who's won it all.

I come from a very athletic family. But I didn't have the typical Jewish sports heroes. I mean, like lots of Jewish kids I admired Sandy Koufax. But I didn't look up to him as the one person who gave me the desire to push on and succeed. My brothers did that for me.

The Boys of Summer were heroes in Brooklyn for a full postwar decade partly because the players could not entertain higher offers.

Character is everything. The reason people watch sports entertainment is to see people who are larger than life, but at the same time, there's something real about them.

I try to sign for as many kids as possible. Kids come first, and I'll always sign for a kid before an adult. It's funny, because I was never big into autographs as a kid. The only player who I ever wanted an autograph from was Dave Winfield.

My favorite player growing up was Wayne Chrebet, and the day I met him was one of the best days of my life. It's something I'll never forget, no matter who your role models are, no matter who you look up to.

I liked Roy Jones, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ali... those were the guys I was looking at growing up.

Harvey and I grew up in Queens, N.Y. My brother and I shared a room for 18 years until we went away to college. When we were kids, after our father said, 'Lights out,' he also exclaimed, 'No more talking. Time for sleep.' But we'd stay up late, arguing over statistics, who the best center fielder was - Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle.

I like Joe Sakic. Coming out of Buffalo, I obviously like Alexander Mogliny, Pat LaFontaine. Hasek is up there. Miroslav Satan. Whoever seemed to be a good player at the time I'd watch. Jagr too. I tried to learn a lot from those guys.

For a long time, I'd been vaguely fascinated by the idea that Charles Lindbergh flew the Atlantic and Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in the same summer.

I think most of the people like the kind of player like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. They're pretty tall, and they can do everything.

As a kid, you'd look at all these guys in the NFL and almost idolize them.

The Steph Currys, the Jordan Spieths, those guys are exciting to watch.

I respect every NFL team because it was a dream I've had since I was a little kid.