Sports Influence Quotes

My first pair of shoes my mom bought me. I was born in 1985 and my mom is the biggest North Carolina/Michael Jordan fan there is, so when those first Jordan's came out those were my first shoes ever. I don't remember but I guess it started from there.

William McKinley Oswald was my high school football coach. He was a great coach and had a profound influence on my life. But I think he could have learned his method of motivating players from an army drill sergeant.

Back when I was a freshman-sophomore in high school, I was saying that I was going to Michigan once I saw the Fab Five come through - I was just mesmerized.

In America, it is sport that is the opiate of the masses

Professional sports play a very important part in American life and a very important part in the American imagination. Anybody who goes to the movies these days sees just what an important part of the American mind sports comprise. If they are so important and have such a hold on the minds and imaginations of children, then this ought to be a focal point of our efforts.

I was pretty wild as a kid. Football tamed me. It put me on the right path, got me focused.

I wouldn't have went to school if I wasn't playing football.

If it wasn't for baseball, I'd be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery.

Everyone has to try to give back as much as possible because I think in all sports it helps kids to have role models or people to look up to. Someone like Jess Ennis, I know a lot of young girls have started to get into athletics stuff because of her, because of her success.

When I came to BYU, I had no idea what I wanted to study. It really was a decision based on football. I wanted to come here and play football. The decision has turned out to be so much more than football.

After watching my first World Series in 1977, I wanted to be Reggie Jackson. I bought a big Reggie poster. I ate Reggie candy bars. I entered a phase during which I insisted on having the same style of glasses Reggie had: gold wire frames with the double bar across.

It's really cool to be not just winning and fighting for things on the field, but fighting for things off the field and doing so in a way through sport I think is really powerful.

I would not be in the NFL, 100 percent, if it wasn't for basketball. I probably wouldn't be where I am without golf and baseball. Golf, for the mental side of the game, being able to focus on the now and take one shot at a time.

The Steelers have influenced everything I've done as an adult.

For me, I believe George Foreman was a bad example because when he became world heavyweight champion again at 42, that made a lot of fighters think they could also carry on.

I'm kind of a dirty guy, a little Bill Laimbeer-ish. Those are the guys I used to watch growing up. I used to watch Karl Malone; now I watch Boozer and Elton Brand and try to emulate those guys as much as possible because those guys are about the same size as me.

Growing up, if I hadn't had sports, I don't know where I'd be. God only knows what street corners I'd have been standing on and God only knows what I'd have been doing, but instead I played hockey and went to school and stayed out of trouble.

I am deeply indebted to Georgetown University and the basketball program for all they have done for me.

I've loved wrestling from the first moment I stepped between the ropes. Don't know where I'd be without it.

Wrestling has done a lot for my life.

I don't care what anybody says: a pro athlete is going to be a role model. I tried to use that as a positive influence, to let kids know we are regular people.

As for middle school, I had a really horrible era of style. I'd only play basketball with the boys during lunch, so I went through a phase of only wearing Lakers uniforms to school - that was cute! And then I kind of went through the Puma phase that everyone went through with the sweatsuits, which turned into Juicy Couture sweatsuits.

Everybody knows that Steph Curry changed the game. He's such a great athlete, but that's all we see on the TV, on the highlights on social media. I wish we could see what type of people they are more, because that's the leadership to me, that's the inspiration to me.

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.

I grew up in baseball stadiums. It was my two brothers and baseball around me all the time. I knew nothing about film or acting or theater when I was young!