Sports Politics Quotes

I was deeply involved in the decision that President Jimmy Carter made to boycott the Olympics in Moscow in 1980.

Saying Kaepernick is a distraction is based largely on opinion. You could say his decision to kneel for the national anthem was detrimental to the team. If that is so, I would hope you'd note that Kaepernick's teammates gave him the Len Eshmont Award at the end of the season.

I think I'd probably shine really well in a team sport, but as everybody knows, I don't handle politics very well. A lot of team sports has a lot of politics. Individual sports, it's all about me.

There's a lot of politics in boxing and it's destroying the game.

When Steny Hoyer brings up a resolution to support and recognize the University of Maryland men's basketball team - I'm not making this up - before we even had March madness, then you just know that it's just political favoritism.

I went to see President Nixon at the White House. It wasn't difficult to get a meeting because I was heavyweight champion of the world. So I came to Washington and walked around the garden with Nixon, his wife and daughter. I said: I want you to give Ali his licence back. I want to beat him up for you.

At the Rose bowl, when America was playing Mexico, and those that live in this country who have come here from Mexico booed the United States - there's a huge problem with that. This is not the first time that this has happened and I think that, that is because in the United States the cultural Marxist ideas of separating people into different racial groups.

President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner played golf this weekend. Obama’s handicap is Joe Biden.

I'm not saying that the press is wrong to report any internal differences we have, but at the same time, I think it's our job to keep them from becoming public issues, for anything that detracts from the purely athletic aspects of the sport is bad for us.

There was a lot of politics going on, and Ireland were denied an Olympic gold medal in 2008.

We live in a country where movies, music, and sports are more important than God to a lot of people. It's why Colin Kaepernick's protest rocked the nation and got the whole world talking. Taking a knee is a simple act of defiance. Had Colin done it anywhere other than the football field, it might not have even made the news.

But the rising chorus urging ESPN to change its stripes is missing something: The intersection of sports and politics is natural. And the left-wing lean of ESPN is inevitable. Conservatives bothered by the slant should stop hand-wringing and start their own network.

I've been really vocal about my disappointment about how the WNBA athletes get treated like second-class citizens in relations to the NBA when they're a subsidiary.

If the Olympics fail, human rights will suffer. The government would stop paying any attention to the rest of the world. I personally think: we want the Games and we want human rights to be respected.

It is very important that football can see beyond religion but FIFA does not just ignore its impact.

For a while, you could decide when you loan the player out whether he plays against you or not, and I always decided that he could play against us. But I must say I didn't get any protection from the media because when the player I loaned out scored against us, it's 'aaahhh, look at him, stupid...'

Like I always said, Carson Palmer got hit in his knee in 2005 but there was no rule made. Then Tom Brady got hit in his knee and all of a sudden there is a rule and possible suspensions, excessive fines - it's just getting ridiculous.

There are some remarkable parallels between basketball and politics. Michael Jordan has already mastered the skill most needed for political success: how to stay aloft without visible means of support.

I saw a survey and it is that NFL fans are fed up with listening to players talk about politics.

This match is about sport and I separate that completely from politics.

I've been a bit surprised, and encouraged, by the NBA's support for athletes that speak out. Compared to the NFL, it's night and day.

Some may remember that, in 2010, I publicly broke ranks with my colleagues from the Quebec City area who were pushing our government to subsidize a new sports amphitheater in the city. They had seized on this popular project to... What else? Buy votes.

The symbolic significance of individual athletes' achievements has sometimes proved more productive than the negotiations of diplomats or politicians.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady says he thinks it would be great if Donald Trump was president. Which is really weird because I thought Brady didn't like things that are filled with too much air.

If I wrestle in 2020, I want it to be my own decision and not the IOC's.