Sports Toughness Quotes

You can't tap somebody in the helmet and say, 'Go be physical.' If you're not physical, you can't play physical, and that's a big part of what we believe in.

When people ask me, "Who was the toughest pitcher you ever faced?", I have to say that there has never been a pitcher who over-impressed me. That's not meant to be a bragging statement. It's just that I get up for good pitchers.

I'm quite used to playing with few injuries, whether it is back, fingers, elbow, or something else. You have to be tough and get on with the game.

There's little place for sympathy in football.

I've been catching footballs - I've been a wide receiver since I was 15 years old. And every quarterback I've had, for the most part, threw a pretty hard ball. So I'm not getting away from the calluses.

I've played with IVs before, during and after games. I've played with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a torn shoulder, a fractured tooth, a severed lip, and a knee the size of a softball. I don't miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn't that serious in the first place.

Personally, I don't think IPL is very tough.

I don't go flying into tackles and running around 100 mph. That's just not me.

You hear players, media people, say that it's tough to play in Philly in front of these fans, to those people I say: you didn't have the guts to succeed here!

When I played for the Steelers and I got my bell rung, I'd take smelling salts and go right back out there.

Maybe I'm stupid or whatever, but to me if I got a concussion, if I could see straight and I could carry a football then I'm not telling anybody.

When we were playing, it was rough and tough. Even superstars like me fouled out a lot.

It's a joke how tough it is to win a Slam.

Rugby and wrestling are sports for real athletes.

People sometimes have a false view of track and field, that it's kind of soft and kind of friendly. And guys aren't necessarily laughing and joking, but everyone's just friendly and 'ha ha, he he.' I just came in and just was like, 'Nah, I don't know what y'all talking about, but every single time I step on the line, I'm trying to win.'

When I played, you had a lot of enforcers. You would go to the hole, get knocked down, and the referee would look at you and say, 'Get stronger, get up, and keep playing.'

Tremendous respect to hockey players. It's not easy every day, going out and getting hit, especially the goalies with all that padding on, that small puck, trying to track it - hand-eye co-ordination is a must. They're some amazing athletes.

When you're Kobe Bryant, you've got every little young guy coming at you every night, and it's you who's still got to carry the team. When he tore his Achilles... I just felt bad. I knew he was going to come back and be Kobe Bryant.

You're going to hurt, yes. You're going to have tweaks and problems. But you're a football player; you can play through those.

I think the season I had playing as a kid against men in Reunion toughened me up a lot and taught me how to cope with hits.

I think boxers are the greatest athletes in all sports for the simple fact that they don't cry. That is mind-blowing. Have you ever been punched in the nose? Oh my gosh, it hurts so bad. They have to go back to corner, where some little man yells at them. 'Shut up, I just got punched in the face!'... If I was a boxer, do you know who I would hire as my corner man? My mom.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I remember when your average NFL player would come to the sideline, spit out three bicuspids, Scotch-tape his humerus together and get back out there.

I am a pretty tough guy. I'm an old hockey player.

When he's healthy, Zach Randolph for the Memphis Grizzlies has always been somebody that has always been very tough to play against.