Tag: Quotes

Russell Westbrook ejected: ‘I’m always the one that gets painted to be the bad guy’

“Obviously, I’m an emotional guy,” Westbrook said after he was ejected in the fourth quarter.

Russell Westbrook was ejected from the Rockets-Warriors game on Thursday night following his second technical foul with 6:04 remaining in the fourth quarter.

The game wasn’t in doubt at that point — the Rockets won easily, 135-105 win, but Westbrook was still disappointed at being ejected, and talked at length after the game about why he felt it happened.

The particulars: Westbrook was first assessed a technical in the first quarter for arguing over a foul call, then was issued his second technical — which results in an automatic ejection — in the fourth, after he bumped Warriors guard Damion Lee and then started arguing with several players on the Warriors bench.

Westbrook’s comments on it show that he understands he needs to hold himself to a higher standard … but he still feels that refs also hold him to a different standard than the rest of the league.

Via ESPN:

“I think it’s a situation where I hold myself to a very, very high standard,” Westbrook said. “I think the refs, the fans, media, the NBA [is] put in a position now where I’m not really allowed to do much. Obviously, I’m an emotional guy … Guys come running up to me, I didn’t move, but I’m always the one that gets painted to be the bad guy in the whole situation.”

This may be true, but Westbrook also has to own a little bit that decisions he’s made in the past got him here. There are very few refs in the league who immediately write a guy off for no reason. It just doesn’t happen.

Westbrook has put himself in bad positions time and time again. He can get mad about it, but he has to understand he has to do work to unmake his reputation.

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Peyton Manning ‘drops the mic’ in his case for Eli Manning to make Hall of Fame

“I don’t really know what that term, ‘drop the mic’ is, but I guess if there was one.”

We’ve been building to this for years, but now that Eli Manning will announce his retirement, the NFL punditry can finally dive in the deep end and have all the “Is Eli a Hall of Famer?” arguments they’ve been itching to have forever.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, well congratulations. Just read the below paragraph while smacking yourself in the face and you’ll understand what the next six months of sports radio will be like:

He won two Super Bowls! He took down the Patriots! He also was a perfect .500 as a starter! He threw a lot of picks! Maybe his playing in New York City gave him more attention than he deserved! But those Super Bowls! Helmet catch! HELMET CATCH!!!!

Anyway, Eli’s brother Peyton Manning has now weighed in on the topic, with an interview with the Broncos’ official team site. There he proclaimed not to know what “drop the mic” meant, then proceeded to drop the mic on the conversation.

Via the Broncos’ website:

“When you’re the Super Bowl MVP twice against the greatest dynasty of all-time, the New England Patriots, Tom Brady/Bill Belichick, and you join a list that includes Terry Bradshaw, Bart Starr, Tom Brady and Joe Montana, Eli Manning as the only (multiple) Super Bowl MVPs.

“I don’t really know what that term, ‘drop the mic’ is, but I guess if there was one. … There really is no ‘yeah, but’ after that. That kind of ends it. But if you want a, ‘yeah, but,’ yeah, but he also started 220-plus consecutive games. He’s sixth or seventh all-time in touchdowns. It wasn’t like he just played those two seasons.

Manning would go on to say this stuff doesn’t matter to him, and it doesn’t matter to Eli, though from the clear way he presented his argument, and the fact that he gave this interview, it’s pretty clear he does care, in some way.

And he should! It’s his brother! A brother who was a bit of a derp but by all accounts a nice guy who won two Super Bowls, and made some great throws doing it.

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Julian Edelman admits he played up supposed head injury against Bills: ‘I was trying to sell it’

“I was trying to sell it,” Edelman admitted after the game, after briefly appearing unconscious on a play he was penalized.

The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills on Sunday to retain their AFC East title for the umpteenth time in a row. That’s all well and good, but what was strange about this particular game is an injury that wide receiver Julian Edelman sustained, when it briefly appeared that he had been knocked unconscious.

Edelman had to leave the game to undergo the league’s concussion protocol, only returning in the fourth quarter.

It was also an injury that, after the game, Edelman admitted he was “trying to sell.”

The incident occurred on a play when Edelman committed pretty blatant offensive pass interference, setting a pick on a defender that freed up Benjamin Watson for a Patriots touchdown.

Edelman knew he would most likely be flagged for the pick, so he briefly tried to sell it as if the collision was inadvertent, and had knocked him out.

It … was not convincing. The play was called back, and the touchdown nullified. The ref went on to even hit Edelman with the flag while he was motionless on the ground.

After the game, Edelman came clean. Via Boston.com:

“I was trying to sell it,” a smiling Edelman said of his playacting on the turf. “Hopefully, they didn’t see it.”

Edelman’s teammate Matthew Slater, could only joke about the situation.

“Oh, you mean Lazarus?” Slater said when asked about Edelman. “He was kind of funny the way he laid out there. But Edelman came back from the dead.”

Unclear how funny the NFL will find jokes about players coming back from the dead after playing up the severity of the head injury, but good on the league for enforcing the concussion protocol and making Edelman miss a bit of game time for his decision.

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Memorable quotes of the decade

There is no denying that the last decade has been great for the game of golf. From 2010-19 golf fans saw the emergence of generational stars like Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka, Tiger Woods’ grand return, countless rules violations and …

There is no denying that the last decade has been great for the game of golf.

From 2010-19 golf fans saw the emergence of generational stars like Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka, Tiger Woods’ grand return, countless rules violations and controversies, the first-ever women’s event at historic Augusta National, some unforgettable shots and legendary moments in majors and team competitions.

And every one of those events produced memorable quotes that true fans of the game will remember forever.

Check out the best quotes from the last decade, broken up by year, and send us any that we may have missed.

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Jerry Jones’s profane interview encapsulates Cowboys’ current state

The outspoken owner ripped into the hosts of a live radio show and then got hung up on for swearing on the air while discussing the team.

Don’t ever believe the lazy theory that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doesn’t genuinely care about wins so long as there are butts in the seats at AT&T Stadium on gameday, eyeballs on the TV when they play, and people talking about America’s Team.

That any-publicity-is-good-publicity idea may hold some water when discussing Jones the businessman, but the 77-year-old owner of the world’s most valuable sports franchise has spent an entire lifetime in football. And when the team- his team-is responsible for the kind of mess that was displayed at Soldier Field on Thursday night, this man cares. Deeply. Passionately. Fiercely. Even profanely.

Twelve hours after the 31-24 loss to Chicago went final, Jones was still seething about it, as he showed in a heated phone interview Friday morning with Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan.

Speaking on the K&C Masterpiece show, Jones was first asked for his answer on how the team is playing as of late.

Jones, who normally needs very little prodding to launch into a meandering monologue, was uncharacteristically blunt with a five-word reply: “We’re not playing very well.”

As a follow-up, Jones was asked if he was embarrassed by the team’s showing. That’s when things went sideways without warning. Jones snapped.

“Hey, get your damn act together yourself. Okay? Now, we’re going to have a good visit this morning, but settle down just a little bit. We’ve got a lot to go over; now go on with your question. But I’m going to give you the answers I want to give you this morning, and I don’t like your attitude to come in. I’ve been traveling all night, and I don’t have the patience to jack with you today. Now get with it and let’s ask some questions. The right kind of questions.”

Some of that dressing-down was hard to hear, as Jones would pause and then suddenly relaunch his tirade as soon as a new question was started. It was a shocking exchange, and social media lit up with reactions as the unexpectedly contentious Q&A played out in real time.

As talk tentatively turned to the particulars of the game and what needs to improve with the team, Jones cut off the hosts once again before they could finish their question.

“When you have as many things as were off-kilter as we had last night, you’ve got a nice litany of places to start to correct. Now, just like we all do, you take the ones that are the most obvious, that you can do the most about, and you correct those to the extent that you can. That’s what we tried to do last week, and we’ll try to do it these next ten days before we play the Rams.”

Specifically mentioned as an area of concern were Brett Maher’s missed field goals. While coach Jason Garrett said earlier in the morning that the team would need to evaluate Maher and mentioned the possible need to explore bringing in replacement kickers, Jones implied that the club couldn’t really upgrade at the position with anyone who would be available right now.

Jones was pressed about the details of the current kicker situation when he interrupted again:

“I’m giving you my answer. So you go ahead and ask your questions and I’ll give you my answers this morning.”

In other words, move on, next topic.

The owner’s tone softened some as he talked through the difficulties of adding brand-new players so late in the season, and he even sounded as though he perhaps felt a little bit bad about his earlier outburst.

When the chat turned inevitably to the touchy subject of Garrett’s job status and the constant speculation about it, Jones gave a thoughtful answer that started with having the average fan’s perspective in mind, and finished with a cryptic comment about who Jones might be considering as a potential coaching hire to replace Garrett.

“Of course I understand why [those questions] come up. Our fans are interested. And they’re frustrated that we’re not playing better, and I understand that. And I know. That goes with the territory. So I fully expect to have those questions, and I know that if you really think about it, if I did have answers as to different directions regarding talent- if I did– I would not share them right now because, first of all, if you’ve got other teams’ talent in mind, that’s tampering. Even if you had something in mind, unless they’re not involved in the National Football League right now, and it wouldn’t be smart if they were involved other places.”

And then Jones apparently dropped an expletive. The radio station’s delay system muted over the offending phrase, although Jones could still be heard asking rhetorically, “Do you understand bull [expletive]?”

The hosts referenced having to bleep Jones twice, and they continued with a new question about the notion that the team had quit during the Chicago game. Then they waited for Jones’s answer. And waited. And waited.

The line was dead. Jones was gone. For a few horrifying seconds, it was assumed that the owner of the Dallas Cowboys had just hung up in the middle of a live interview on the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network’s flagship station, presumably because he was so offended by the question or the hosts’ perceived “attitude.”

That’s bad. But it quickly got worse. Turns out the station actually hung up on Jones.

In not-too-technical terms, when the delay system tried to skip too far ahead past Jones’s multiple obscenities, it went to a “safe mode” by terminating the phone call entirely. Oops.

The call was re-established after a few uncomfortable moments. A seemingly calmer Jones even joked, “I had been talking all this time.”

He went on to explain that he still believes in the talent of the current roster, and that if the players can put together the bits and pieces of brilliance that he (and fans) have seen this year in flashes, good things are still possible. As for the notion of the players quitting in Chicago, Jones put no stock in that thought:

“You’ve got to remember that when you quit on your coach, then you quit on yourself. Because we’re all a part of this. And you were absolutely right when we started this show: the one that deserves the most responsibility is the one that ultimately makes the decision to put what players out there and put what coach out there. That’s the general manager, and in this case, it happens to be the same man that owns the team. And I completely understand the fans’ frustration with me.”

By the time the interview ended, the tension had cooled and Jones expressed once again his belief that the team is capable of better than they’ve recently shown. And he assured fans that he is just as eager as they are to see it take shape.

“I know good and well that there’s nobody in the NFL that’s any more responsible for what’s going on out on the field than me. So I certainly have that kind of frustration as well. Now, what I do is I get mad, I scream in my pillow. That low, low, eerie thing you’re hearing go across Dallas? That’s me screaming in my pillow. And so the bottom line is, you can imagine, I’d like to make this better.”

And then, just like that, he was gone.

From a furious tongue-lashing to screaming into pillows to fixing not only the Cowboys’ problems, but the country’s while he’s at it. It’s all in a day’s work for the owner of America’s Team.

The 40 best sports quotes of all time

The 40 best quotes of all time from the world of sports, including quotes about winning, funny sports quotes, and inspirational quotes.

A good sports quote has the ability to inspire, to make you laugh, to challenge you to see the world in a new way. While some athletes have been veritable quote machines — we have an entire collection of Yogi Berra quotes — others may wait an entire career to say one line that can inspire fans around the globe.

Below we will look at 40 of the greatest quotes ever from the world of sports. Some are funny, some are inspirational, plenty are about winning and losing. Whether you’re working on a speech or just looking for a little pearl of wisdom to help you navigate a tough time, hopefully there is something here for you. Enjoy these quotes.

Inspirational Sports Quotes

1. “If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough.” — Mario Andretti

2. “During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at-bats a season. That means I played sever years without ever hitting the ball.” — Mickey Mantle

3. “I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.” — Martina Navratilova

4. “Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move.” — Satchel Paige

5. “I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.” — Sandy Koufax

6. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan

7. “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” — Vince Lombardi

8. “Do not let what you can not do interfere with what you can do.” — John Wooden

9. “If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?” — Joe Namath

10. “You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.” — Arthur Ashe

Funny Sports Quotes

11. “I love me some me.” — Terrell Owens

12. “Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row.” — Vitas Gerulaitis, upon beating Jimmy Connors after 16 consecutive losses to him

13. “I should be a postage stamp. That’s the only way I’ll ever get licked.” — Muhammad Ali

14. “I heard Tonya Harding is calling herself the Charles Barkley of figure skating. I was going to sure her for defamation of character, but then I realized I have no character.” — Charles Barkley

15. “A virgin.” — Peter Crouch, when asked what he would be if he wasn’t a professional soccer player

16. “[Soccer] is a simple game: 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end, the Germans win.” — Gary Lineker

17. “I feel like I’m the best, but you’re not going to get me to say that.” — Jerry Rice

18. “When you’re rich, you don’t write checks. Straight cash, homie.” — Randy Moss

19. “They don’t think it be like it is, but it do.” — Oscar Gamble, former MLB outfielder

20. “I dunno. I never smoked any AstroTurf.” — Tug McGraw, on if he preferred grass or AstroTurf

21. “Because there are no fours.” — Antoine Walker, on why he shot so many 3-pointers

22. “Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.” — Joe Theismann

23. “I’m glad I don’t play anymore. I could never learn all of those handshakes.” — Phil Rizzuto

24. “I think I throw the ball as hard as anyone. The ball just doesn’t get there as fast.” — Eddie Bane

25. “I’d be willing to bet you, if I was a betting man, that I have never bet on baseball.” — Pete Rose

26. “If you’re not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we’ll discuss your options afterward.” — Bill Shankly, former Liverpool manager, to one of his strikers

27. “The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy.” — Jerry Tarkanian

28. “Vengeance is for God. I’m just here to play tennis.” — Serena Williams, when asked about avenging a 2002 loss to Kim Clijsters.

Sports Quotes About Winning

29. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” — Vince Lombardi

30. “The key is not the will to win… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.” — Bobby Knight

31. “When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.” — Paul Brown

32. “A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.” — Billie Jean King

33. “Winning isn’t everything, but it beats anything that comes in second.” — Paul “Bear” Bryant

34. “Losing feels worse than winning feels good.” — Vin Scully

35. “Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next.”— George Steinbrenner

36. “For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.” — Emmitt Smith

37. “No matter how much you’ve won, no matter how many games, no matter how many championships, no matter how many Super Bowls, you’re not winning now, so you stink.” — Bill Parcells

38. “Winning solves everything.” — Tiger Woods

39. “Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever.” — Billie Jean King

40. “I’ve never lost a game. I just ran out of time.” — Michael Jordan

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LeBron: Luke Walton did ‘as great a job as you could’ coaching Lakers

Luke Walton was back in Los Angeles with his Kings, and LeBron James only had nice things to say.

Luke Walton coached the Lakers last year, and it went, uh, not great. In LeBron James’ first year with the team, the Lakers failed to make the playoffs.

This offseason, Walton departed, along with half the young team, who were sent to New Orleans in a package that brought back Anthony Davis. The Lakers hired Frank Vogel to take over, and the Lakers now sit at 10-2 on the season after another win over the Kings on Friday night.

The coach of the Kings? Luke Walton.

After the game, LeBron was asked to reflect on his time with Walton, and was thoughtful in his praise of the young coach.

James pointed out that the Lakers were in contention right until Christmas time, when the team lost several key players to injury, and the season fell apart as the younger players failed to come together.

Via USA TODAY Sports:

James contended that Walton “did as great of a job as you could under the circumstances.” The Lakers missed a combined 210 games last season due to injuries, most notably to James, Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram.

Walton also had kind words to say.

“To be back in your old building and go against a team you used to coach and play for, it’s exciting,” Walton said. “It sucks we didn’t come with the outcome we wanted. But I’m very pleased with the effort and the way that we played the game.”

The Kings got off to an 0-5 start, but have won four of the last six and now look like a team that can hang in the West.

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Garrett on Austin’s punt return: ‘There might have been an opportunity’

The Cowboys coach says punt returner Tavon Austin was not ordered to fair catch a late punt versus the Vikings just to preserve the clock.

One of the plays that stands out – and not in a good way – from the Cowboys’ 28-24 loss to the Vikings was Tavon Austin’s fair catch of a Minnesota punt in the final 30 seconds. A seemingly safe decision that, in the moment, saved maximum time and minimized the risk of a turnover or lost yardage on a return, may have been excessively safe. Looking back, it certainly made Dak Prescott’s job harder as he tried in vain to engineer a comeback in the game’s final plays.

In speaking with 105.3 The Fan on Monday morning, head coach Jason Garrett dispelled the notion that Austin had been instructed to fair catch the punt no matter what.

“You lay out the situation: let’s not waste a lot of time,” Garrett said. “If you don’t have a real good opportunity here to go make a return directly north and south, don’t waste a lot of time. In that situation, the way he saw it, he went ahead and made the fair catch and gave us the opportunity around midfield. In hindsight, when you look at it, there might have been an opportunity for him not to do that and hit it north and south and see if we could make some yards on it.”

Looking at replays of the punt from various angles, it certainly seemed as though Austin had a great chance to eat up some valuable yardage with a return.

The nearest Vikings player is more than 15 yards away from Austin. It appeared he could have gone even further than that with the blockers he had in place. It’s not unthinkable that, given Austin’s speed, he could have streaked toward the sideline and gotten the ball inside the red zone and still left plenty of time for Prescott and Co. to run a few high-percentage plays.

“That’s a situation where there’s a lot of different scenarios,” Garrett said. “In that situation, there’s a school of thought that it’s absolutely a fair catch situation, so you don’t bleed the clock and you give your offense a chance at midfield to go score a touchdown. And then if the returner, he has that in his mind, and he has an opportunity to go make a play, we certainly encourage him to do that. In that situation, he fair caught it.”

It’s easy to look at a freeze-frame or even a replay and pin blame on Austin for not being more aggressive. But he is a veteran return man who’s fielding the punt in that situation for a reason. Maybe he saw things differently. Did the Vikings coverage team slow up when Austin signaled for the fair catch? Of course they did. Maybe his lanes weren’t as wide-open as they looked to those sitting at home. Or maybe the idea of preserving the clock was emphasized too strongly on the sideline for Austin to feel like he could freelance.

Either way, the decision to play it overly safe undoubtedly limited the offense’s playbook for the final 24 seconds. It’s a play that could end up haunting the Cowboys as the postseason draws nearer.

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