On Advice on Football, Life
“When I came in the league, I was thinking about the best guys. Not the best guys on my team—the best guys in the league. I was thinking about LT [LaDainian Tomlinson], Marshall Faulk, Portis, Larry Johnson … Thinking about how I wanted my name mentioned with them. What can I do to make that happen?"
“This was important to me … My first year [2005], late in the season, we beat the Rams. I had a long run in the fourth quarter to win the game. Marshall came up to me after the game. He said, ‘Keep working hard. You’ll be a special player in the league.’ Man, that was big. Marshall Faulk!"
“I started calling those guys. I wanted to know stuff from them. LT, Faulk, Edge [Edgerrin James]. Now it’s come around. What I am happy about now, young guys at my position—Derrick Henry, after we play the Titans, he comes up to me and says, ‘Damn, I want to train with you, man.’ Even coordinators. They say, You still got it."
“When I was young, I remember [former Niners fullback and coach] Tom Rathman said to me, ‘The only thing you should worry about is your peers’ respect.’ He’s right. If your peers respect you, you’re doing it right."
“No matter what your job is in your life, don’t listen to anyone who says you can’t do something. I can tell you: You can do it.”
“What is love? Love is playing every game as if it's your last!”
“You're looking at a guy who believes he can beat a rigged game.”
Interview with Will Dana, Rolling Stone (22 October 2003) http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938705/waiting_for_lefty/.
“I thought of love as a game. It is not a game. It is more serious than death.”
Source: Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale
[proicehockey.about.com/od/musicfilmcardstrivia/a/04_hockey_quote_2.htm, About.com, Fitzpatrick, Jamie, 2004 Hockey Quotes of the Year, 2006-12-20]
On himself
“This isn't a game for me. I love you, Ivy, and one day you're going to believe me.”
Variant: This isn't some kind of game for me. I love you, Ivy Lyons, and one day you're going to believe me.
- Tristan Carruthers
Source: Kissed by an Angel
Aids to Reflection, "Moral and Religious Aphorisms," Aphorism 25 http://books.google.com/books?id=hEbwXNWXoBoC&q=%22He+who+begins+by+loving+Christianity+better+than+truth+will+proceed+by+loving+his+own+sect+or+church+better+than+Christianity+and+end+in+loving+himself+better+than+all%22&pg=PA74#v=onepage (1873)
Source: The History of Pendennis (1848-1850), Ch. 6.
Context: It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all. Some of us can't: and are proud of our impotence, too.
“Of all our games, love's play is the only one which threatens to unsettle the soul…”
Source: Memoirs of Hadrian
