“"This is what's great about sports. This is what the greatest thing about sports is: you play to win the game. Hello? You play to win the game. You don't play it to just play it. That's the great thing about sports: you play to win, and I don't care if you don't have any wins. You go play to win. When you start tellin' me it doesn't matter, then retire. Get out! 'Cause it matters." - Following a question from New York Times sports reporter Judy Battista on the team's ability to win, on October 30, 2002 after a Week 8 loss to the Cleveland Browns left them at 2–5. After this speech, the Jets, sparked by the debut of quarterback Chad Pennington, would go 7–2 and win the AFC Eastern Division Championship.
:This monologue was later incorporated into a TV commercial for Coors Light beer.”

Runs and Catches: an autobiography (1980), ISBN: 9780571115655.

Variant: You can't outwit fate by standing on the sidelines placing little side bets about the outcome of life. Either you wade in, risk everything you have to play the game or you don't play at all. And if you can't play, you can't win.
Source: Paradise

I Don't Know.
Song lyrics, Blizzard of Ozz (1980)

Original: (it) Non restare mai a pensare a come vincere la partita, inizia a giocare.
Source: prevale.net

Source: The Passion

Quoted in Andrew Podnieks, "One on One with Phil Esposito," http://www.legendsofhockey.net/html/spot_oneononep198401.htm Legends of Hockey.net (2002-02-18).

Source: The Passion (1987), p.73