Quotes from Marv Levy

Bill Polian and I agreed when we first came together with the Buffalo Bills that we'd bring players only of high character to the team.

I did a lot of studying of great writers. I read that Hemingway rewrote 'The Sun Also Rises' 39 times.

I never have suspected or sensed a whiff of cheating in any of our Super Bowls.

Did I ever think at the time, when I was with the Alouettes and the Chicago Blitz, that I would be head-coaching a team in the Super Bowl? It would be hard to believe. Is it a dream come true? Yes.

If you believe you are doing a good job in which you enjoy and like, then don't resign regardless of the pressures.

A good education prepares you well for anything.

Great football coaches have the vision to see, the faith to believe, the courage to do - and 25 great players.

Experience should be a plus as long as it doesn't become complacency. If you say, 'We're not going to change; we didn't do it that way before,' then you've become too old.

I have stayed active. I do keep moving. But I should start swimming more. Great exercise.

I consider myself a Chicagoan, and if anybody else does, that gratifies me.

I don't know exactly what are you supposed to do when you retire. Lie on the couch and do nothing? I didn't want to do that.

I took all the courses you would need to be able to go to law school. But my experience in college with football made me want to go into coaching.

As coaches, we learn to accept criticism for our decisions. If a writer says you shouldn't have gone for it on fourth-and-one, we understand that's part of the job. We expect it.

Sure education is valuable in any respect regardless of what field you are in.

I went off to Harvard Law School for six weeks, and then I said, 'Doggone this, it's not what I want to do.' I remember when I told my dad I was leaving law school, and I wanted to go into football. He said, 'Be a good coach.'

I exercise, walk a lot, and break into the occasional trot. I also lift weights three days a week, and I like to read about what makes a good diet. Overall, I do follow a healthy lifestyle.

If I had coached in high school for 60 years, I would have loved it. Getting to the top was not a goal. I welcomed the opportunities, but I just believed do the best doggone job you can, and good things will happen.

Teaching is very important. The nature of your personality isn't that important. Lombardi was very extraverted, very bombastic. Landry very quiet, reserved. Both were great teachers and great coaches.

There's three parts to football: offense, defense, and special teams. You'd no more ignore special teams than you would offense or defense.

For a long time, I was an assistant in the NFL to George Allen, and George was paranoid that other teams were cheating on him... that they were offering bounties, that they were wiring our locker room, that they were putting food poisoning into the pregame meal of the other team's stars, stuff like that.

I'm sure there were concussions galore back when we played, but the doctors would just say, 'Shake it off,' or something like that... or 'Come on, you got to be tough... get back in there.' I see so many guys who played pro football in their 50s now who are so debilitated from having played it.

Football doesn't build character, it reveals character.

I just want people to finish the book and say, 'I was entertained.' When I set out to do it, I had no deal in place. I knew it would be tough. I read somewhere that John Steinbeck was turned down 22 times on his first novel. But I was just going to do it.

Whenever I think of baseball, the first name that comes to mind is Babe Ruth. What the Babe was to baseball, Shula is to football coaching. There are certain figures in sports who are larger than the games they play or coach, and Don Shula is one of those.