Quotes About Leadership

Don't just stand back and play the way you're coached. A great player must rise to the occasion and turn the game around on his own.

Football doesn't build character, it reveals character.

You can only succeed when people are communicating, not just from the top down, but in complete interchange. Communication comes from fighting off my ego and listening.

A good catcher is the quarterback, the carburetor, the lead dog, the pulse taker, the traffic cop and sometimes a lot of unprintable things, but no team gets very far without one.

Don't fight the rabbits. If you fight the rabbits, the elephants are going to kill you.

Football is a game played with arms, legs and shoulders but mostly from the neck up.

The greatest leader in the world could never win a campaign unless he understood the men he had to lead.

There's nothing wrong with the Little League World Series that locking out the adults couldn't cure.

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates the weak ones.

Management must speak with one voice. When it doesn't management itself becomes a peripheral opponent to the team's mission.

You can motivate players better with kind words than you can with a whip.

In a crisis, don't hide behind anything or anybody. They're going to find you anyway.

I play with a fear of letting my team down. That's what motivates me.

Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football.

My best game plan is to sit on the bench and call out specific instructions like 'C'mon Boog,' 'Get a hold of one, Frank,' or 'Let's go, Brooks.'

We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must serve before we can lead.

When it comes to anything that's social, whether it's your family, your school, your community, your business or your country, winning is a team sport.

Make sure that team members know they are working with you, not for you.

Win any way as long as you can get away with it. Nice guys finish last.

It's nice to come into a town and be referred to as the manager of the Cleveland Indians instead of as the first black manager.

There are guys who play lacrosse, and there are lacrosse players.

A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.

The coach is the team, and the team is the coach. You reflect each other.

Winning isn't worthwhile unless one has something finer and nobler behind it. When I reach the soul of one of my boys with an idea, or ideal, or vision, then I have done my job as a coach.