Working with someone who's got your best interest at heart can make all the difference.
Troy Aikman
Some coaches don't want their players to be the stars. They want their systems to be the stars.
When I work a Cowboys game, my social media will blow up with, 'Hey, don't forget who you played for,' or, 'You traitor.'
The year we went to our first Super Bowl in 1992, we were the youngest team in football. We played in the Super Bowl against a team that had a wealth of playoff experience and Super Bowl experience, and we dominated that football game.
I believe success is achieved by acquiring and developing talented, respected, and credible individuals, none of which applies to Skip Bayless.
I know what a championship locker room looks like, what a championship team requires.
I had two concussions that were of major concern, what I would term very significant. As far as head injury goes, I would say all of the others were pretty minor and inconsequential.
I didn't know any hockey fans in Dallas.
Because the hash marks are narrower in the pros, the ball's always closer to the middle of the field. So if you're a defensive back, you can wait a lot longer before committing to a certain part of the field.
I just think Cam Newton is a guy who doesn't get overwhelmed by the moment. He seems to thrive in the spotlight.
I dwell in the past.
I have been playing this game since I was 7 years old, and to all of a sudden recognize that you're not going to do it anymore is hard.
Hey, I'm big-boned.
Not long ago, every time I did a picture shoot for a magazine, the photographer would ask me to show up wearing jeans and cowboy boots. They seemed to think I was a hillbilly. Now it's different. Now they're not quite sure what to make of me. And I show up wearing whatever I want.
A lot of people believe that I retired from the game of football because of concussions - that is not accurate. I really retired primarily because of a degenerative back condition that I had.
As a quarterback, your job is to move the football and win games, to be a leader on the field.
I've always known football.
To say, 'I don't worry about perception,' you better worry about perception because it's a big part of making it through some very difficult times.
I'm happy to do some endorsements if I believe in the product. You're only in this game a short time, and you want to collect the money while you can.
When you start looking at guys like Brett Favre, for instance, and other great quarterbacks that have played - Peyton Manning - you say, 'Gosh, how will these guys be replaced?'
I don't want to be the poster boy for head injury. I shouldn't be the poster boy for head injury. I have really tried to distance myself from that.
My father was not a man you wanted to mess with.
My 21st birthday was probably the worst day of my life.
As a former player, I have a real appreciation for a guy like Aaron Rodgers and how much time he puts into his craft and how good he is doing it.
I probably would have played baseball if I had stayed in California... But I like Oklahoma better now. Football is bigger here. It's more exciting, anyway.
I was brought up not to brag. I've always disliked people who do.
A lot of coaches and players get so tunnel-visioned that when they do have some time off, they spend it concentrating on the game.
I will always root for the Sooners.
I have a real hard time classifying anything as my biggest moment, my favorite color or whatever.
Look, the only way for me to enjoy the game is to be consumed by it, to compete at a level where I know, at the end of that game, that my teammates and I did our absolute best.
You can't just can't simply replace head coaches and say, 'Now it's going to be better.'
As long as we're wearing helmets and shoulder pads - there's collisions between these big, physical, fast guys - head injuries are going to be a part of it.
It's not important to me that everyone knows everything about me or that I reveal all that I am or have.
I've never gotten into anything that I didn't feel I'd be successful doing.
The one thing about being an athlete, say you are struggling with throwing a comeback route, well, then you go out and practice it. You throw it 100 times a day, and you get better at it, and you see those improvements pretty rapidly.
No matter what happens for the rest of my career, at least I can say I took my team to a Super Bowl, and I was able to win.
You get down on yourself. You get disappointed in yourself. I expect more out of myself. As far as losing confidence as far as what I can do, that won't ever happen.
Broadcasting keeps you relevant.
I've lived in Texas now longer than anywhere and then California and then Oklahoma, but yet Oklahoma is what I consider home.
The one thing disappointing I had coming out of college was not playing in the Rose Bowl.
The only way you're gonna eliminate helmet-to-helmet contact is to take the helmets off. Go back to leather helmets. I mean, I think a defensive player would be much less inclined to lead with his head if he had no protection.
As a quarterback, I appreciated the passer rating whether you threw the ball a majority of the time or if you didn't throw it as much. You were judged on a level playing field, and I thought teams should be ranked similarly.
As a player, you can't express ideas and opinions as easily as when you're doing a ballgame.
Football is a tough game. It's a tough game for tough people.
If you do anything with the Cowboys, there's an interest in it. And there are people who constantly want to write books about our teams in the '90s. They want to interview me. I say, 'Look, I've done it a million times. I'm just not interested. What's left to tell?'
What I am is a direct result of how I was raised.
I don't know if I want to be 65 or 67, still broadcasting games. But, why not? What else are you going to do?
I'm not here to propel myself into the limelight. I'm here to win a football game. If I am propelled into the limelight, I want it to be because of what I do on the football field, not because of some grand marketing strategy.
I have an idea of marriage as being a sharing type of deal.
I sometimes get frustrated with how important Dallas Cowboys' football is to people. It's extremely important to me, too, but football is what I do.
