Pro football is like nuclear warfare. There are no winners only survivors.

There was endless action - not just football but sailboats tennis and other things: movement. There was endless talk - the ambassador at the head of the table laying out the prevailing wisdom but everyone else weighing in with their opinions and taking part.

I had pro offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers who were pretty hard up for linemen in those days. If I had gone into professional football the name Jerry Ford might have been a household word today.

Sometimes in football you have to score goals.

Baseball happens to be a game of cumulative tension but football basketball and hockey are played with hand grenades and machine guns.

Football is an incredible game. Sometimes it's so incredible it's unbelievable.

Academe n.: An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy n.: A modern school where football is taught.

If a man watches three football games in a row he should be declared legally dead.

The negative side of football. The negative side of our society. People sometimes go to football and bring to it the negative aspects of our society.

If you look at the footballers you look at our celebrity culture we seem to be saying 'This is the way you want to be'. We seem to be a society that celebrates all the wrong people.

People who work together will win whether it be against complex football defenses or the problems of modern society.

I know virtually no one of my age who can remember a hug or a smile from their father or a 'Let's go play football.'

I was on the football team because I wanted to experience the different iconic social classes of high school. So football for me was an attempt to socially integrate in an interesting way. And then I didn't like it anymore and stopped doing it and focused more on drama and science and other forms of art and music.

We sat around on a hotel balcony with a bottle of wine and tried to figure out how you would go about blowing up a planet. That's the kind of conversations science fiction writers have when they get together. We don't talk about football or anything like that.

I love playing football being out on the pitch with a ball and I will be a little sad when that ends.

Football is a sad game.

I was meant to date the captain of the football team I was going to be on a romantic excursion every Saturday night I was destined to be collecting corsages from every boy in town before prom accepting such floral offerings like competing sacrifices to a Delphic goddess.

Arsenal have won that advantage nobody gave it to them. By playing fantastic football and by winning matches and by winning trophies they won that respect that the opponent has for them.

The importance that our society attaches to sport is incredible. After all is football a game or a religion? The people of this country have allowed sports to get completely out of hand.

After all is football a game or a religion?

Nah I've always had a great relationship with my two brothers I have always had their support in my football and in everything. They've been very close to me and we have a great relationship.

In England it's a rare thing to see a player smoking but all in all I prefer that to an alcoholic. The relationship with alcohol is a real problem in English football and in the short term it's much more harmful to a sportsman. It weakens the body which becomes more susceptible to injury.

Pro football gave me a good sense of perspective to enter politics: I'd already been booed cheered cut sold traded and hung in effigy.

I try not to tune in to politics until it's two or three months before the election. Till then it's like watching preseason football.