At the base of it was the urge, if you wanted to play football, to knock someone down, that was what the sport was all about, the will to win closely linked with contact. – George Plimpton, Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback, 1965

Speed, strength, and the inability to register pain immediately. – Reggie Williams, when asked his greatest strengths as a football player

Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings. – George F. Will

To love the Super Bowl, you only have to think what Januarys were like before it came along. – David N. Rosenthal, Time, 1982