I quickly learned what many Sunday widows already realized — that football is not a game but a religion, a metaphysical island of fundamental truth in a highly verbal, disguised society, a throwback of 30,000 generations of anthropological time. – Arnold J. Mandell, “A Psychiatric Study of Professional Football,” 1974 [An inte

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

I always wanted to win the Super Bowl so I could take it and hold it and see what lies beyond it. I think it may be the sun. – Pete Gent, quoted by Ray Blount, Jr. in About Three Bricks Shy… And the Load F

My idea of a good hit is when the victim wakes up on the sidelines with train whistles blowing in his head… I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault. – Jack Tatum, They Call Me Assassin, 1979