I do the right thing on purpose. I don't do it by accident.
— Herm Edwards
I was a guy that worked out early in the morning.
Believe in what you do and keep working hard and you can't take what people say personally, because if you do it'll eat at you.
I'm big on integrity.
I've worn a lot of hats in the NFL.
As you get older, the quality of life is more important.
When you talk about domestic violence, it's not just athletes that are involved in it. Our society has really done a poor job of addressing it. And it needs to come to the forefront.
My father gave me discipline.
Curtis Martin just has to be Curtis Martin, and whatever that is, that's good enough. He doesnt have to be Clark Kent or Lois Lane.
This is the world you live in when you're a football player, an athlete. You want someone to discipline you. You want to have consistency. You want a guy that puts you in position so that you can have success.
'Jim Thorpe - All American' influenced me as a young kid.
Too often, people equate discipline with cursing. When you go to Catholic school, the nuns don't curse a word, but you get discipline.
It used to be that the hardest thing to cover was underthrown balls. Then coaches began to think, 'So why not start throwing back-shoulder fades?'
Nobody on this earth can intimidate me.
Was I hurt sometimes? Yeah. But not to the point where I couldn't play. I think we all go through it. Some guys escape it. Some guys don't. There's no secret formula.
When you put pressure on the quarterback, everything looks a lot better.
What makes us different? Well, besides our skin color and our nationality and maybe our religion, nothing. We all want the same thing, we all want to have success in America.
No one player is bigger than the team.
And when you're a coach your main concern is the players and the coaches. The last concern you have is really about yourself.
When it gets going bad and it gets going to where all these things are happening around you, the thing that stands out most is your character. You have to make sure you keep your character and your wits about you, because at the end of the day, it might be bad for a little while, but if you're a good coach it all works out.
Being a part of the NFL for 30 years was a blessing.
The thing about wisdom is you store the past in your head.
Oh, I still get a little anxiety when I'm doing NFL live for ESPN.
That's the great thing about sports: You play to win, and I don't care if you don't have any wins. You go play to win. When you start telling me it doesn't matter, then retire. Get out. 'Cause it matters.
I used to tell people I was 6-foot-4. And with that afro, I was.
You gotta use a player's strength.
The best thing you do as a coach is develop an environment where these guys can have some success. Vince Lombardi was that way. He cared about these guys not only as football players but also as men.
The world of football has changed. 'We're going to start a freshman quarterback!' 'Oooh really?!' That was taboo. It's not a shock anymore.
Remember, a receiver can motion wherever, run wherever he wants to on the field, you can't get your hands on the guy and there is a lot of room. When you are a corner, you are playing to the boundary, which is your friend.
The rules of the game really have given the offense an advantage, especially with pass interference.
I like challenges.
When you're an athlete, the one thing you're concerned about is injury, because that's the No. 1 thing that can take you out.
I was a bit of a rebel when I was young.
People who've watched me on television, they go, 'Oh, that's who this guy is.' So when I walk into their home, they say, 'Coach, you're that same guy! We trust you with our son.'
Training camp gets long when you compete against your own guys.
People are going to take shots at you for everything you did bad, and they forget about all the good things you did. They do it to everyone. They're going to do it to me, they've done it to all of them. They did it to Tom Landry. Are you kidding me? Tom Landry? With the fedora? Come on. They did it to Tom Landry.
When you lose a good player, it's like losing a quarterback.
I want to spend more time with my two daughters.
The one thing I've tried to do is be insightful.
In life, there's second chances. But that doesn't mean everyone gets a second chance with your team. That's where your moral compass comes in.
The job of the offense is not to score points. The job of the defense is not to stop the other team from scoring points.
It wasn't the ghetto here or anything like that. But it got rough. I'll put it this way. I always knew where I lived. I always knew I was in Seaside. That wasn't plush. I wasn't in Monterey. I wasn't in Carmel. I was in Seaside. I knew what that meant.
I believe in giving people an opportunity to do their jobs.
I am a head coach in the NFL today because of the opportunity the Coaching Fellowship provided me. The program is really the thing that jump-starts your career.
When you have kids, you never think of burying your own child.
If all you ever play with a cornerback in there is man to man, it is a disadvantage.
I won't change my character for anybody.
When I wake up, I don't worry about why the mountain is there. I just start climbing.
One thing you know about playoff competition is this: If you have a hot quarterback and your defense can take the ball away, you don't need to have a dominant defense anymore.
Fans have their own idea about who to hire; that's what makes football great.
