Ed Reed
Ever since I was a kid, I knew I could play in the NFL because I had a knack for the game. But I can't play this game forever. When I'm finished, maybe I'll become a motivational speaker, maybe a preacher. But children need to know that life may be hard, but you can always overcome.Collection: Motivational
Everyone has their own greatness. Whether you reach your own greatness depends on your environment, your structure, the company you keep and your attitude.Collection: Attitude
Not every officer is a bad police. I work with police officers. I know first responders.
I always know how to play this game. It's about being smart.
Monday night, there ain't a better time to showcase your talent.
I've just been playing football for a long time. I've been playing football since I was a little kid, so it's just some natural blessings that God has blessed me with to get to the ball and understand what I've been doing over the years.
We are human and regular people at the end of the day. We're not immune from the trials and tribulations that go on through life.
We're all going to have our trials and tribulations, but you can work through them and everything will be all right.
We need more of our young youth graduating from college trying to get their education, and trying to be contributing members, positive contributing members to the community.
I've been treated with the utmost respect by the whitest of white guys, and I've been treated bad by the whitest of white persons. I've been treated bad by the blackest of black persons and treated good by the blackest of black persons. So at the end of the day, I know it's about humanity - do you have a good heart or a bad heart?
I know everybody wants to make it to the NFL, but it doesn't happen like that.
The fact of the matter is that people don't understand that football players are regular people just like them. And half of them don't understand the business. And most of them just want you to entertain them.
There's a lot of good fans out there, but there's also a lot of bad - I don't want to say bad people, but a lot of people who just want to try to get on your nerves and stuff like that, man.
I'm not the kind of person to hold my tongue.
I was a San Francisco fan when Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott and those guys where there. And I watched Joe Montana get cut and go to K.C. and still ball.
I was very proud to hear that my friend Andre Johnson was like, 'Man, I'm going back to school.' I was so excited because, yeah you have great talent. You do everything on Sundays, you do everything on the field, but you went to college, and I'm not saying that you forgot about it, but that was on your mind when you first went.
I tried to go and get my master's in-season. That's a tough cookie to try to eat, but it's just a great thing.
I love Bill Belichick. He is a great coach, great man - raising men to do the right thing and win championships in this league.
Not everybody likes Ed Reed.
If the youth has a good foundation, then I think they won't grow into the bad situations they get into.
We've got to help our community out. We've got to help Baltimore out, because it's a lot of things that have been handed down in our society that we're dealing with.
There's only so many guys on a football team that really have a voice. So anytime you have a microphone, you should use it for the betterment of humanity, for the betterment of this country, for the betterment of our kids coming up behind us, for the future of the world. Why not? Make the world a better place.
You don't hear about tradition in the NFL, but we have a tradition in Baltimore. It was just an awesome place to be.
There's not many people - only really the great ones - who realize what they were born to do.
God gives you talent to nurture. God gives you talent to be something. Some people realize it and some people don't.
Baltimore is my heart. The fans are family.
Football was easy.
My dad would leave at 4 or 5 in the morning and then I wouldn't see him until evening. The conversations we used to have, he would tell me, 'A man takes care of his home first. A man handles his responsibility. He doesn't ask another man for anything.'
Especially in black communities, we've been so groomed to stay where we are and not like people in the other neighborhoods. It's crazy. It won't allow people to experience life and see what the world truly has to offer. People are stuck in their ways, stuck in their communities, stuck on their streets.
When kids grow up into adults now... they learn that taking care of their body is like taking care of their car. You're not going to put bad gas into your car. Why not treat your body the same way? It makes all the sense in the world for us to do the right thing for our bodies.
I am going to graduate school, but that ain't got nothing to do with football.
I look at the quarterback and the receivers. You look at the quarterback, the formation. I focus on the passing game and react on the running game. You look at it over and over, then sooner or later, it becomes like a movie. You ever notice how you quote movies? That's all film watching is.
We all played sports, my brothers, my daddy, my uncles. That's all we had.
We had church and sports, and that's how we stuck together. We were so hungry sometimes, but if somebody's playing football, you can completely forget about eating until later on that night.
I want to be the best, but it comes with a lot of work. And it can be pressure if you put it on yourself in that way. But if I keep going the way I'm going, and with the good Lord guiding me the way he's been guiding me, and the way I let him take control of my life, the sky is the limit.
I'm always excited about life.
Working out is a part of life.
I take care of myself. I try my best.
Not everybody is going to understand you. You can't please everybody. That's just human nature. Everybody has their opinion, and that's going to be there. You deal with it. You take it in stride. You take the good with the bad, the bad with the good. That's part of life.
Pretty much just stay humble. And continue to work hard and let the game come to me and try not to make even more plays or jump plays. Just let the game come to me and play my defense and my responsibility.
I love this game, and I put my heart and soul into it.
The only way we protect ourselves, the only way a player gets what he wants is by holding out.
Everybody in the world knows that plans tend to change.
When I'm on the football field, I'm giving you everything. Do the Ravens know that? Yes they do.
Now that I know the dangers? Yes, I still would do it again. Why? 'Cause look at me. Look at my family. They're able to eat, they're able to have food and shelter over their head. Would I play football again? Yes.
Coming out of college, I wasn't considered the fastest, the biggest or the smartest. There was no way around that.
I wasn't about one season, but career and longevity.
It wasn't about accolades, but showing that I was bred and predestined to be one of best football players to come into the league - and, every Sunday, to help my team to win.
When I was in Baltimore, it was all about raising me and not having players come in and out of there. It was about raising men, and there was a reason why it built up to the success.
Football is what we do. It's our job, it's a business.