If you pay a QB $10 million, you don't want him to run the ball.
When I got in this profession, as a young guy, as a college coach at San Jose State, I knew right then that I had a passion to do this, to touch people's lives, to develop young men in the game of football.
We learn a lot of life lessons in how we play this great game, and I've been fortunate enough to be involved in it at every level.
There's good times and bad times. That's part of the coaching. You live with the ups and downs of it but at the end, it's about not only winning games, it's about developing men.
Coaching is always about changing. That's the life of a football player and a coach.
Coaches? They can talk. I tell them: 'Just make sure before you open your mouth you've researched what you're about to say. Don't just say stuff. And if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything.'
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.'
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.
Fans have their own idea about who to hire; that's what makes football great.
I was a bit of a rebel when I was young.
When you put pressure on the quarterback, everything looks a lot better.
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.
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.
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 I wake up, I don't worry about why the mountain is there. I just start climbing.
Nobody on this earth can intimidate me.
I won't change my character for anybody.
The rules of the game really have given the offense an advantage, especially with pass interference.
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?'
If all you ever play with a cornerback in there is man to man, it is a disadvantage.
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.
Too often, people equate discipline with cursing. When you go to Catholic school, the nuns don't curse a word, but you get discipline.
When you have kids, you never think of burying your own child.
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.
'Jim Thorpe - All American' influenced me as a young kid.
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.
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.
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.
I believe in giving people an opportunity to do their jobs.
You gotta use a player's strength.
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 used to tell people I was 6-foot-4. And with that afro, I was.
My father gave me discipline.
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.
Oh, I still get a little anxiety when I'm doing NFL live for ESPN.
The one thing I've tried to do is be insightful.
The thing about wisdom is you store the past in your head.
I've worn a lot of hats in the NFL.
I want to spend more time with my two daughters.
Being a part of the NFL for 30 years was a blessing.
I'm big on integrity.
When you lose a good player, it's like losing a quarterback.
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.
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.
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.
And when you're a coach your main concern is the players and the coaches. The last concern you have is really about yourself.
I was a guy that worked out early in the morning.
Training camp gets long when you compete against your own guys.