We were talking about how old quarterbacks can't throw before 10 am... Practice starts too early for us. Wake me up in the middle of the night and I can throw. I can throw anytime.
If you're a quarterback and you keep throwing interceptions, you change quarterbacks.
We started playing the Baltimore Colts early, and I was still very impressed with Johnny Unitas, who just passed away recently. I thought he was one of the best quarterbacks at the time when I was very young, he was in his prime.
My height doesn't define my skill set. To be a great quarterback, you have to have great leadership, great attention to detail and a relentless competitive nature - and I try to bring that on a daily basis.
I don't believe that you can be too short as a quarterback. It's not about height.
What's the worst thing that can happen to a quarterback? He loses his confidence.
Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.
I never thought I would be the oldest quarterback in the National Football League at one point, not in a million years. I never thought I would play as long as I did, either, seventeen years from start to finish, with stops in Houston, Minnesota, Seattle, and Kansas City.
I realize that as the quarterback, you have to assume some sort of leadership role because you have to talk in the huddle on every play, and you're essentially giving out orders to the team. But in my mind, I have to prove myself on the field before I can start asserting a leadership role.
It's always a danger when you've got a great quarterback that throws the ball well, that scrambles well. You may push him into his asset. You may force him to do what he does best. So you've got to be able to throw curveballs and stop the pass as much as stop the run.
I've always had visions of being a starting quarterback. That's why I come to work every day.
I think early in my development as a quarterback, before I ever got a Division I college offer or anything, my brother was in the spotlight, first-round draft pick. People expected me to be him, but I was underdeveloped, undersized, unrecruited... so it was tough at that point.
I killed many a quarterback. I felt like I scored when I took their head off.
Young quarterbacks do well because they have a great defense.
A quarterback that goes out and performs for you and is a franchise quarterback is more valuable than a player playing another position, but there's a lot more risk there. It's a more difficult position to play, and there are lot more failures.
The heartbeat of a football team is the quarterback position and I think everyone who has any intelligence about the game understands you must have consistency at that position to be a championship team.
If you're on a bus and going down a snowy mountain like in Tahoe, and the bus loses its brakes, where do you want to be sitting? Immediately, you all think, 'In the back.' But in the front would be the correct answer. As a quarterback, you want to take control of it.
If you ask any great player or great quarterback, there's a certain inner confidence that you're as good as anybody. But you can't say who is the absolute best. To be considered is special in itself.
If you can have a really good coaching staff, and you can have a really good young quarterback and do a really good job in player personnel and string together multiple successful drafts, your window is not small in the NFL because of the quarterback.
Though I loved books as a young boy, I loved sports even more. I wanted to be a quarterback in the CFL.
I coached the Bucs with a Florida State quarterback named Brad Johnson. Things worked out all right.
I've tried to get cute - and I don't mind saying tried to be cute - at the quarterback spot.
I don't play too much into the color game, because I don't want to be the best African American quarterback, I want to be the best quarterback.
Once you really understand your role... that's why I think actors get lost in a series. Everybody wants to be the quarterback or the game-winning wide receiver. I've been around long enough and done enough stuff to where I don't feel that way. I just want to do what I do as well as possible.
I'm definitely a football fan, so I try to stay up with how teams are doing, and you end up getting a lot of buddies that play on certain teams. I wouldn't say I watch too much of other quarterbacks.
I think for me, or for anyone who plays the quarterback position, it's almost an unspoken word when you think about leadership. Some guys can be a leader and be a running back or a lineman, or wide receiver, strong safety, or linebacker. But when you speak of quarterbacks, it's automatically a default that you're supposed to be a leader.
In Detroit, the quarterbacks lift with all the linebackers and running backs and everybody else, so I'm doing that whole thing.
You wouldn't do something for a receiver to catch the ball if the quarterback couldn't throw it.
A lot of people say, 'Oh, playing backup quarterback, that's the best position in the world.' Well, what they don't understand is when we leave the building at 5 o'clock on Wednesday or Thursday when practice wraps up, we still need to go home and study and prepare just like you're the starter.
You don't have to go out there and fit the mold of what a quarterback is supposed to be. Make your own mold and do the best at each role. If you can run with the best and throw with the best, you can be the best quarterback in your own version of the position.
If there's one perk, it's being the quarterback of America's team and being able to make a difference off the field.
When we had a great defense at Tampa Bay, we always measured our defenses against the best quarterbacks.
It's very exciting... what DeAndre brings to the game is truly special. To have the opportunity to play with a football player like that, that's what gets a quarterback out of bed in the morning.
I like being with the quarterbacks. I like calling the plays.
One of the reasons I loved playing quarterback was that I got to call the plays. The cancer put me in a position where I really wasn't in control anymore.
When you really start figuring things out as a quarterback, you realize you don't have to be perfect every time, but you do have to be quick and decisive.