Drew Bledsoe Quotations

When you look at facing retirement in your mid-30s, and all of a sudden the outlet for that passion and work ethic goes away, you can't just sit back in a rocking chair and be retired at 35. I'm not a good enough golfer to play golf every day.

That's the only reason I'm here. I don't need to play the game for any other reason than to win a championship.

I feel so fortunate, so honored, to have played this game that I love for so long, with so many great players, and in front of so many wonderful fans. I fulfilled a childhood dream the first time I stepped on an NFL field, and the league did not let me down one time.

Getting hurt and watching Tom Brady take over and beginning what's been just a spectacular run of his, and to come back and play in the AFC Championship Game against the Steelers in Pittsburgh, and help us win that game, is a memory that stands out very clearly.

The game against the Vikings back in my second year stands out. It was kind of a turnaround for us. It allowed us to make a run at the playoffs for the first time in quite a while. The memories are so many it's hard to pin one down.

You want hot days to get your fruit ripe but then you want it to cool off nicely at night so that the grapes stay on the vine longer and develop complexity.

You know, it's a different deal - throwing a football as opposed to throwing a baseball.

I retire with a smile on my face, in good health, and ready to spend autumns at my kids' games instead of my own. I'm excited to start the next chapter of my life.

The amount of work and the amount of both physical and emotional investment it takes to get to the top.

The positives of retiring outweighed the positives of returning and my desire to still play.

Playing in New England and the Boston area, the fans are so passionate about their sports if you don't play well, they'll let you know so I know it's not something that they take lightly.

I kind of picked up the game at an early age. The way that other kids would learn what a fork or a spoon is.

Our very long-term prospective hinges on making the best possible wine we can.

Fairly early in my career, I had a passion for wine just as a consumer, and I started to learn about the whole process, starting with a piece of raw ground, and ending up with a work of art in a bottle.

It's a really interesting and diverse business. You're a farmer first, then a winemaker, then you're onto marketing and distribution. So it's multi-faceted and really engaging. I've learned more in the last couple years than in the ten prior to that, so it's been pretty interesting.

We started seven years ago and finally released our first vintage in March. It's an '07 vintage from Walla Walla, which is my old hometown. It also happens to be a world-class wine region that's just exploding on the scene right now.

It is the best feeling in the world to have a close game come down to just a couple of plays and you are able to do it.

We're phenomenally blessed in the Walla Walla Valley. We have great, complex soil that's nutrient-rich but fairly porous.

I feel pretty good when I get out of bed in the morning. I don't feel all beat up, which is nice.

I had a great career and I enjoyed all of it, with the exception of losing.

Coming back in that AFC Championship Game against the Steelers, that was a poignant moment for me for a lot of reasons - the magnitude of the game and having not been able to play for quite a while and to be able to get on the field for that game. That one stands out.

We're going to show up and play the game anyway.

The only time you see a game like that is in college.

When I made the decision to come down to Dallas, the major reason was that I felt like it was an opportunity to be successful right away,

Sean is an excellent coach who definitely deserves this opportunity. I will miss him, as will our team and organization...I'm sure he will be successful and a great asset to the Saints.

Obviously, this is the biggest game there is and everybody wants to play in this game, ... That would be a hard situation.

No doubt this was a tremendous win, ... It was great for us and great for Parcells. It was a difficult time for him personally. To pull out a win in that fashion was pretty important.

I wish we could've gotten Peerless more involved today. But that will come.

if we hadn't run those two quarterback sneaks, I wouldn't have been hit all day.

I got one of those rings, ... But I wasn't on the field when we won it. I want to win a championship with the Cowboys. I am motivated by trying to do everything I can to tip my cap and ride off into the sunset with my Super Bowl ring.

If we continue to play like this, it will open things up in the passing game. And if we can maintain this balance, it will make us a hard team to handle.

I'd be very surprised if he's not back next year.

I'd be really surprised if he's not back next year. It's a personal decision, one he has to make. But I'd be surprised if he doesn't come back.

I became a better quarterback today without doing anything. I'm excited because our team just got better.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Greg g. I think you learn a lot more about a guy when things start going bad than you do when things are going good. The best compliment I can pay Gregg is that when things started to turn south a little bit for us in Buffalo, he was steadfast and strong and remained a great leader for that team right up until they let him go.

I expect to play that way, ... I expect to be smart with what I'm doing. As I said in the preseason, one of the goals coming in for me personally was to avoid the negative plays.

I expect to play that way and I expect to win, ... If that is the highlight of our season, we will all be disappointed.

He was certainly back there quick enough that he almost took the ball out of my hands on the handoff.

He will make things as hard on me as he can, ... He takes pride in trying to put pressure on the quarterback and trying to devise schemes to confuse your protection and try to get in the backfield. If we can handle it, we are going to have opportunities to make plays.

Had we lost today, it could have been really heartbreaking, ... It could have worn us down as a team.

He goes, you're starting to act like me. I told him, I'm going to retire if I ever start to act like him.

We've got to go back to work on Monday and try to prepare better. The only other option is to quit - and there's no quit in this team.

We thought we had a chance to throw it on them if we picked up the blitz.

To fall behind like we did and be able to respond and make the plays that we had to,

He's a big target down there in the red zone. Plus, he's very physical. He's been there before. He knows what to do.

He's got his little stories and sayings, ... and if we go on to win a bunch of games and bring a championship back to the Cowboys organization, he's going to be worshipped as he's been in other places.

He's a very smart receiver in the slot, ... He does a great job with his moves at the top of his routes and gets himself separation. He has a lot of experience in this offense, so he really understands where we need him to be.

I also thought it was good for our offense to bounce back from a really horrible start. I think we showed that there is no panic in this team... can respond to adversity which is going to serve us well in the future.

The only things I know firsthand come from a couple of friends who played with him, and they really liked him as a teammate. I put more weight on that than the rest of the stuff that has been so well-documented.

I thought our defense completely shut them down today. They were able to keep their offense of the field. I thought that was big. They never really got it going because our defense really played well today.

I think both of us appreciate more now than we did the first time around the opportunity we have to be a part of this league. To be in my 13th year and still have a chance to go out and compete is certainly something I don't take for granted. I think Bill's kind of in the same boat. He really enjoys being around the players and enjoys the process of getting ready for games. That part has changed a little as well.

Jason Witten is a special talent. He's as good as Ben Coates (was) when I played with him in his younger years.

I said, 'Yes, sir,' 'No, sir' and did what I was supposed to do. He's a funny guy, but he's only funny if he's not talking to you because he's pretty hard on guys. When I was young, I got tired of all the noise from Bill. As you get older, you realize some of the things he taught me when I was young that have gone on to help me in my career.

Really what they played was a similar style of defense to what they played last year when they went on the run. They gave up some yards here and there, but they tightened up when we got into scoring territory.

Some of those, to me, are the best plays I've made because my natural inclination as a competitor is to make plays all the time.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. All Americans have an obligation to help these people rebuild their lives. I know the Dallas Cowboys have enjoyed a very strong, long-standing relationship with The Salvation Army, and as a member of the Cowboys' family I wanted to join in that support.

I will tell you this that everybody that plays against Lawyer is aware of where he is and aware of his ability to make big plays. As far as his speed, his aggressiveness, his physical style, I haven't seen a falloff at all.

We never thought we'd see this happen to our team. I didn't think that this team was capable of losing a game like that.

That was the plan. The way our defense was playing, we wanted to keep the pressure on them.

That was probably my No. 2 reason for coming here, outside the talent that was around, ... I know Bill, I believe in him as a coach. I believe in the way he approaches things.

You keep hearing everybody wants a more mobile quarterback, ... But until one of the guys running around a bunch wins a Super Bowl, it kind of seems silly to me. Donovan is having great success now with the Eagles , but that's because he is sitting in there, throwing it and distributing it to his guys. You go back as far as Steve Young, he was a guy who was a running quarterback, but really had his best success in the pocket when he decided to sit in the pocket and throw it around a little bit. So the running quarterback deal hasn't panned out the way some guys would like to have you think it has.

We couldn't get out of our way the first quarter. It was very frustrating, but it was good to see the way our offense responded.

When I was 21, I just listened to him and didn't say much. Now he asks my opinion.

We put our defense in some horrible spots. They had to keep us in the ball game until we could kind of get it together.

With the weapons they have, we know we're going to have to score points, ... You never know exactly how these games are going to go, but it would be a very, very strange scenario for this to be a 9-6 game.

We had opportunities offensively to end the game and we just couldn't do it. You just can't let them hang around.

Unfortunately, we're in a situation where, in order to get into the playoffs, we need to win this week, and then we need some help. It's interesting playing the late game. We'll know before kickoff whether a win helps us or not.

To go and talk to somebody that has a negative relationship with the guy, I just don't see the benefit for me personally or our team in doing that.

I played eight years without really being hurt seriously and hadn't had to deal with that part of the game. So, to get hurt and to have to miss games, that part of it was very hard. And so when I came back and somebody else had my job and I couldn't get it back. You know that was hard.

I'm not fast. But there are a lot of guys that are a hell of a lot slower than I am. Somebody wants to do a pay-per-view race between me and [Tom] Brady, sign me up.

Without Troy Brown, I don't know what our record would be this year, but we would certainly not be standing where we are right now. I would say he's by far the most valuable player on our team, and has been all year.

When you get a little older, you understand that there's something there.

When you have that rivalry and you have that history that goes with it certainly is good for the game and for the sport. I think it adds a little level of excitement for the players and the fans.

Finally you saw the guy that I expected him to be all the time. He battled through this injury, and it's been hard on him. I know that this year hasn't gone the way that he wanted anybody to envision for him. But when everything was on the line, he stepped up.

To put (Tucker) over there on an island for the entire game probably wouldn't be pretty smart,

This was huge because it would've hurt to lose back-to-back heartbreakers. It was a short week and we made mistakes, but we continued to show resiliency. We had to overcome ourselves to win.

This was huge because it would've hurt to lose back-to-back heartbreakers, ... It was a short week and we made mistakes, but we continued to show resiliency. We had to overcome ourselves to win.

This team is capable of winning a lot of games, ... and we can do it a lot of different ways.

To get through that and come out and play as well as he did, that shows some mental toughness.

We showed that we have a little resiliency. There was no panic ... We were able to bounce back and be efficient.

We showed that we have a little resiliency, ... There was no panic ... We were able to bounce back and be efficient.

We feel like we missed out on an opportunity here. We made a lot of mistakes in the ballgame that really hurt us in the end.

We feel like we missed out on an opportunity here, ... We made a lot of mistakes in the ballgame that really hurt us in the end.

Bill said when he brought me in here: 'You've got to be smart. We're not going to throw the ball like a high-wire act, living life on the edge all the time,' ... The biggest thing I am going to be focused on is eliminating negative plays.

Bill challenged us a little bit, that this week was a little bit different than the others. The fact that our team answered that challenge, I think, says something about us.

At that point in the game I felt like we were absolutely manhandling them. When we turned the ball over I wasn't happy about that.

At that point in the game I felt like we were absolutely manhandling them, ... When we turned the ball over I wasn't happy about that.

I should've thrown it high enough and far enough wide that either Terry was going to get it or no one was going to get it. I didn't put enough on it, and that was the game.

I've been very impressed with Marion. He went through setbacks both physically and kind of mentally and emotionally. All of the things that go on being a rookie, particularly being a rookie playing for Bill. It's not an easy task.

I understand what we're doing. We're playing the odds a little bit. Our defense is playing well and we're trying to be as smart as we can. ... We'll continue to do that, but there will be times when we come out and attack a little more. When Bill says, 'Put the metal down,' I'll be ready to go.

I've never had a big receiver like that,

I've thrown for a lot of yards and a lot of numbers and played a lot of games and been on some very competitive teams. But I think for my career to feel complete, I need to be the guy on the field quarterbacking the team when we win a championship. That's why I'm here.

The thing I liked best about our offense tonight is that we finally got out of our own way, ... We were making mistakes, but not because the defense was forcing us to do it. When we run the ball like we did tonight, we're going to be good offensively.

People try to pigeonhole Bill and make it out like he just wants to run the ball and play defense. I've been with him before, and we threw it more than anyone in the history of the league. He's not afraid to take a chance on a trick play here and there. He felt that would give us a chance, and it obviously did. Those plays turned into points for us.

Anytime somebody picks somebody else over you, it's motivating. The Bills went and picked this young kid to play ahead of me. I don't think it was the right decision. I still don't. I want to go out and prove I can still get it done. The ability to throw the ball effectively, accurately and all over the field is still there. When that goes away, I think you'll see me tip my cap and hand it off to somebody else.

As a veteran player, I understand there's a method to his madness,

A win like this shows what we can be when we get out of our own way,

That's what you do, ... After the game you shake hands and live to fight another day.

That's Key's play, ... I asked for it.

You play this game to play, ... It feels that much sweeter when you are on the field. ... To have that situation play out the way it did, it's an emotional high.