Warren Moon Quotations

To me, being in your prime means playing your best and feeling your best, too.

In football, it's the ultimate team sport. You have to have good people around you as a quarterback for things to happen.

It was about being wanted, it was about winning, and it was about my passion for the game. I just loved it. I absolutely loved to compete and to step out onto that football field with my teammates.

Even though my mother had told me growing up that, 'If you win, nobody cares what color you are,' that wasn't necessarily true in the N.F.L.

My legacy isn't about what I did playing football, but how I use the opportunities that came from playing football.

I'm proud of the fact that besides being known as a successful former football player, I've also worked hard to establish myself as a successful businessman, network broadcaster, sports & entertainment executive and philanthropist.

Throughout my career, I was never able to relax; I always had to go on the field with another responsibility. I felt like I was playing, not just for my team, but for my race.

There are so many bad influences out there. I don't care if a kid is rich or poor, if he lives in a million-dollar house or the ghetto, he is going to find some sick things on the street. And if we don't clean it up soon, we're all going to pay the price.

Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler and I used to argue for hours about who the best athletes are. I thought football players were better overall.

I love basketball players for what they do for their size - so graceful.

I've always tried to lend my support to worth while causes, and I feel you should use your celebrity to help with worldwide causes and help them gain exposure.

When people talk about the great quarterbacks, it's almost exclusively the guys who have won Super Bowls. There have been some very good ones who hardly get mentioned because they never won the big one. I don't know if that's fair, but that's the way it is.

Quarterback is not a position that you come in having not played it your whole life.

Basketball players want contact to get a foul called. Slaps on the wrist and bumps on the shoulder are big time to them, and they don't like that. In football, you get that all the time. The whole mental makeup is different.

That's the one regret I have in all the years that I've played professional sports, that I didn't win a championship in the N.F.L. And that's why you play on any level of team sports: you want to win a championship as part of a team.

My biggest hero was Roman Gabriel, who was the QB of the Rams, and Roger Staubach. Those were the two guys I tired to emulate when I was little.

Kids tend to look up to sports figures and entertainers, probably more than they should, but I've tried to use that in a positive way.

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.

The CFL made me a more versatile QB because of all the things you had to do once you got on the field. And if I wasn't as versatile as I was, I wouldn't have been as successful in all the different offenses that I was in, in the NFL.

When I was coming up as a kid, there were programs that kept me out of trouble and on the straight and narrow in South Central Los Angeles, and I always felt that when I got to a stage where I could provide similar opportunities to kids then I would do that.

I'm about a 160, 170 bowler so I feel like I'm pretty good - I'm average, but I don't stink, you know?

Now that he's got this Collective Bargaining Agreement done for another six years, I guess he feels like his job is complete. He probably wasn't going to still be on the job when the next contract came up, so this is probably a good time for him to walk away with the league in very good shape financially because of the new TV contracts. He's done an unbelievable job as commissioner.

I wish this had come along a little earlier in my career.

He made a big jump this summer. That's when you create leadership opportunities. Isaiah is one of those special guys.

He's always been able to do just enough to give you hope that we're close,

He's passionate about it, but he's not so passionate that he has to be on the sideline at the end of every ballgame like (Dallas Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones or some of the others. He's going to try to hire the best people that he can get to run his football team because that's not his expertise and he'll admit that. And he'll give them all the things they need to work with.

I think all the guys that have played in the game before me as African- Americans have to share in this a little bit. We've made tremendous strides over the years and I really don't want to make this a racial thing because it shouldn't be. But it is significant because it is the first and I think whenever there is a first it is significant. When Doug Williams was the first African-American quarterback to win a Super Bowl, I think that helped a lot of things as far as young black quarterbacks getting more opportunities. I think this will be significant also. It shows we have arrived at the pinnacle of our sport.

I think that's what the whole 12th-man thing has done. It's made them really feel like they are part of every victory.

I went a different route but I ended up playing a lot longer than I thought I would or that I could.

Last year, he was somewhat frustrated with not playing,

I think he'll be able to handle it very well; he's a very intelligent guy, very well-spoken, very humble. Look what it did for (New England's) Tom Brady; look what it does for any quarterback who wins this game.

To be voted into the Hall of Fame would be the crown jewel of my career. When I look back at what I overcame and what I was able to accomplish, it would be extra special.

You look at me -- I played 17 years and didn't get one. That had a lot to do with how long I played. I was still chasing that elusive, one last goal that I had left to accomplish in my career. Unfortunately, it never happened. But I'll tell you what: I did try.

To be inducted in my first year of eligibility is mind-boggling. Not too many guys have had that happen.

Ben is so young, and he has so much to learn. Matt has arrived. But for the future, I would rather have Ben because of where he is going to go. His future is unlimited.

Doug Williams did a little bit of that when he won the Super Bowl, but this would take it to another level.

It would be the story of the NFL so far this year,

This is a big year for him, ... He's in a group of exceptions to the rule. This is his team. Everything is in place. Yeah, I'd say it's a big year.

I'm not knocking those guys, but they did get their teams here. There's a lot of players and a lot of teams that just don't seem to get this far because it takes a special chemistry to get here.

I'm a big fan of spectacles, and I live to go to large sporting events. This ranks right up there with the biggest sporting event of all time, so it's a pleasure to be here.

I'm as happy for the guys as if I had played in the football game. I'm so relieved. This franchise has been trying for so long and to finally get there is great.

I know I had a guy who argued my case extremely well. But I also had to relegate myself to having to wait. I had to wait to get to a major college, and I had to wait to get to the NFL.

I think all of the guys who played the game before me who were African-American can share this with me. It is significant. Anytime there is a first, it is significant.

He's one of those guys who has a tendency to sulk a little bit,

I don't think he'll be a high draft pick, but as a specialty player, somebody will pick him up. He's kind of small, but he's got great speed, so I think somebody will give him a chance to return punts and maybe be a game-changer for them.

I don't want to make this a racial thing, but it's significant. I am very, very deeply honored to be involved with the rest of these guys in this great fraternity.

I don't want to make this a racial thing, but it is significant because it is the first. All the guys who played the game before me as African-Americans have to share in this a little bit. This is the crowning jewel to my career.

I don't want to make this a racial thing, but I think it is significant. It shows that we have arrived at the pinnacle of our sport.

I don't want to make this a racial thing, because it shouldn't be. But it is significant because it was the first time.

He always had it so easy. He was so much better than anybody else in high school. Now the competition was catching up with him and he was having trouble staying on top of the learning curve.

That was probably one of the things that if I look back at my career and say what is something I would try and do a little bit differently, I’d try and be a little bit more loose playing the game. Have a little more fun doing it.

Sportsmanship is making sure you have respect for the guy you're playing across from.

I was always geared towards either wanting to finish number one or be number one as far as the best player that I could be, or be the best player at my position in the league. I wanted that to be a constant reminder to my teammates that they looked to their leader who is wearing that number, this is what you should strive for as well.