People complain that pro athletes make a lot of money; but what they don't understand is that we need a lot of money because we spend a lot of money.
David Epstein, the author of the best book on athletics in recent memory - "The Sports Gene" - wrote to me to say that he thinks I'm being overly generous. He points out that, for years, there used to be an "all-star challenge" on television, in which the best professional athletes from a variety of sports competed in a kind of makeshift decathlon.
Actors geek out over athletes. Everyone knows that.
Athletes become our heroes, because they're superhuman. They do things nobody else can do. They're better than 6 billion other people.
It is essential that we put an end to steroid abuse and set a better example for aspiring young athletes to follow, so that some day, when they make it in the All Star Game, it will be because of their own natural talents, and not because of a performance enhancing product.
So far China has won the most gold medals, ladies and gentlemen. The Chinese athletes can't wait to get home and show the medals off to the kids who made them.
I am thrilled yet overwhelmed. There are so many great women athletes, some incredible performances.
One of the things I want. . . all the kids here to remember, is that these [Major League Soccer] stars were not born superstar athletes. . . Many of them started out just like many of you-playing on a team at school, or just kicking a ball around on the playground with their friends. But they stuck with it. And I tell this to my girls all the time. I mean, you get to the point when. . . things you enjoy. . . start getting hard-that's when you know you're getting good, and you have to stick through it.
Great coaches are great humanitarians. They really care for the athlete as people first and athletes second. This is paramount in gaining respect.
I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-American.
When I first started out, I was considered a crackpot. The doctors used to say, "Don't go to that Jack LaLanne, you'll get hemorrhoids, you won't get an erection, you women will look like men, you athletes will get muscle-bound -- this is what I had to go through.
Unfortunately the world is what it is now. People don't get along for whatever reason. As professional athletes, in a way we're almost ambassadors for peace, because sports brings everyone together.
I've seen young men in college going into the NFL and then bite the cheese that's in the trap. They'll throw you a pair of Jordans or a moneybag for their services. It's in that moment where most compromise. This business is unforgivable, and you got a bunch of sharks out there. It's mind boggling that universities don't prepare athletes for what they're going to experience.
I do identify with Olympic athletes quite a lot because they have to push to reach a certain plateau and some of them go on and some of them give up and some art - you know, some people are very talented in art and do a few amazing things and then give it up and go on and do other things, and others are in it for the long haul, more or less long-distance runners.
My most frequent admonition to athletes and coaches is: train, do not strain.
Olympic athletes have to find a job right after they're done competing.
We typically don't choose our athletes until about a month prior to the Games because anything can happen.
Too many athletes do not admit their weaknesses.
If you're tweeting - and this is what I tell the young athletes who come to me about these situations, because I've been through them and I've seen both sides of it - if you're tweeting just because everyone else is tweeting and you're not uncomfortable, if it doesn't feel like a sacrifice - like when I wore that T-shirt it was a sacrifice.
The team with the best athletes doesn't usually win. It's the team with the athletes who play best together.