Tom Landry

“If you eliminate our way of life, the American way of life, what is the effect... what are the alternatives?”

“I wouldn't think I would coach again, because it would just be hard not being in the Cowboys' blue.”

“Today, you have 100% of your life left.”

“Every coach has his own style of play, but when you spend your whole life as a Cowboy, you have to be influenced by what we did.”

“Take away winning, and you take away everything that is strong about America.”

“When a big play occurs for our team, I'm concentrating on how the defense is reacting to it. Most of the time, I don't see the great catch or the long run. What I'm looking at is how the other team defended it.”

“Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.”

“Generally, achieving goals... which in many cases means winning... is really the ultimate in this life we live in.”

“If you were to see me as a cheerleader, that would mean I was only watching instead of thinking.”

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”

“Character is the ability of a person to see a positive end of things. This is the hope that a man of character has.”

“There are coaches to whom winning or losing means something close to life or death. If they lose, then their life has somehow been diminished. I'm not that way, and it keeps me steady.”

“If you show emotion in competition, temporarily, you'll be ineffective. If you're disciplined enough, you don't get down when you're behind, and you have a chance to create something positive.”

“As a Christian, I know my life is in God's hands. He has a plan for me. Therefore, I never worry about tomorrow or never worry about winning or losing football games. That knowledge gives me a lot of composure in tough situations.”

“Really, coaching is simplicity. It's getting players to play better than they think that they can.”

“Being the best at whatever talent you have, that's what stimulates life.”

“My hats did give me an identity. In fact, if I had a dollar for every time someone has seen me bareheaded and said, 'I almost didn't recognize you without a hat on', I could have bought the Cowboys myself.”

“When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn.”

“The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.”

“I don't believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game.”