Justin Verlander reveals the game that convinced him to stop throwing as hard as he could “The whole knock on me early in my career was that I threw too many pitches. I’d throw 120 pitches, but I was only going six innings.” “I had a game in Boston where we really needed me to get deep in the game. Our bullpen was shot. I go out the first couple innings, and I look up and I’ve got sixty-something pitches.” “To me, the most important thing for that game was to chew innings. I was like, ‘I can’t keep this pace.’ So I ended up slowing myself down. I was throwing fastballs at 89. I threw a changeup in that game at 91 and threw a fastball at 89 in the same game.” “I just pulled the throttle way back. I was like, ‘Man, here, hit it. Put it in play.’ All of a sudden, I was like, ‘Man, I am really able to hit my spot.’” “I basically took that mentality and flipped it going into the next season. Let me try starting games like this and then building up as I go. If I get in trouble, I’ve always got it in my back pocket.” “I always viewed it from the hitter’s perspective as you’re facing three different pitchers in three different at-bats, and they’re progressively getting harder to hit.”

Derek Jeter explains why he actually LIKES seeing players fail, because what happens next tells him who they really are “I’m done. I wouldn’t. I would embarrass myself. I understand how difficult it is to play the game. I understand people are gonna fail, and we talked about it earlier. I actually like to see when players fail, right, because I watch what you do when you’re walking off the field.” “I watch what you do when you’re in the clubhouse. I watch what you do in post-game interviews. I see it tells me a lot more about an individual when they struggle. Like, you know, in sportsmanship, they shake hands after win or loss.” “There’s a funny story. When I was younger, I was playing Little League and my dad coached me for just a couple years. I was trying to beg him for years to coach me, and one time we lost the game and I refused to shake, Little League, you shake hands, I refused to shake hands with the other team.” “So, you know, he pulled me aside saying, ‘Man, you need to start playing an individual sport.’ He said because, you know, it taught me a lesson, right? I mean, you don’t want to say you lose gracefully, right, because you never accept it, right?” “But I think it’s, it’s you understand that, you know, you can’t walk around with your head up high when things are going good and then all of a sudden you disappear when things don’t go your way. So I didn’t, man, I wasn’t shaking hands after we lost, but I did it. I lost respectfully.”

Warren Sapp says his sister laughed at him when he told her he’d play in the NFL because she thought he was too fat, and says growing up as the youngest child prepared him for all the obstacles and doubters he would face in his life “I’m eight, nine, ten years old watching Monday Night Football. I looked at my sister and said, ‘I’m going to play in the NFL on Monday Night Football.’” “My sister started laughing at me. ‘Your fat ass ain’t doing that.’ Absolute motivation. It was always tough love. I’m the baby.” “My oldest brother was 12 years older than me. My sister was 10. The other one was nine. My other brother was seven. My sister was five.” “I never won a fight in my house. I never won anything in my house. When I got to play with somebody my own age, that’s why I got that résumé. I played with people that were 12, 10, nine, seven years older than me every day.” “Every day it was an ass kicking. They used to kill me, torture me. But boy, when I got out of that house…”

Matt Hasselbeck says he wasn’t allowed to talk inside Brett Favre’s QB room in Green Bay so he would write down everything he heard and ask the other backup quarterbacks questions on their walk to the locker room, in order to learn as much as he could from the likes of Favre, Andy Reid and Mike Holmgren “People are like, ‘Oh, you played in Green Bay.’ It’s like, well, I was the starting holder for field goals and kickers in Green Bay.” “More accurate would be: you were allowed to be in the quarterback room when Mike Holmgren and Andy Reid were coaching Brett Favre.” “Now, I wasn’t allowed to talk. The backup quarterbacks were Doug Pederson and Rick Mirer. So I would write down all the questions that I would ask if I was allowed to talk in the meeting.” “‘What does this mean? What does that mean?’ On the walk from the quarterback room to the locker room, I would ask Doug Pederson or Rick Mirer.” “‘What do they mean when they say Cover 4?’ They’d explain it to me. Having those veteran quarterbacks translate it was incredibly helpful.”

Michael Jordan explains why he actually preferred playing on the road, and says it made him more focused because he didn’t have to worry about family or tickets “I’d rather be on the road. I love playing on the road. It seems as though your concentration level is much, much better.” “You know that you’re not expected to win, so you have the opportunity to prove the unknown. A lot of times when you play at home, you let your hair down. You get relaxed. You see more friends. You see more family. You’ve got to worry about tickets. You’ve got to worry about so many other different things.” “I always loved playing on the road. It minimizes my thought process and I can focus on my craft. If I was playing in the Ryder Cup, I would much rather play in Europe than play at home.”

Justin Verlander reveals the game that convinced him to stop throwing as hard as he could “The whole knock on me early in my career was that I threw too many pitches. I’d throw 120 pitches, but I was only going six innings.” “I had a game in Boston where we really needed me to get deep in the game. Our bullpen was shot. I go out the first couple innings, and I look up and I’ve got sixty-something pitches.” “To me, the most important thing for that game was to chew innings. I was like, ‘I can’t keep this pace.’ So I ended up slowing myself down. I was throwing fastballs at 89. I threw a changeup in that game at 91 and threw a fastball at 89 in the same game.” “I just pulled the throttle way back. I was like, ‘Man, here, hit it. Put it in play.’ All of a sudden, I was like, ‘Man, I am really able to hit my spot.’” “I basically took that mentality and flipped it going into the next season. Let me try starting games like this and then building up as I go. If I get in trouble, I’ve always got it in my back pocket.” “I always viewed it from the hitter’s perspective as you’re facing three different pitchers in three different at-bats, and they’re progressively getting harder to hit.”

Brian Flores says every young player need two types of people in their position room if you actually want them to develop “If you’re talking about development of players, you need a good coach in the room always. But you also need a vet in that room too.” “I think if we can give some young players those two things, that’s the runway that they need to really thrive. We’ve got a great coaching staff. We really do.” “Whether it’s our D-line coach Ryan Nielsen or linebackers coach Mike Rabel or secondary coach Gerald Alexander, those guys do a phenomenal job leading their rooms. But also in their rooms there’s veteran presence.” “Whether it’s Harrison Smith, whether it’s Gink, whether it’s really in the D-line room that’s become Jalen Redmond. He’s the leader of that room as a third-year player, but he’s got a very mature and professional approach. He leads the right way.” “When he got here, he’s an XFL player. He got here 90th man on the roster. They give him 61 and he just starts balling out all throughout training camp. So he makes the team.” “He’s a very grounded and rooted guy. It’s fun for me to just watch his journey because I’m very proud of his journey. Here’s a guy who’s persevered and fought for his dream, and he’s living it out. He is impactful for us on and off the field.”

Tom Brady says he actually fell asleep in the locker room before playing in his first Super Bowl Host: “Tom fell asleep in the locker room before his first Super Bowl. It’s a strange thing to say, so I’m going to say maybe it’s true. Is it true or false?” Tom Brady: “I did. Yeah. It’s not like snoozing with a pillow for two hours. You just have like 10 minutes, a little power nap.” Host: “So explain, NFL dressing rooms are massive. Where did you fall asleep?” Tom Brady: “Right in front of my locker.” “There was a long pregame show because it was the year of 9/11. It was February after that. It was a long pregame show. We warmed up early. I came in and I was like, I need to lay down, and I fell asleep for a few minutes.”

CC Sabathia explains why playing in New York creates a different level of accountability because the last year never matters Josh Hart: “They started booing us. I was like, ‘Damn, they with us, huh?’ That’s when I was like, okay, New York is really different.” “CC Sabathia: I call it holding you accountable.” “There would be times I’m on vacation and I’m like, damn, there’s going to be a game in May or June that I’m going to have to pitch a big game against Toronto or Boston.” “It’s always in the back of your mind that you always have to be up and ready for these fans and for this region. They’re going to hold you accountable. Every year is different. They don’t care about last year.” “If you didn’t win a championship, it was a failure and you need to go out and perform every single year. I always felt that pressure on your back. It was the only place I ever really felt that. No where else did I ever feel like you were performing, or working out, or doing whatever you could to please the fans.”

Ben Johnson says the Bears were the only team he explicitly told he wanted the job during the NFL hiring cycle, mainly because of the alignment with the leadership group in place “All four interviews that I took, I was able to actually think about going into a little bit. I had a very good feel that this is the direction I wanted to go.” “I’m not saying necessarily Chicago at that point, but I knew I wanted to be a head coach this cycle. Once I got on the interview, it absolutely clicked with Chicago and the leadership group.” “Ryan, I love Ryan. I felt really strongly about that place. Right when that happened, I got off the call and it’s like, this is where I want to go.” “The season ended in such an abrupt fashion. Had about 48 hours of exit meetings and everything, and then it was, this is what’s going on, let’s go ahead and get it done.” “I heard that when you did the interview with the Bears, you stopped at the last minute and went back to them and said, ‘I want this job.’”

Brock Purdy explains what still motivates him after getting paid and reaching a Super Bowl, and says even after success he continues to try to be comfortable being uncomfortable “You have to, whether it’s true or not, tell yourself, ‘Dude, I was drafted last. I was Mr. Irrelevant.’” “That fire that I came into my rookie year with, that chip on my shoulder trying to show those guys on the field, my teammates, the defense, ‘Hey, I’m made for this.’” “Just reminding yourself of that every single year. For me, I’m a faithful man. I believe God created me to be a competitor, to be a leader. Just because we got to the Super Bowl, I got a contract, that doesn’t mean anything.” “For me, it’s the next season. How can I go lead these boys today for this practice, for this game coming up, this season? There’s this drive of, I still got to go show and use my talents that God’s blessed me with.” “I’m this competitor that you can rely on. It’s pushing myself every single day. It’s not being content. It’s being comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s always this uneasy feeling that I can get better.”