Walter Payton

“There were high school coaches such as Charles Boston that took me under his wing and taught me the fundamentals of football. And when I went to college there was Robert Hill who took me the...”

“Never die easy. Why run out of bounds and die easy? Make that linebacker pay. It carries into all facets of your life. It's okay to lose, to die, but don't die without trying, without giving...”

“During the off-season when you see other people playing in the Super Bowl, you wonder, and you say to yourself, 'Are you ever gonna get there and see what it feels like?' And it pushes you a...”

“Growing up, we played sports nonstop. I mean every single day. As soon I got done with breakfast, I was ready to go.”

“If you could go back and change things, you might not be the person you are right now.”

“I want to be remembered like Pete Rose. 'Charlie Hustle.' I want people to say, 'Wherever he was, he was always giving it his all.'”

“I developed my training routine going into my senior year at Jackson State. I found this sandbank by the Pearl River near my hometown, Columbia, Miss. I laid out a course of 65 yards or so....”

“I try to run on the hottest days, at the hottest time, because that's the most difficult time. And sometimes I worry about drying out, and dying.”

“I wanted to be a professional drummer.”

“If I'm going to get hit, why let the guy who's going to hit me get the easiest and best shot? I explode into the guy who's trying to tackle me.”

“I am happy to say that everyone that I have met in my life, I have gained something from them; be it negative or positive, it has enforced and reinforced my life in some aspect.”

“You look at a Pete Rose to be the terrific athlete he is and then he falls on hard times, but when he played the game, I got something from the way he played the game because he hustled ever...”

“I always thought, 'That's just the way you do it.' You work as hard as you can for as long as you can, and the small gains you make will eventually pay off.”

“Most important thought, if you love someone, tell him or her, for you never know what tomorrow may have in store.”

“When you speak of role models, when we talk to our kids, everybody is a role model, everyone, just as you look at a Michael Jordan to be the terrific athlete he is.”

“What is poor? We had food. We dressed well. We didn't have a lot, but what we had fit, and it was always neat.”

“You have to take things one day at a time.”

“No matter what the game was or how much older and stronger the other kids were, we were taught to give it everything we had until it was over. Never give less than one hundred percent.”

“Running alone is the toughest. You get to the point where you have to keep pushing yourself.”